--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Juri Nummelin"
<juri.nummelin@...> wrote:
>
> I notice the Nobel prize went to Doris Lessing. Who
do you think is the
> Nobel prize winner who comes closest to hardboiled?
Faulkner, perhaps.
>
Faulkner more than Hemingway, I would say. The latter shows a
sentimental side, whereas Faulkner is tough as nails. Of the
rumored candidates this year, Cormac McCarthy would be 100%
hardboiled, but he didn't win. Another candidate, Australian
poet Les Murray, would also fit the bill, I think. The
problem is that novelists who write in the
"genres" are not usually considered, even though they take up
a large majority of the readership. For example, it's a shame
that Dick or Bradbury didn't win the Nobel. No objective
reason could be given for such ommissions. If Chandler (our
best guy, probably) had lived longer... he still wouldn't
have been considered.
The idea that, say, an Elmore Leonard or James Ellroy novel
is "less serious" than a Lessing or a Roth or an Updike novel
strikes me as ludicrous. What's not serious about them?
Best,
mrt
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