Thoughts on nobel prize takers

As I gotten back to reading this year, I decided to go through something from eatch Nobel prize taker in litterature. The value of the prize have varied with the years, and might not be the best measurment but it is interesting to look at what the Swedish Academy values, and after all the prize is given in my home town. Importantly this page will be a living page as I will update it for each winner. I might read one book, I might read more. Its after all a personal project. Also English is my second language, spelling errors will be here and some grammar stuff because of how I am writing this. Also my rating site is on StoryGraph (for now)

2025 - László Krasznahorkai

Sátántangó

This book become a very long film I have never seen, and will never see after reading the book. The first part of the book was very hard to read, I read this book in English so there always is the posiblity of the Translation beeing part of the issue, the second got better. The first part is describing the hopelessness of a communal farm in Hungary that lost support, the people that exist in the small world that is, there is a hope when "He is comming". The second part is the person comming and handling, who he is, remains a bit unclear. It is a rather hard world to relate too.

My StoryGraph rating out of 5 was 2.75, and it was mostly for the second part. Sometimes it reminded me of something written in a beginners writing class.

2024 - Han Kang (Korean: 한강)

The Vegetarian

This was the first Han Kang book I read, it was a very interesting read. It starts when Yeong-hye begin to dream of blood and brutality, somethings she connects with a need to purge her mind, the torture of her dreams she connects with butchery. She therefore as the first step decides to stop eating meat, this tells the story of what happens after both to her but also how she fights control, we get view points from the people in her life.

It is a twisty tale that turns many ways, and while the not eating meat is the start point its not exactly what the book is about. I had such a hard time to rate this book, it was either a 2 or a 4 out of 5. But I ended up on a 4, the style of writing was big part of it (no doubt the translator should have big celebrations for this) while the story went multiple ways.

Human Acts

Oh boy, this is probably one of the more import books I read. In January of 1980 9-year old Han Kang and her family moves to Seoul from Gwangju. In May of 1980 there is an uprising in Gwangju against the military dictatorship that was violently put down in what was a masacare (this is heavily simplified, I recommend reading this book and the Wikipedia article). This book starts from the point of "The boy", Dong-ho, who helps in the temporary morgue, it tells his story and then of people connected to him and how the Uprising effects them, to end with the "Authors" view. It is a very strong and emotional book. I cried multiple times while reading it.

As mentioned above, this is one of the best books I ever read, I gave it a 5 out of 5 on StoryGraph and I will always recommended it to anyone.

2023 - Jon Fosse

Morgon och kväll (Norweigan: Morgon og kveld, English: Morning and Evening)

Beeing Swedish and going in to a Norweigan book I had to consider if I should try to brave the original Nynorsk, the Swedish translation that should be closer or the English. In the end I went with the Swedish, a bit helped with library accesiblity but also it should be close enough. This book tells the story of the pivotal events in Johannes life, it tells of his birth in the first part and of his death in the second part. The death is a much bigger part, and it is a interesting telling of a life lived, in someways it it is a reminder to memento mori, a note to remember that you to will die.

This book was very average in my opinion, and I ended up giving it a rating of 3 out of 5. Not something I would recommend unless if asked for something very close to this.

2022 - Annie Ernaux

The Years

The years is a memoir of both the author but also France, and to some aspect Europe. But mostly France, starting as the second world war just have ended and goes up to the Internet age. It tells teh stories of presidents, rebellion, children, protests against different injustices. It also tells starts of personal relationships and divorce, and how the comercialisation and the huge supermarket enters. The guilt of France for its colonial past, its bad and good action through time. It was an interesting read, more so in eras which is in years I remember and was alive. I do recommend to read this book though, and I gave it a 4.5 out of 5 on Storygraph.

2021 - Abdulrazak Gurnah

Paradise

Yusuf grows up with his family in a changing Africa, or rather German East Africa in the years prior to World War I. His father runs a hotel to not much success, the debt of the father has built up and at 12 years old "uncle Aziz" comes to visit, but it truns out Azis is the man that his father taken the loans from. Loans the father can not pay off so Yusuf because a debt slave to the merchant Azis. The book follows the trials and tribulation of him comming of age, it has a few slight moments of magical realism and the Europeans is in a lot very much not there except when they are. An intresting read it is but I was not super taken with it. I gave it 3.0 out of 5 on Storygraph.



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