Nobels: some skipping

As I mentioned at the outset, I'm going to skip over some laureates. Mainly those I've read before but also some where the difficulties of reading and/or appreciating the work aren't worth it.

But it's only fair I should mention those I've skipped.

Kazuo Ishiguro 2017. I've read Remains of the Day (who hasn't?) and obviously it's a damn good book but it didn't inspire me to read anything more by him. My loss, almost certainly, but it struck me as too perfect in a way. The imitation of a buttoned-up, emotionally repressed butler was impressive but somehow loveless. That may be the point, but the eventual warming was something completely linguistic.

Bob Dylan 2016. Everyone knows Bob Dylan. What to say about him? There's only thing more boring than a Dylan fan raving on about him, and that's a Dylan sceptic ranting on about him. I'm in one of these groups and that's all I need to say.

Mo Yan 2012. I've read one of his books. I can't even remember which one. It didn't make much of an impression.

Tomas Tranströmer 2011. A Swedish poet. "His poems captured the long Swedish winters, the rhythm of the seasons and the palpable, atmospheric beauty of nature" according to Wikipedia. While I could perhaps find some of his poetry, with translations you may be able to tell if lyric poetry is good - and I'm sure his is - and you may be able to know if it's full of smart ideas, but you can't appreciate it fully.

So that brings us to Mario Vargas Llosa (2010). Fairly surprisingly, I've never read anything by him. However the postie has just delivered Death in the Andes, which is pleasingly short, so I'm on it.