Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Müller Time   [John J. Miller]

When Herta Müller won the Nobel Prize for Literature, I admitted to not having heard of her but expressed cautious optimism based on her anti-Communist credentials and passed on the praise of one NRO reader. In the magazine, the editors made similar remarks: "The Nobel Prize in Literature has more to do with trendology than any coherent standard of excellence. But not all trends are bad. We look forward to making Müller’s further acquaintance"

Now Richard B. Woodward of the WSJ has done some of the legwork and renders a judgment:

After reading five of the six novels so far translated into English, as well as pieces from several others and a few essays I translated clumsily from German on my own, I am happy to have made Ms. Müller's acquaintance without being eager to revisit her. The award is traditionally bestowed on writers as much for their humanist politics as for daring experiments in form and language, and Ms. Müller follows this uplifting pattern. ...

Admirable and courageous as Ms. Müller has been in her life, she does not substantially alter previous reports about the dreary terror of existence under communism. Moreover, the pointilist impressionism she favors in her novels often blurs character definition and kills any chance for dramatic conclusions. Her instincts are those of a poet, not a novelist.

I realize this judgment may confirm the prejudice, expressed last year by some Europeans, that hidebound Americans resist new writing from abroad. I can only say in defense that I opened these books in hopes of discovering another Halldór Laxness, Wislawa Szymborska or Orhan Pamuk, authors unknown to me until the Nobel's imprimatur and now among my favorites. Ms. Müller's worthy books should find a place on many shelves but, for English readers at least, I suspect they will stay there.

It brings to mind the Mark Twain quote about how a classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read. For now, when it comes to anti-Commie writing with literary aspirations, I guess it's back to Witness or Darkness at Noon.

11/11 05:22 AMShare