The Nobel has been a contentious subject in literary circles in the US of late. Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy (which awards the Nobels) said, "The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining." American writers and editors rose as one, accusing the Academy of provincialism; after all, this is the body that never offered its prize to Proust, Joyce or Nabokov. (Slate.com posted a nice summary and rebuttal last week. Ted Gioia has a provocative list of alternate-reality winners here.)As if to confirm American charges of obscurantism, the Swedish Academy has reached into the writerly wilderness for this years winner: It is Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. Touche, Horace.--David E
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