Friday, October 12, 2007

You've Got to Love Doris Lessing

Now, I know that there is going to be a lot of talk about Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Heck, we might even admit that the polar ice caps may be melting. But I'm more interested in the Nobel Prize in Literature.

This year, the Swedish organization gave the Literature Prize to Doris Lessing. Now, I'll admit that I'm only 75 pages into The Golden Notebook, her most famous book, and I don't know if I can finish it. So, I'm familiar with Lessing's reputation, but not her work. But for a prize that has only been awarded to 5 women in the past 30 years (Elfriede Jelinek in 2004, Wislawa Szymborska in 1996, Toni Morrison in 1993, and Nadine Gordimer in 1991) it's nice to see the prize go to another spunky, feminist woman.

And what was her reaction to all the fuss? Well, she is quoted by the New York times as saying, "Either they were going to give it to me sometime before I popped off or not at all." You've got to love her!

4 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Cudos to Doris !!

Jessica said...

Here's a link to a NY Times op-ed piece, that Lessing did in '92. They re-ran it this morning. Pretty interesting reading!

Jo said...

Well she's no Toni Morrison, but congrats to her anyway.

EnnaVic said...

Yes - there is something to her comment - Janet Frame didn't live long enough to get it despite frequently being suggested for it, and IMO being very worthy of it.

I guess when you look at Nobel's wording of the award as being "to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction" then Doris Lessing certainly fits the description.