50 most inspiring authors in the world

Poets and Writers has published a list of most inspiring authors in the world. Not a great list -of course,US centric - but it's heartening to see some of my favourite authors in the list, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie, Haruki Murakami, J.D Salinger. Also interesting are the comments about the authors.

Gabriel García Márquez
He makes the most magical of circumstances believable. And this nonsense that he's finished with writing? Don't believe it.

Haruki Murakami
He consistently demonstrates how far the narrative form can bend and proves that a story with surrealist tendencies can be both moving and compelling.

Salman Rushdie
Possession of The Satanic Verses will still get you arrested in much of the Muslim world. It's probably worth it.

J. D. Salinger
He found a way to write characters, dialogue, and scenes that seem effortless. And he's managed to stay hidden for decades—how is that even possible in the twenty-first century?

But why Barack Obama? Is he really a writer in the sense others in the list are?

Imre Kertesz Interview

"If there really is any demonstrable similarity between the writings of Szomory and myself, as you maintain, then that must be due to the virtually identical social class and background. That is how the Jews of Budapest were; a very particular type. I take it as a great compliment that Szomory’s novel Gyuri [1932; new edition by Múlt és Jövő Könyvek, 2008] could have been a forebear of my own Gyuri Köves in Fatelessness. Hungarian Jews, the petty bourgeoisie, had their own vernacular, their own context, they had their own allures and their own little fibs; everyone had to make compromises in their life, if only to kid themselves that they were not in danger."

Full Interview

Literature distancing from life?

Anita Nair has an interesting article in DNA about the place of literature in the common man's life.

Does anyone read poetry at all except for students of literature? Instead what we consider poetry is lyrics of film songs and music videos. Rhyming ditties that draw from the epidermis of emotion rather than any serious soul searching.

Herta Mueller on importance of literature

"I always had my poems which I could repeat to myself. Even under interrogation. It's like singing in a prison camp. You never grow tired of it. You can rely on given forms, lean on them. I have often thought it was like praying, for people who don't believe in God. And its nicer than praying. It requires more individuality. It's less mechanical. Even today I still copy down sentences from books that give me support."

more..

Herta Mueller's Nobel Lecture

In today's Nobel Lecture, Herta Mueller tells the audience about a handkerchief which is not really a handkerchief.

"I wish I could utter a sentence for all those whom dictatorships deprive of dignity every day, up to and including the present—a sentence, perhaps, containing the word handkerchief. Or else the question: DO YOU HAVE A HANDKERCHIEF?
Can it be that the question about the handkerchief was never about the handkerchief at all, but rather about the acute solitude of a human being?"

more..

1Q84: 2,230,000 copies sold in Japan alone!

A Japanese visitor to this blog has sent me the following e-mail:
"Hi from Japan! Today, on Dec. 4 was announced on the TV news that 1Q84 has been voted The book of the year 2009. Some 2,230,000 have been sold so far."

And mind it: English translation of 1Q84 has yet to come to the market. Haruki Murakami has millions of fans outside Japan, and they're keenly waiting to buy the book in the English version.

Is 1Q84 going to create a new sales record in literature?