The 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to Mo Yan, a Chinese author whose works have often been compared to magical realists such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Günter Grass. The novel “The Garlic Ballads“ has been described as the best book of his to start with. One of his shorter novels, it may not be as well-known as some of his other works, but it is definitely a great introduction to the Chinese author, and not only because it is only $4 on Amazon for the Kindle.

The book describes life in a peasant village where farmers are told by the government to plant only one crop: garlic. When those same officials refuse to purchase the crop one year, the townspeople resort to violence, which brings down the hammer of law enforcement. The farmers are rounded up and put in jail, where they find themselves trapped in Kafakesque situations. The police at times seem almost human, but in the end they are as distant as the government that oppresses the people. Traditional Chinese marriages are also examined in the book, with one of the larger sub-plots concerning two hapless garlic farmers falling in love and trying to find happiness in spite of the ongoing garlic crisis.

As already mentioned, Yan has garnered many comparisons to magical realists, but another apt comparison would be to Chuck Palahniuk, of Fight Club fame. Both authors use shocking content (whether it be peeing into a waiting customer’s soup or playing a game that involves drinking one’s own urine) that simultaneously revolt and engage readers. The narrative hops from person to person and back and forth in time, which rarely leads to confusion. Instead, it enhances the book by allowing the reader to see events from multiple perspectives. The result is a page-turner that even the most casual of readers can enjoy. The prose, even in translation, is still a wonder:

“The noonday sun beat down fiercely; dusty air carried the stink of rotting garlic after a prolonged dry spell. A flock of indigo crows flew wearily across the sky, casting a shadowy wedge.”

 Interestingly, this book was once banned in China for its portrayal of farmer’s lives, and was brought back into circulation only after the writer achieved fame. Mo Yan, who  has been criticized for failing to criticizing the Chinese government, and for refusing to associate with dissident writers, is not someone you would expect to write such a work. As harsh in its message as “The Grapes of Wrath,” the book is sure to silence any who do not think the Nobel winner is as critical as he should be.

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been under fire recently for choosing little-known and lightweight authors over living legends, but this book alone proves that Yan not only deserved the award, but also the money the prestigious prize brings in. He is not a writer to be taken lightly.

Image Courtesy : Johannes Kolfhaus, Gymn. Marienthal ([1]) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The article Book Review: The Garlic Ballads by Mo Yan appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The coveted Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Tomas Transtromer for his work in poetry. Transtromer received the news of his winnings on October 6. Transtromer will receive $1.5 million for winning the Nobel Prize. He is a native of Stockholm, Sweden, where the announcement was made.

At 80 years old, Transtromer has spent a great deal of his life working on his craft of poetry. Over the decades, he has had over 15 different collections of poetry published internationally. His work has been translated into 60 languages, which makes his poetry easily accessible to readers world wide.

Many of his original work has been translated into English. Some of his published collections include “Twenty Poems,” “The Half-Finished Heart,” and “The Deleted World.” Transtromer comes from humble beginnings in his native Sweden. He was born in 1931 in Stockholm, where he went to school and studied many subjects including psychology and literature.

Before setting his focus on writing poetry, Transtromer worked as a psychologist for troubled youth. It wasn’t until 1990 when Transtromer became very serious about his works of poetry. After being affected by a stroke, he was unable to speak as much as he once could. It was then when he relied on his writing to express his ideas.

Much of this Swedish poet’s writing delves into various themes that can be seen throughout his work. Transtromer is famous for his focus on emotions. With a strong background in psychology, he uses his knowledge of the way people think and feel to create literary masterpieces.

He plays with the ideas of identity and tries to express feelings of mankind through his poems. Being from Scandinavia,Transtromer is able to identify the emotions that come along with Sweden’s dark, drawn out winters. He is famous for poetically expressing Scandinavian winters and writing about nature as well.

“He is to Sweden what Robert Frost was to America. The national character, if you can say one exists, and the landscape of Sweden are very much reflected in his work. It’s easy because of that to overlook the abiding strangeness and mysteriousness of his poems,” stated the editor of Granta, John Freeman.

Swedes celebrated the announcement of Transtromer’s Nobel Prize win. When the news was made public, journalists from around the world gathered in Transtromer’s Stockholm buildings in hopes of interviewing him. He is the first Swede since 1974 to win the Nobel Prize. The 1974 prize was shared between Harry Martinson and Eyvind Johnson. There have been 107 Nobel Prize winners before him.

Aside from the internationally well respected Nobel Prize, Transtromer has won a number of awards as well. He has been the recipient of awards such as Bellmanpriest in 1966 and the Nordic Prize of the Swedish Academy in 1991, both given in Sweden. He won the Horst Bienek Prize for Poetry in 1992 in Germany, and the Griffin Trust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 in Canada.

He is often regarded as one of the most important and influential poet of Scandinavian roots.

The article Transtromer Tomas Awarded Nobel Prize appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.