The highlight of his career was when he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He travelled to the Nordic Countries to be feasted and celebrated. It came as an utter shock to the King and Queen of Sweden, as well as to other Royal Houses in the area, and to the Lords and Ladies, and to common people (plebs) as well, when in his speech of thanks he did something never done before: he relinquished the award.
“How can I accept such a wonderful award,” he said, “when I have just read A Passing Shower by Bruce Goodman (available HERE)? This wonderful novel makes my novels look like nursery rhymes. It makes War and Peace look like a comic. It makes Les Misérables a mere shoddy musical. I therefore relinquish the title of Nobel Laureate and pass it on to the author of A Passing Shower (available HERE). Naturally there was an outcry. “You can’t do that,” declared the Queen Consort of the Faroes.
It was the Prime Minister of Greenland who saved the day. He said he had read A Passing Shower (available HERE) and couldn’t recommend it highly enough. “This novel,” said the Prime Minister, “makes Pride and Prejudice look like a cheap pornographic chapter in a kindergarten text book. At first it was confusing until I realized that it was meant to be confusing. The Narrator is a complete mess. She is a post-modern narrator who is totally unreliable.”
The rest of the Prime Minister’s speech was in Icelandic*. But if you wish to pursue the Prime Minister of Greenland’s recommendation (and also the recommendation of the Queen Consort of the Faroes who has subsequently read it and denounced her earlier protest) then it is available free of charge HERE.
* Þessi skáldsaga er blóðug klúður. Höfundur ætti að vera látinn standa fyrir framan ísjaka og hlaðinn skotum.
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