we'd like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to mario vargas llosa for winning the 2010 nobel prize for literature, and thank him as well for making us a killing on all the bad bets we took. other outlets must have done well on the more straightforward bets, too: as of wednesday, kenyan author ngugi wa thiong'o was favored to win with 3-1 odds, followed by cormac mccarthy at 6-1 and haruki murakami (grumble) at 7-1. really. we weren't joking yesterday. there are odds on everything. and vargas llosa apparently wrote exstensively on corruption. go figure.
i've never read any of the new laureate's work, but, in hindsight, i should have guessed a latin/south american author given the new vogue in english translation of that region's second, post-dictatorship boom generation (vargas llosa was of the first, though the dictatorships of his era were still hale). unfortunately, i haven't read anyone old enough to seem considerable by the prize committee. vargas llosa wasn't even on my radar.
again, i've never read any of his work, but i think i might now, and not because of the prize. well, maybe because of the prize in that it was only because he won it that i got to know him through the press today and found out he once hit gabriel garcía márquez in the face at a movie premiere in mexico city for having "consoled" his wife in paris (thanks for being discreet nyt). i read memories of my melancholy whores and really resented marquez for taking that title. a book under with name should really be about a gay guy on mood stabilizers telling stories about his hooker friends.
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