Friday, 14 March 2008

The Greatest

On the back of a Borges book upstairs is the inferred recommendation of "Probably the greatest twentieth-century author never to win the Nobel Prize." I'd suggest for publishers and critics a host of eye-catching variations for their book reviews such as "Probably the greatest author never to win Olympic gold for the high-jump." Or, "Probably the greatest author never to be jailed for tax-evasion." "Probably the greatest author never to run a sub-four minute mile." Perhaps even, "Probably the greatest author never to write anything particularly good."

4 comments:

Selena Dreamy said...

What about "The greatest living author never to have been published..."

(sounds a bit like the realisation of my most dreaded fantasies!)

D.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful, good antitode to lying advertisements and glowing blurbs for novels that turn out to be, at best, okay.

Gar said...

volte-face: Finest high jumper to ever complete a work of fiction about cowboy junkies?

Andrew said...

Who are you calling volte-face? I'll grant you that the field of possibilities would seem to expand enormously with that angle on the issue.