Nobel writer puzzles American authors

E.L. Doctorow, the American author of the The Book of Daniel and Ragtime, agreed with Mr. Engdahl's contention that American publishers do not translate enough foreign material. But insularity or provincialism in the literary community, he said, is nothing to sneer at.

"Many countries have their provincial writers: England has Jane Austen, Ireland has James Joyce, Russia has Anton Chekhov," Mr. Doctorow wrote to The Daily Beast in an e-mail. "When a great writer is resolutely local and specific in his or her attentions—whatever the narrative strategy—the work has universal relevance."

But he conded the Nobel committee may have a point. “The judge spoke of American insularity. That is certainly true of our publishers these days as compared to Alfred Knopf, e.g., who made his name in the twenties and thirties publishing foeign authors. Absoluely true and regettable at the present time when so few foreign works.”

One of the few authors interviewed who recognized Mr. Le Clezio's work was Adam Gopnik, an American author and staff writer for the New Yorker—and even he said he didn't feel qualified to offer an opinion.

"I can tell you that he's a highly charismatic, even a glamorous, figure in France, and a very ‘French’ literary figure at that, very much in the tradition of André Malraux: a world traveler and essayist, the writer as global voyager and man of the world, not as novelist alone," Mr. Gopnik said in an e-mail.

Francine Prose, president of the PEN American Center, a writers’ association, suggested the selection of an author she didn't recognize was surprising—particularly against the backdrop of the heated debate surrounding Mr. Engdahl's comments. Contrary to his accusation of insularity, she said, Americans are a major part of the world conversation.

"It seems like a peculiar choice," she said. "It's not as if none us here have heard of a French writer. There are many Europeans who are widely read here."