Who's afraid of Charles Lindbergh?

I suspect many thought the Nobel Prize for Literature that Doris Lessing won yesterday belonged to Philip Roth. Many have crowned him the great American novelist. Eh...

I liked Goodbye, Columbus and some of his early stories. When She was Good is another winner. But as a non-Jew, I really don't think I'm in his demographic audience for the later works.

We get it, Phil. You're a Jew, and that has affected your entire life in America -- your assimilation, your fears and concerns. Your protagonists are often middle-aged or later Jewish men, usually academics or others involved in productions derived in the life of the mind.

How many Americans do you suppose relate to that type of writing? International readers? Sure, he sells. Sure, the critics lap that mental conflict up. But I've always thought the man is a tad overrated outside his target audience -- those who really aren't afraid of Charles Lindbergh and think that the younger Jews in America have done well in assimilating themselves in what was WASPy cultures.

Lessing's earlier works -- and remember, this is a body of work prize -- dealt with concerns of women, and they responded. Maybe the Roth-loving critics can't relate, but I think Lessing is more appealing overall than Roth's concerns, which are limited.

Bloom called the Swedish Academy's decision "pure political correctness." He told The Associated Press: "Although Ms. Lessing at the beginning of her writing career had a few admirable qualities, I find her work for the past 15 years quite unreadable ... fourth-rate science fiction."

If you saw this prize as a vote against Roth winning this year, then Bloom's PC charges make sense. My counsel? Don't take it so personally, Phil and fans; there's always next year, although the shelf life of his lifelong themes may be limited. But it's good not to always play the outsider, ok that we've assimilated away those concerns of his, and the younger Jewish generations quite thankfully move on, not wallowing in fears of the past and better embracing the overall "American" label. Right?

The problem with the Nobel Prize for literature is contained in its mission statement. It is awarded annually to a person of any nationality "who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction."

Note those three deadly words: "an ideal direction." Nobel built an aspirational element into the award that has been ignored only occasionally. Majestic doom and gloom have sometimes been recognized with honorees of the caliber of Andre Gide, Samuel Beckett, T.S. Eliot and Harold Pinter - good is good - but people of at least equivalent accomplishment have been consistently overlooked - Graham Greene, for instance.