I read an interesting article in Slate today that outlined the Nobel committee's distaste for American literature. The author, Adam Kirsch, maintains that the roots of their disdain go as far back as 200 years, when America was viewed as Europe's backwater cousin, all strut and no stuff.

"[T]he real scandal of Engdahl's comments is not that they revealed a secret bias on the part of the Swedish Academy," Kirsch writes. "It is that Engdahl made official what has long been obvious to anyone paying attention: The Nobel committee has no clue about American literature."

He names the Americans who have been graced with a Nobel nod -- Pearl Buck, John Steinbeck, Sinclair Lewis -- as examples of the prevailing sentiment that America is a backward, anti-intellectual country.

I can't say that I know much about the politics of international literature. But the committee's argument that American authors are isolated from the global conversation looks preposterous, if only because the global conversation seems to orbit around America's authors.

Amazon.co.uk's best-sellers list includes Americans Christopher Paolini, Alice Schroeder and Khaled Hosseini, an Afghan by birth, but now an American citizen.

Their French site's best-sellers include Douglas Kennedy, Terry Goodkind and Harlan Coben. Germany loves Erica Spindler and Lara Adrian.

Now, I'm not saying that any of these authors are worthy of a Nobel Prize in Literature. I'm just saying that the committee seems to have some pretty impressive blinders on, if they think the world isn't paying attention to American writers.