Ask Not for a Great Line

By ROGER COHEN
NYT

NEW YORK — Lorrie Moore once observed of John Updike that he was “arguably our greatest writer without a single great novel.” Few would argue with the greatness of the Rabbit quartet — but it’s a quartet. I like “Roger’s Version,” but then I would. The fact is Moore is on to something, which should not have prevented the Swedish Academy honoring Updike with the Nobel Prize for literature.

But don’t get me started on the academy, whose prejudice against the United States and failure to recognize Philip Roth is beyond scandalous. “American Pastoral” alone merits the Nobel several times over. A further prize, for proving the creative fecundity of late life, should be accorded Roth.

This, however is a political, not a literary column. What got me thinking about Updike was President Barack Obama’s speech to the Muslim world in Cairo. To paraphrase Moore, Obama is arguably our greatest speechmaker without a single memorable line.

How so? How is it possible to make speeches of such majesty while leaving people blank when asked to recall a solitary phrase?

(More here.)