No Rock And Roll Fun

THE AMERICAN DILEMMA: DYLAN VERSUS ROTH: The shortlist for the American National Book Critics Circle prize is going to cause some difficult decisions for people of a certain age, as it pitches Bob Dylan against Philip Roth. Chronicles, Volume 1 is taking on The Plot Against America, and by pitching the Thinking Midlife's musical hero against the Thinking Midlife's literary hero, the NBCC have almost created a "can a man swim faster than a shark" or "could Hercules defeat Darth Vader" cross-category battle. All the other competitors seem to be convinced that Dylan's going to romp home:

"Who can possibly compete with Bob Dylan?" fellow finalist Ron Chernow said with a laugh. "But the reviews have been so uniformly interesting I'm not surprised."

"I'm of Dylan's generation, so it's a thrill for me," said nonfiction nominee Stephen Greenblatt, a leading Shakespeare scholar who at age 61 is two years younger than Dylan. "I had never thought I would be competing for an award with him."

Philip Roth was last seen drunk and snarling in the middle of the city shouting "C'mon Zimmerman, if you're so hard... I'm gonna make a freakin' rock album... see you at the Grammys, Bob..." before being lead home by Tom Wolfe. Wolfe was carrying a big bag of copies of I Am Charlotte Simmons with their covers torn off put an arm round Roth saying "we're all a little disappointed, Phil..."