I welcome Simon to the writers of world rank. Simon's work is technically really quite brilliant. Ned Rorem, musical composer, diarist and former American in Paris, said that he was displeased with the choice. When it comes to prizes there is no right choice, although with hindsight every choice appears inevitable.
Most witnesses are uncomfortable, especially the losers, and even the Nobel Prize is a raffle.
In honoring Claude Simon, the Nobelists now show themselves to admire the trend of form over content, which has been festering in all French art for three decades, and which at its most extreme becomes the very definition of decadence. Simon has been one of my favorites for a long time. I rate him as outstanding among his generation of writers.