What does the Nobel Prize for Literature represent in the novel, Asymmetry?

The esteemed prize, for which Ezra is repeatedly passed over -- until, we learn at the end of the novel, 2010 -- symbolizes the restless dissatisfaction that comes with literary fame of the sort Ezra possesses. Although he has won nearly every literary accolade imaginable, and is critically acclaimed and read worldwide, it continually bothers him that he is not awarded the Nobel.