Review by Fictions Mistress -- The Nobel Prize

[Fictions Mistress]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Nobel Prize" by Mois benarroch.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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I began The Nobel Prize optimistically. But after finishing it, I'm sad to say that despite a promising premise, the book failed to succeed in many ways.

The Nobel Prize follows the story of an author, who though published many times finds himself lacking success. When he comes across a fellow author he knew in his younger days, he's informed that a mutual acquaintance, a rather controversial writer, has been hospitalized with a rare condition. Each day he becomes one of his own characters, acting, speaking, and believing that he actually is someone from one of his books. Our protagonist becomes curious to the point of obsession. Will this rare phenomenon drive him mad?

I will say that I enjoyed Benarroch's idea. The premise was quite intriguing and full of hope. As a writer myself, I find the concept of turning into your own characters fascinating. Unfortunately, I found that the execution left much to be desired. Benarroch included scenes and whole chapters that lacked sense. A perfect example of this is the odd and uncomfortable sexual encounter with an alien. I feel as though the author was trying to cleverly hint at something in our culture, but he failed in doing so. Instead, I felt bewildered and a little disturbed. But even this wasn't the worst thing to be found.

The lack of editing astounded me. Among misplaced commas and periods, the constant misuse of quotation marks was shocking. Not only was it distracting, but it made the writing itself confusing. The author made it extremely difficult, sometimes impossible, to tell who was speaking. In some places it was difficult to tell if you were reading dialogue or description. I would advise Benarroch to invest in an editor, for this is a problem that greatly hinders his writing.

The book began with a certain level of fluidity that I enjoyed, but quickly descended into chaos. I couldn't understand the purpose to certain chapters. Most of his writing felt ridiculous and unnecessary. In the book itself, the author refers to it as nonsense, so I can't be sure if this was what he was trying to convey? The lack of surety left me extremely confused, as I'm sure it did many others.

I think the biggest difficulty that I had with The Nobel Prize was that the protagonist simply wasn't likable! We weren't given much background information or time to get to know him, so I couldn't relate or even sympathize. He often gave me indications of blatant sexism, at one point assuming a woman is on her period because she doesn't agree with him. Benarroch wrote these particular female characters in a very stereotypical way, and it's something I just can't forgive.

I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, and there are many reasons for this. The confusing nature of the book makes it to impossible to follow, let alone enjoy. The characters are unlikable and the horrendous editing is cringe-worthy. Benarroch might have promise in his ideas, but he has a lot that he can and should work on.

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The Nobel Prize
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