Review by Leo Tierlede -- The Nobel Prize by Mois benarroch
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Leo Tierlede
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- Latest Review: "The Nobel Prize" by Mois benarroch
Review by Leo Tierlede -- The Nobel Prize by Mois benarroch
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Nobel Prize" by Mois benarroch.]
1 out of 4 stars
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The Nobel Prize, by Mois Benarroch, is a short novel which tracks a semi-successful writer who discovers that one of his old writing buddies is in a mental institution and becomes a new persona every day. The book then follows him on his quest to investigate while precariously balancing his responsibilities as a writer and as a husband. The Nobel Prize is rich in underlying themes, with the central one being that nothing is as it seems.
At first glance, The Nobel Prize seems to have an interesting and fun progression of events. However, as the book unfolds, it becomes apparent that this is not the case. The plot twists and turns in a frankly difficult to follow manner, with many unnecessary stops along the way that do nothing to progress the book. The most apparent and shocking instance of this is an inexplicable sex scene with an alien. It had no impact on the book, and mainly just gave the impression of the author wanting to put it in there for fun. On top of this lack of logical progression of the story, the ideas that seemed so interesting were barely touched upon. The character of the writer with the disorder is highly underdeveloped, and barely acknowledged as a whole. The reader does not get the chance to really learn about the character or witness his interactions with the main character as much as they should. This lack of writing strength is then emphasized by the apparent disregard to editing, which makes deciphering the very words of the book, much less the plot, arduous work. This becomes painfully apparent as the first instances of dialogue emerge in the first few pages. The only way to tell when a character is talking is a line break followed by a hyphen, then followed by the garbled mess of words the character is trying to communicate. There are no marks to end lines of dialogue, which makes the book that much more difficult to understand and follow.
While The Nobel Prize is largely lacking in most areas, one must commend its base ideas, at the very least. The idea of someone becoming a new character every day, and being able to interact with these personalities is a very interesting one. The plot of the novel had the opportunity to be something amazing; merely the wrong author wrote about it. The book also gives some insight into what the life of a semi-successful writer's life is like, and it does describe, to a limited extent, the living conditions and thinking processes of such writers. This I found to be somewhat enjoyable, at least in comparison to the rest of the novel. Also, in the parts where the character with multiple personalities does appear, the dynamic nature of each personality is entertaining, to say the least. When all is taken into account, I am sad to write that the thing I liked best about this book was that it was short.
I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. It was simply not an enjoyable read. I am an avid reader, and this is the first instance where I have found myself hating a book. When asked about to whom I would recommend this book, I must write that I recommend this book to nobody. Even though it is a short novel, the utter lack of editing and the convoluted and slow-moving plot of the book make it simply not worth anyone's time.
The Nobel Prize is the best example I have seen of a potentially fantastic plot and story gone awry. The base idea of interacting with someone who is a new, dynamic person every day is one that is both fun and thought-provoking. It brings up ideas and opinions on the reader's part about what it really means to be alive and thinking. This novel could have been a great one; it was just written poorly.
******
The Nobel Prize
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1 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
The Nobel Prize, by Mois Benarroch, is a short novel which tracks a semi-successful writer who discovers that one of his old writing buddies is in a mental institution and becomes a new persona every day. The book then follows him on his quest to investigate while precariously balancing his responsibilities as a writer and as a husband. The Nobel Prize is rich in underlying themes, with the central one being that nothing is as it seems.
At first glance, The Nobel Prize seems to have an interesting and fun progression of events. However, as the book unfolds, it becomes apparent that this is not the case. The plot twists and turns in a frankly difficult to follow manner, with many unnecessary stops along the way that do nothing to progress the book. The most apparent and shocking instance of this is an inexplicable sex scene with an alien. It had no impact on the book, and mainly just gave the impression of the author wanting to put it in there for fun. On top of this lack of logical progression of the story, the ideas that seemed so interesting were barely touched upon. The character of the writer with the disorder is highly underdeveloped, and barely acknowledged as a whole. The reader does not get the chance to really learn about the character or witness his interactions with the main character as much as they should. This lack of writing strength is then emphasized by the apparent disregard to editing, which makes deciphering the very words of the book, much less the plot, arduous work. This becomes painfully apparent as the first instances of dialogue emerge in the first few pages. The only way to tell when a character is talking is a line break followed by a hyphen, then followed by the garbled mess of words the character is trying to communicate. There are no marks to end lines of dialogue, which makes the book that much more difficult to understand and follow.
While The Nobel Prize is largely lacking in most areas, one must commend its base ideas, at the very least. The idea of someone becoming a new character every day, and being able to interact with these personalities is a very interesting one. The plot of the novel had the opportunity to be something amazing; merely the wrong author wrote about it. The book also gives some insight into what the life of a semi-successful writer's life is like, and it does describe, to a limited extent, the living conditions and thinking processes of such writers. This I found to be somewhat enjoyable, at least in comparison to the rest of the novel. Also, in the parts where the character with multiple personalities does appear, the dynamic nature of each personality is entertaining, to say the least. When all is taken into account, I am sad to write that the thing I liked best about this book was that it was short.
I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. It was simply not an enjoyable read. I am an avid reader, and this is the first instance where I have found myself hating a book. When asked about to whom I would recommend this book, I must write that I recommend this book to nobody. Even though it is a short novel, the utter lack of editing and the convoluted and slow-moving plot of the book make it simply not worth anyone's time.
The Nobel Prize is the best example I have seen of a potentially fantastic plot and story gone awry. The base idea of interacting with someone who is a new, dynamic person every day is one that is both fun and thought-provoking. It brings up ideas and opinions on the reader's part about what it really means to be alive and thinking. This novel could have been a great one; it was just written poorly.
******
The Nobel Prize
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Leo Tierlede's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: "The Nobel Prize" by Mois benarroch
