Review by Babordel -- The Nobel Prize by Mois benarroch
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Babordel
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- Latest Review: "The Nobel Prize" by Mois benarroch
Review by Babordel -- The Nobel Prize by Mois benarroch
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Nobel Prize" by Mois benarroch.]
3 out of 4 stars
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The Nobel Prize by Mois Benarroch is a surreal exploration of the inner workings of an author's imagination and the blurred line between reality and fiction. Through first person narrative, Benarroch invites the reader into his own mind in a unique mix of memoir and fantasy. The story begins when Mois discovers that a member of his old writers’ cohort, Jorge Pisces, has been institutionalized for a strange sort of schizophrenia: Every day Pisces becomes a different character from one of his own novels.
Mois, who presents himself as a pseudo-successful writer struggling against the inauthenticity of publishing, becomes obsessed with Pisces and his delightfully engaging cast of characters. His regular visits to the mental hospital become an escape from his failing marriage, terrible writers block, and steady decline into apathy. Each trip results in a new adventure, which become steadily more fanciful and disturbing as the novel progresses.
The Nobel Prize is simultaneously an intricately weaved psychological thriller and a series of ranting monologues from a depressed, egocentric writer. The story employs all the usual literary tools (foreshadowing, metaphor, personification and plot twists) to incredible effect. Yet, it turns all these tropes on their heads by being self-aware, mixing fact and fiction, and constantly breaking the fourth wall. As Benarroch himself states in the book, it is a “meta-literary” tale.
For such a short novel, this work blew me away, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves a thought-provoking, mind-bending read if it weren't for one very significant flaw. The book is rife with grammatical errors and erratic punctuation. This is very surprising seeing as Benarroch is an award-winning author whose books have been translated into several languages. There's really just no excuse for it. Here are just a few glaring examples:
“The guy seemed obsessed with what the money I earned from my writing” (10).
“They prevented me from becoming a literary, character; all made of ink and without a body-.prevented me from flying” (12).
“It was about a woman who had a baby aged six months and one day walking by the sea it rained, the mother quickly covered him and headed home to her mother” (15).
Despite these errors, I still rate The Nobel Prize 3 out of 4 stars. Benarroch has managed to take traditional metaphor and twist it into something deliciously ridiculous that catches the reader completely off guard. It is simultaneously cliché and entirely out of this world. Readers who can overlook the weird punctuation issues will not be disappointed by this strange and wonderful journey into deepest depths of imagination.
******
The Nobel Prize
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3 out of 4 stars
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The Nobel Prize by Mois Benarroch is a surreal exploration of the inner workings of an author's imagination and the blurred line between reality and fiction. Through first person narrative, Benarroch invites the reader into his own mind in a unique mix of memoir and fantasy. The story begins when Mois discovers that a member of his old writers’ cohort, Jorge Pisces, has been institutionalized for a strange sort of schizophrenia: Every day Pisces becomes a different character from one of his own novels.
Mois, who presents himself as a pseudo-successful writer struggling against the inauthenticity of publishing, becomes obsessed with Pisces and his delightfully engaging cast of characters. His regular visits to the mental hospital become an escape from his failing marriage, terrible writers block, and steady decline into apathy. Each trip results in a new adventure, which become steadily more fanciful and disturbing as the novel progresses.
The Nobel Prize is simultaneously an intricately weaved psychological thriller and a series of ranting monologues from a depressed, egocentric writer. The story employs all the usual literary tools (foreshadowing, metaphor, personification and plot twists) to incredible effect. Yet, it turns all these tropes on their heads by being self-aware, mixing fact and fiction, and constantly breaking the fourth wall. As Benarroch himself states in the book, it is a “meta-literary” tale.
For such a short novel, this work blew me away, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves a thought-provoking, mind-bending read if it weren't for one very significant flaw. The book is rife with grammatical errors and erratic punctuation. This is very surprising seeing as Benarroch is an award-winning author whose books have been translated into several languages. There's really just no excuse for it. Here are just a few glaring examples:
“The guy seemed obsessed with what the money I earned from my writing” (10).
“They prevented me from becoming a literary, character; all made of ink and without a body-.prevented me from flying” (12).
“It was about a woman who had a baby aged six months and one day walking by the sea it rained, the mother quickly covered him and headed home to her mother” (15).
Despite these errors, I still rate The Nobel Prize 3 out of 4 stars. Benarroch has managed to take traditional metaphor and twist it into something deliciously ridiculous that catches the reader completely off guard. It is simultaneously cliché and entirely out of this world. Readers who can overlook the weird punctuation issues will not be disappointed by this strange and wonderful journey into deepest depths of imagination.
******
The Nobel Prize
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Babordel's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: "The Nobel Prize" by Mois benarroch
