Review by cherryalakei -- The Nobel Prize by Mois benarroch
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Review by cherryalakei -- The Nobel Prize by Mois benarroch
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Nobel Prize" by Mois benarroch.]
2 out of 4 stars
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The Nobel Prize
By Mois Benarroch
Where do I start with this? I had a lot of Mois Benarroch selections available to me for review, but I was intrigued by the plot of this. A writer who lives each day as a character from his books? That sounds pretty cool to me. I was also surprised to see the novel was only 68 pages, which to me is just a short story. Still, I am a pretty fast reader, so I knew 68 pages would go really fast for me. A quick read for a nice Saturday.
I read this book in about 3 hours, only because I had to stop in between, and I was taking notes as I read it. The overall concept of the story that in this group of writers, several years later one of them is institutionalized in a psychiatric facility, and every day he believes he is someone from one of his books. Our narrator who is a starving author goes to visit his old friend, and becomes intrigued by his brand of schizophrenia.
The book kicks off pretty well, and the plot sounds intriguing, and I even kind of like the narrator’s tone. My feelings changed though, at some of the grammatical errors, such as the misuse of words and quotations and altogether unfamiliar language structure at times. In chapter 1, he says “he beliefs to be true”, which should be “he believes to be true.” There’s also a sentence in chapter 2, which he says “the thing is I don’t have is money”, which doesn’t sound right at all, and should be read “the thing I don’t have is the money”. There were quite a few of these type of errors, but more so than anything was the misuse of quotations. What I mean by this is, in some spots there are quotes where no one is responding, and sometimes there’s no closing of the quotation. These errors are tiny grammatical things, but it was enough that it made me read the lines over to make sure I wasn’t missing something.
Without giving too much of the plot away, as the story evolved, I kept questioning the sanity of the narrator, and some of the scenario’s he was in. There’s also a really weird sex scene which to me didn’t really fit in tandem with the story, and was all around strange. I don’t mind sex scenes that are pivotal to the story or help progress the story, but this one was just bizarre and I felt like it didn't really fit. The other scenarios our narrator finds himself in are bizarrely explained as well. There’s even a part where the narrator writing breaks story altogether and goes on about hitting the 10,000-word mark of his novel, in caps exclaiming “GOAL GOAL GOOOOOAAAL!” It left me confused and scratching my head. I did enjoy the concept of the book, but it wasn't executed the way I thought it would be, so while I was entertained, I was mostly just questioning the validity of the characters and plot.
If this story is meant to be a metaphor or an allegory to insanity or mental illness, I’m not sure it really accomplishes that. For the most part, the book just left me confused. Benarroch’s writing style was a bit odd to me, but I did find myself continuing to read to see what would happen and how all the nonsense was going to be explained. In my opinion, the ending seemed obvious and it kind of was. It kind of abruptly stops too, and then that’s it.
I give this book 2 out of 4 stars. I know that’s low, but I can’t give it a 3 because of all the grammatical and usage errors, and the weird taste it left me with. I can’t give it a 1 though, because I did keep reading and wasn’t turned off enough to not finish it. I don’t know who I would recommend this to, because honestly, it’s so bizarre I don’t even know what I’d classify it as. I will say at 68 pages it is a quick read, and entertaining at least. I don’t know what Benarroch’s other books are like, but I think it’s safe to say, I’m not rushing to read any anytime soon.
******
The Nobel Prize
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
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2 out of 4 stars
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The Nobel Prize
By Mois Benarroch
Where do I start with this? I had a lot of Mois Benarroch selections available to me for review, but I was intrigued by the plot of this. A writer who lives each day as a character from his books? That sounds pretty cool to me. I was also surprised to see the novel was only 68 pages, which to me is just a short story. Still, I am a pretty fast reader, so I knew 68 pages would go really fast for me. A quick read for a nice Saturday.
I read this book in about 3 hours, only because I had to stop in between, and I was taking notes as I read it. The overall concept of the story that in this group of writers, several years later one of them is institutionalized in a psychiatric facility, and every day he believes he is someone from one of his books. Our narrator who is a starving author goes to visit his old friend, and becomes intrigued by his brand of schizophrenia.
The book kicks off pretty well, and the plot sounds intriguing, and I even kind of like the narrator’s tone. My feelings changed though, at some of the grammatical errors, such as the misuse of words and quotations and altogether unfamiliar language structure at times. In chapter 1, he says “he beliefs to be true”, which should be “he believes to be true.” There’s also a sentence in chapter 2, which he says “the thing is I don’t have is money”, which doesn’t sound right at all, and should be read “the thing I don’t have is the money”. There were quite a few of these type of errors, but more so than anything was the misuse of quotations. What I mean by this is, in some spots there are quotes where no one is responding, and sometimes there’s no closing of the quotation. These errors are tiny grammatical things, but it was enough that it made me read the lines over to make sure I wasn’t missing something.
Without giving too much of the plot away, as the story evolved, I kept questioning the sanity of the narrator, and some of the scenario’s he was in. There’s also a really weird sex scene which to me didn’t really fit in tandem with the story, and was all around strange. I don’t mind sex scenes that are pivotal to the story or help progress the story, but this one was just bizarre and I felt like it didn't really fit. The other scenarios our narrator finds himself in are bizarrely explained as well. There’s even a part where the narrator writing breaks story altogether and goes on about hitting the 10,000-word mark of his novel, in caps exclaiming “GOAL GOAL GOOOOOAAAL!” It left me confused and scratching my head. I did enjoy the concept of the book, but it wasn't executed the way I thought it would be, so while I was entertained, I was mostly just questioning the validity of the characters and plot.
If this story is meant to be a metaphor or an allegory to insanity or mental illness, I’m not sure it really accomplishes that. For the most part, the book just left me confused. Benarroch’s writing style was a bit odd to me, but I did find myself continuing to read to see what would happen and how all the nonsense was going to be explained. In my opinion, the ending seemed obvious and it kind of was. It kind of abruptly stops too, and then that’s it.
I give this book 2 out of 4 stars. I know that’s low, but I can’t give it a 3 because of all the grammatical and usage errors, and the weird taste it left me with. I can’t give it a 1 though, because I did keep reading and wasn’t turned off enough to not finish it. I don’t know who I would recommend this to, because honestly, it’s so bizarre I don’t even know what I’d classify it as. I will say at 68 pages it is a quick read, and entertaining at least. I don’t know what Benarroch’s other books are like, but I think it’s safe to say, I’m not rushing to read any anytime soon.
******
The Nobel Prize
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
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Latest Review: "30th Century: Escape" by Mark Kingston Levin
