Review -- The Nobel Prize by Mois benarroch

Review by ZenaLei7 -- The Nobel Prize by Mois benarroch

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The Nobel Prize is a short fiction novel that can be read in less than an hour. Mois Benarroch mixes humor and insanity to make a short, but compelling novella.

The narrator, who is a writer, is walking to the post office when he bumps into one of the writers from an old group that the narrator used to be part of. The writer mentions that another member of their old group is in a psychiatric institution because each day he becomes one of the characters in his books. Intrigued, the narrator goes to visit this crazy writer every couple of days and researches the books that the crazy writer has written. The crazy writer has a lot of pseudonyms which makes it hard to pinpoint who exactly this crazy writer is. The story gets more and more bizarre as the narrator meets and interacts with unusual characters, making it hard to determine if it's a real character or the narrator’s figment of imagination.

If I could describe this book in one word, it would be flabbergasted. At first, the story was interesting. I wanted to know more of the writer that became a different person each day, but as the story progressed , it became difficult to see which characters were real or not. The authors throws in what seems like random characters, such as a woman who claims to be an alien, who have bizarre qualities. Most of the other characters seem normal but none of the characters show real progression. The narrator borders between sanity and insanity and even in the end there is still some confusion on if he is sane or not.

The ending was confusing and bewildering and left you guessing on the sanity of the narrator. There is sexual content which was a bit disturbing and some nudity so I wouldn't recommend this book to younger readers. Most of the chapters are short and to the point. The book is confusing at times because there is a lot of grammatical errors such as the misuse of quotation marks which makes it hard to understand who in the dialogue is talking.

The author also incorporated many relevant subjects in his book. One of the subjects are the difficulties of being a writer such as the jealousy between writers and the strains of being a controversial author. He also includes themes of insanity and struggles of relationships. Benarroch intertwines real life issues with fictional characters that create a unique piece of work.

Overall, I would give this book a 3 out of 4 stars. The story itself was interesting and has a few twists and turns that leaves you bewildered and confused, but the amount of grammar mistakes often made it difficult to read. I recommend this book to those who like a quick read and is not bothered by grammar errors.

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The Nobel Prize 
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