3 out of 4 stars
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I have to admit that I probably wouldn't have read The Nobel Prize by Mois Benarroch if it hadn't been offered by the Online Book Club. I was also nearly put off from reviewing it because of poor translations on both the book's Amazon page and within the first few pages of the book. I'm glad I stuck with it; it was refreshing to read a work outside of my usual fare of sci-fi and fantasy.
I think the premise was what really drew me in and kept me reading. The narrator is a writer who finds out that an old member of his writing group is in a mental institution. When the narrator visits the hospital, he finds this other writer is acting like his characters, taking on the personality of a different character every day. As the narrator documents his visits to the hospital, his life grows more surreal, as the line between fiction and reality is blurred. The narrative is filled with playful jabs at writers and the craft of writing, and shows how every good writer is just a little insane.
I'll have to admit to not 'getting' some of the satire and points the author was trying to make. For instance, in the second half of the book, the narrator meets a woman who claims to be an alien, and ends up having a bizarre sexual encounter with her. I could tell the author was messing with me by having this sex-crazed alien appear and tempt the (married!) narrator out of the blue, but I still don't know what to make of it - a commentary on gratuitous sex scenes in novels? A satire of nonsensical characters that enter into and disappear from stories? It was funny and weird to read, though, even if I didn't understand every point.
As I suggested earlier, the first thing I noticed were some oddities in translation. Some sentences end in strange ways, and there are several small problems with grammar. I have to wonder if some of it is intentional; after all, the narrative constantly plays with the reader.
Another 'problem' with the narrative - the book telegraphs its ending fairly early on. I suspect most readers will guess the ending within the first few chapters, but again, this is all part of a satire full of fourth-wall breaks and bizarre happenings.
My final rating is 3 out of 4. While I can appreciate the satire in the odd narrative, the translation really needed more work to entice English-speaking readers. I think that the opening pages, at least, needed to be edited for grammar, as well as the promotional pages on Amazon and elsewhere. It's really difficult for the reader to know just what they are getting into, and I think it's too off-putting to dismiss as 'part of the satire'.
******
The Nobel Prize
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