2 out of 4 stars
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The Nobel Prize is one of many books written by the Israeli author and poet, Mois Benarroch, who has over thirty published works to his name.
The Nobel Prize follows an author in his later years as he struggles to pay his bills, sustain a relationship with his wife and come to terms with his sense of self-worth.
After a chance meeting with a colleague, he learns of a fellow writer who he knew from days gone by, a Pablo Pisces, who has voluntarily entered into a local psychiatric hospital. Upon visiting him, the writer finds Pablo a different man as he changes his persona every day, becoming a different character from one of his books. The doctors are at a complete loss as to his diagnosis, as he switches from the personalities of that of an unconvicted murderer to a grieving mother.
The writer becomes somewhat obsessed with the past works of Pablo Pisces, trying to recognize the different characters before they appear, until he is so involved, reality, as he knows, it turns in on itself.
Mois Benarroch has alighted on an intriguing concept for this short story, keeping the plot moving along rapidly and full of detail which is to be commended considering that the book is 68 pages.
I was caught up in the premise of this book in the first chapter as it piqued my curiosity. Almost every reader imagines themselves as characters in the book they are reading, or at least in the story, living alongside them, and having the chance to escape from reality for awhile.
Unfortunately as this may have been translated to English, some sentences and words have lost their impact, as the story becomes more disjointed and loses its flow as it progresses. There are also many simple grammatical errors which unfortunately distract from the already fractured story.
Characters who did not add anything apparently essential to the plot begin to muddy the storyline, as it becomes even more bizarre with the addition of an alien to the story, with accompanying sex scenes.
In spite of this, The Nobel Prize has had me repeatedly contemplating it after I had finished reading it. I would recommend this book, The Nobel Prize by Mois Benarroch, to readers who like to be challenged mentally in their reading material. I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars due to its disjointed way of writing and grammatical errors, although I did enjoy the concept of questioning one’s own reality and who is to say what really is the truth of the story of the life one’s living.
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The Nobel Prize
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