Cleverly plotted .... Pearl’s specific target is the rarified fortress of literary publishing, but the questions he raises extend well beyond its battlements.
Engaging ... This is a book that feels, on the surface, like it’s about the fault in our literary stars but is actually ⎯ to borrow another writer’s famous phrasing ⎯ in ourselves.
The Award is a scathing satire of the publishing world. It is also a cautionary tale about writers’ aspirations—albeit one that is both gripping and relentlessly entertaining.
Pearl creates a thrilling, introspective, entertaining world where each major character is just as unlikable as the next one. There is a chilling relatability to Pearl’s handful of questionable figures, calling attention to the dangers of ambition in all of us.
Readers who want a novel’s protagonist to be likable will take issue with The Award: Trent is compelling but, from the baseline of being a relatively decent social climber as the book opens, his behavior grows monstrous ... Pearl leaves it to us decide if it’s the literary world that screwed him up or if he was never much of a prize to begin with.
Pearl may well be getting at how publishing has less to do with content than optics in having what we’re led to believe is a mediocre effort draw strong reviews. But as rewarding as this novel is in other ways, it’s a bit of a cheat to leave the reader hanging in this way. Deviously entertaining.
