Mad Nobel is the debut novel of Belgian French-speaking novelist Amelie Nodon, published in 1992, and received the René Farai Prize, which is an affirmation and recognition of humorous, critical or poetic novels first published in France by authors under the age of 45 in the year prior to the award. Amelie Nodong was only 25 years old when she was already awarded the award.
Amelie Nodon has published twenty-eight books so far, and the speed at which they are published once a year is truly amazing, but what is even more addictive is the way the novel is written: dialogue. Given my narrow horizons, I had never read a novel written in this way before: an entire book consisted almost entirely of dialogues, but it accomplished all the elements of the novel. Only a few declarative language lays out the scene where the dialogue takes place. It seems to be a script, but there is no detail of the script scene layout. This kind of full-dialogue novel is very pleasant to read.
Translator Hu Xiaoyue mentioned in the afterword that her novels are "light and not superficial, light and sharp" and not lacking in sharpness. Indeed, as I said, I saw that Nodon had a background in studying philosophy, and her sharp and philosophical dialogues can be seen everywhere in this book.
For example, "Metaphor is hypocrisy." For example, "I like young people because they have things I don't have." So they deserve love and praise. For example, "Those works are written in the midst of meanness and loneliness, and when they are written, they know very well that after the book is published, they will be more lonely and despicable." For example, "Like those frogmen, they walk through my books without a drop of water on them." ”
The best part is the whole story: a Nobel prize winner in literature, Pretecta Tasch, has published twenty-two novels, but few people have read his works. And the novels he wrote left many clues that he killed his cousin. After a female journalist exposed the story, his book became so popular that many people rushed to read it, making him a classic writer after his death.
Pretekta Tash is in his eighties and has less than two months to live from hypochondriasis. He enjoyed a reputation as a Nobel Laureate in Literature, and many journalists wanted to interview him. While he asked his secretary to selectively reject many reporters, he was also extremely eager for reporters to talk to him. However, he did his best to insult the reporters who came to interview, talking about "metaphors", "young people", "writing", "war", "reading" and other sophistries, so that the previous reporters fled into the wilderness. Until the appearance of a female journalist.
They had a protracted debate, and the female reporter, having read all his books and visiting the place where Tasch had lived, confirmed that Tasch had an unfinished work, Killer Health, that told a terrible truth: Tasch had killed his sister Leopoltina. The reason turned out to be because he loved her and loved her holyness.
It was on Leopoltina's twelfth birthday that they had been playing by the water together, but when his cousin's first menarche came, he was deeply shocked to see the red liquid flowing out, thinking it was evil, blasphemous and eternal, and he did not allow it. He wanted his cousin to be always holy and always young, so he pressed his cousin into the water and drowned. He felt that it was love, the return of holiness and eternity to her, at the cost of his life.
The female reporter debunked this fact and killed him in a verbal argument with Tashi. She won the final victory. As everyone knows, this may be the last wish of the Nobel prize winner Pretekta Tash, because since then everyone has begun to read him, and he has enjoyed real fame.