The prize

by Irving Wallace

Book Overview

Many Found Him Irresistible When the critics stopped evaluating him, they all agreed that he was a highly readable - perhaps even addictive - writer with an ability to put sentences and paragraphs... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0006AXTZW
• ISBN13: 9780626302023
• Release Date: January 1962
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster
• Length: 603 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.

Customer Reviews

excellent !!

It was a fascinating and thrilling experience to read this book. Wallace certainly had great insights and a wealth of knowledge. My impression after reading this book is that Nobel prize winners are not saints not super human beings but just like you and me with hopes fears and human problems but somehow, by luck, their achievements had turned out to be unique and acclaimed.

Amusing, dated, chauvinist

Wallace's The Prize is a nice long book in which six characters win the Nobel Prize and are all brought to Stockholm for a week. Wallace does a good job shifting through the different characters and gives lots of interesting history & tidbits on the Nobel Prize. His invention of the reasons for which the prizes are awarded is also excellent, particularly the reason the prize for literature is awarded to Andrew Craig (because it allows the Nobel judges to display their erudition).The book was published in 1962 and naturally is a product of those times. Of interest to me was the aftermath of WWII in many of the characters' lives and the paranoia induced by the Cold War. What I found annoying -- and perhaps this was also a product of the times -- was Wallace's portrayal of the female characters. My word, they ALL wanted to go to bed with Andrew Craig! As Craig was the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, it seemed more like a prized fantasy of Wallace's. A small but irritating point. Emily, with her knowledge of German, would immediately understand what Craig explains to her about Swedish.

A hardspun ball of facts and fiction that may knock you down

On the cover IW tells us that the book has taken over 15 years and at least one trip to sweden to accomplish. You just simply have to admire the ambition to tell us such a complete story. In this ambition he takes on the herritage of older storytelling (and also educating) authors. The plot is simple; we follow the nobelwinners of one year from the time they are chosen too the time they leave Stockholm with their checks. In the time inbetwen we get an indepth analysis of the minds and psychological functions of people who are alcoholics, suffer from low self esteem and so om. Also in his pick of personalities IW demonstrates that the goal is to educate the readers, this time moraly. the book is well woth reading both for its facts on the nobel prize, the gossip around the nobel prize and its analysis of different aspects of the meaning of life and how to do it.