A darkly entertaining satire set in present-day Cambridge, Mass., The Award by Matthew Pearl tells the story of an unscrupulous writer's improbable rise to the upper echelons of literary society. It is a superb caricature of a ruthlessly ambitious young man who will stop at nothing, even murder, to claw his way to the top.
Armed with an MFA, dwindling funds, and an endlessly patient fiancée, David Trent is "always trying to finish the same first novel" while fending off panic that "he could never be good enough." His rival is the self-assured, Harvard and Iowa Writers Workshop-educated Barnaby Masters, whose career trajectory, thanks to Pearl's marvelously twisted plot, is inextricably linked to David's.
When David and his intended, Bonnie, rent an apartment above the renowned author and New Yorker fiction editor Silas Hale, David is convinced the proximity to literary greatness will rub off on him. Remarkably, it does. David wins the "Boston Literary Prize for Best First Novel" for his debut, The Crises, a feat that catapults him to national fame. Barnaby is grudgingly impressed, as is Silas, a mean old curmudgeon who bullies his new neighbor.
The Award is an exciting departure from genre for Pearl (The Last Bookaneer; The Dante Club), an author renowned for his historical thrillers. Much of the plot unfolds within the cloistered corners of Cambridge coffee shops, a competitive, neurotic atmosphere portrayed with comic relief where writers toil away at their craft, eager to "unfurl the genius." Pearl, wickedly witty in describing his compatriots, refers to writers as "domesticated dogs, easily suspicious just at the sight of each other for no particular reason."
As his star begins to rise among Cambridge's "elite culturati," fate delivers a terrific blow that puts David's award and its attendant accolades, including a Vanity Fair profile, in jeopardy. It is nothing less than a treacherous confrontation with destiny for David, whose appalling serpentine maneuvers through a disaster that would have felled a more ethical writer will keep readers on the edge of their seats. How far will David go to maintain his literary perch?
Luck, "a Cambridge writer's most coveted commodity," might be on David's side for a time, but in the end, it is Barnaby who turns out to be the perfect foil for the spectacular moral reckoning Pearl has in store for his cunning protagonist. --Shahina Piyarali
Shelf Talker: A darkly entertaining satire starring a ruthlessly ambitious young writer who will stop at nothing to claw his way to the top of literary society in Cambridge, Mass.