This year’s National Book Award winner for fiction has two main characters with alternating chapters. The first is the author of a book titled Hell of a Book. He is an unreliable narrator on a book tour and at each stop on the tour, he reveals a little more about himself. The other main character is a boy with almost pure black skin who is visible only to the narrator. Neither character has a name.

I was disappointed in The National Book Award’s selection this year. I found Hell of a Book didactic, gimmicky and predictable.