Review by Kb3ck -- Brown Scarf Blues by Mois Benarroch

[Kb3ck]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Brown Scarf Blues" by Mois Benarroch.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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I do not want to say that Brown Scarf Blues by Mois Benarroch was a bad book, but it was difficult for me to understand. The overall premise of the book – from what I could gather – was that the main character had lost two people that were important to him and was trying to find a way to cope. He states many times that he feels guilty about his friend’s death and mentions that he is giving up on his own dreams and is saying goodbye to the writer that he used to be as well as the writer he was going to become. During a conference trip, he finds a scarf that no one he is traveling with is willing to claim, so he keeps it for himself and it provides him the comfort that he had been needing. After that the book gets confusing.

Here are the main reasons the book was hard for me to follow. First, the book is written less how I am used to a book being written and more like thoughts being put on paper quickly before they are forgotten and then are never revised. The book is written in a similar way my journal entries are written. Second, sentences run on for lines at a time. There is one page where the sentence begins about a quarter of the way down and does not end until the beginning of the next page. Commas are overused and somehow still missing from places a comma should be. The word ‘and’ is also used in places where it is unnecessary. Finally, the book jumps from the past to the present multiple times with poor transitions.

There is an instance in the book where the author goes from writing in first person to writing in third person. In this instance the author tries to turn the book into a crime novella and is interviewing the main character that kept the scarf he had found. The two are trying to determine whether the character had stolen the scarf. The change in the book caught me off guard and it was over just as quickly that it had begun.

Overall, the book was a headache for me to follow. I cannot precisely put my finger on what the storyline was supposed to be. For that reason, I must take a point away from the book. I must take another point away for the moments of poor sentence structure, grammar and transitions. Therefore, I give the book 2 out of 4 stars. There were quite a few times where I thought about putting the book down and never picking it back up. The only reason that I stuck with the book - as well as the only reason I cannot give the book a lower rating - was because periodically there would be a chapter that would give a simplified version of what had happened in the book so far. Without the recaps, I do not think I would have been able to go on. In general, my thought is, if as you’re writing you feel the need to recap what has happened in the book and mention that it is specifically for the readers that are not following what has happened so far, perhaps you should go back through your story and make some revisions.

I believe people that are interested in, and can understand, philosophy have the best chance of being interested in this book. There are many times where the book gets philosophical. I, unfortunately, have a difficult time understanding philosophy.

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Brown Scarf Blues
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