Review by CaitlinLau -- (Ways to) Lucena by Mois Benarroch
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CaitlinLau
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Review by CaitlinLau -- (Ways to) Lucena by Mois Benarroch
[Following is a volunteer review of "(Ways to) Lucena" by Mois Benarroch.]
1 out of 4 stars
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Lucena is a novel that combines fantasy with historical fiction and poetry. I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars, primarily because there is no option to rate the book zero starts.
The storyline promised by the promotional literature is as follows: A successful American lawyer with a spoilt wife becomes disillusioned by life, and decides to go on holiday to Spain. There, he is sucked into a wormhole that teleports him to a parallel universe with exactly the same physical objects as ours, and the only difference is the history of events that have taken place. This alternative history has created an Inquisition that investigates ethnic origin, specifically whether or not one is Jewish, among other things. The lawyer is interrogated and set free, whereupon he enters the wormhole again.
At this point, the storyline stops, difficult though that may be to imagine, one tenth into the book. The remaining 90% of the book is a collection of short stories and poetry about characters that could conceivably exist in the parallel universe. Most of the short stories are not really stories, but monologues made by the characters. The few short stories that exist do not have a storyline, and are basically one scene long. For example, a character goes into a lecture hall at a university and has a conversation with the professor -- this is the entire gist of the story, difficult as that may be to believe.
The structure of the book is an interesting concept, but the writing is so bad that any structure would be let down. Overall, the book is tries to do too much, all of which is clichéd. It is a mixture of modern social drama, time travel, historical fiction, fantasy, and poetry. There are two clear parts to the book, although there is nothing to indicate this from the chapter divisions. The first is the story about the American lawyer, and the second the short stories/poetry. As regards the story, it is riddled with clichés. There is nothing original about any idea it uses. One obvious cliché is the makeup of the Inquisition. The structure of the organization is clearly modelled on the Catholic Church's 18th century Medieval Inquisitions, and its objective modelled on World War One, whereby there is a search for Jews. It is also very badly written, using only words that a child could understand. For example, the author uses 'walk' instead of 'stroll'. As to the second part, the poetry is so awful that the only reason I call it poetry is that it would otherwise be described as fragments of often unrelated sentences put on the same page. The short stories are a scene long and most of the three pages they inhabit describes, for example, what the character notices about his surroundings as he walks down a staircase. The monologues are extremely boring because they come across as the thoughts that go through the head of a schizophrenic during a bad bout of the illness -- random, rambling and often not making sense at all. There is no structure or direction to the monologues. For example, they discuss topics A and B, then talk to the reader at length, then go on to topic B, then back to A, on to C and then address the reader again.
Do not waste your money on this book. It consists of poorly conceived content that is so very badly written that words fail me (and obviously the writer, for that matter). Let us hope that we are not tortured by the release of a second book by the author. 1 out of 4 stars is generous, in my opinion.
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(Ways to) Lucena
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1 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Lucena is a novel that combines fantasy with historical fiction and poetry. I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars, primarily because there is no option to rate the book zero starts.
The storyline promised by the promotional literature is as follows: A successful American lawyer with a spoilt wife becomes disillusioned by life, and decides to go on holiday to Spain. There, he is sucked into a wormhole that teleports him to a parallel universe with exactly the same physical objects as ours, and the only difference is the history of events that have taken place. This alternative history has created an Inquisition that investigates ethnic origin, specifically whether or not one is Jewish, among other things. The lawyer is interrogated and set free, whereupon he enters the wormhole again.
At this point, the storyline stops, difficult though that may be to imagine, one tenth into the book. The remaining 90% of the book is a collection of short stories and poetry about characters that could conceivably exist in the parallel universe. Most of the short stories are not really stories, but monologues made by the characters. The few short stories that exist do not have a storyline, and are basically one scene long. For example, a character goes into a lecture hall at a university and has a conversation with the professor -- this is the entire gist of the story, difficult as that may be to believe.
The structure of the book is an interesting concept, but the writing is so bad that any structure would be let down. Overall, the book is tries to do too much, all of which is clichéd. It is a mixture of modern social drama, time travel, historical fiction, fantasy, and poetry. There are two clear parts to the book, although there is nothing to indicate this from the chapter divisions. The first is the story about the American lawyer, and the second the short stories/poetry. As regards the story, it is riddled with clichés. There is nothing original about any idea it uses. One obvious cliché is the makeup of the Inquisition. The structure of the organization is clearly modelled on the Catholic Church's 18th century Medieval Inquisitions, and its objective modelled on World War One, whereby there is a search for Jews. It is also very badly written, using only words that a child could understand. For example, the author uses 'walk' instead of 'stroll'. As to the second part, the poetry is so awful that the only reason I call it poetry is that it would otherwise be described as fragments of often unrelated sentences put on the same page. The short stories are a scene long and most of the three pages they inhabit describes, for example, what the character notices about his surroundings as he walks down a staircase. The monologues are extremely boring because they come across as the thoughts that go through the head of a schizophrenic during a bad bout of the illness -- random, rambling and often not making sense at all. There is no structure or direction to the monologues. For example, they discuss topics A and B, then talk to the reader at length, then go on to topic B, then back to A, on to C and then address the reader again.
Do not waste your money on this book. It consists of poorly conceived content that is so very badly written that words fail me (and obviously the writer, for that matter). Let us hope that we are not tortured by the release of a second book by the author. 1 out of 4 stars is generous, in my opinion.
******
(Ways to) Lucena
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Like CaitlinLau's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: "The Bonding" by Imogen Keeper
