Review by SheriSh -- Keys to Tetouan by Mois Benarroch

[SheriSh]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Keys to Tetouan" by Mois Benarroch.]

---

1 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Keys to Tetouan tells the story of the Jewish Benzimra family who are scattered in various places around the world. They were forced to leave Tetouan, but have been trying to get back ever since. Central themes of the book are identity, exile, longing, family.

This was a difficult read for me. I rate this book 1 out of 4. Below is my reasoning.

First of all the book is very confusing as you are thrown into the narrative without any proper introduction, background or character descriptions. In addition, it took me a while to grasp the fact that different people were telling the story in each chapter. I’m not sure if the author actually intended this or what. For me it would have helped if the chapters were named somehow or some hints would have been given early on that the narrator is changing from one chapter to the next. When you finally figure this out, it feels too late and you are left with the feeling that you might have missed important information.

Second, the book completely lacks in excitement. It feels like a forced monotonous rendering, and at times the content seems a bit “rambling”, without getting to the point. There was no emotional connection to any of the characters, and I am left with the feeling that I might have misunderstood them or somehow mixed them up.

The book is written in extremely long sentences, sometimes spanning a whole page in length. I have a huge problem with this kind of writing, as it’s impossible to take a break to digest what is being conveyed. Instead you strangely feel like you have to hurry up and read until the end so you might figure out what the point of the sentence or paragraph is. I’m not sure what the intention has been by writing in this form, but it can be quite confusing and difficult to grasp. The recurring chapters with the child asking his mother “when they will get there” were an interesting break in the otherwise dense chapters. These chapters somehow encapsulate and convey the feeling of the exiled and their longing the best for me. It might also have to do with the reasonably long sentences and actual dialogue.

Finally, the book also has a number of misspellings, or rather words that are stuck together because they forgot to insert a space. This happens quite often, and starts early in the book. This kind of error is enough to take away the joy of reading a book for many, especially when it is so common throughout - myself included.

To sum it up, I wouldn’t really recommend this book to anyone. I decided to read it because I wanted to learn something about the Jewish culture and history, but I think there are other much better books out there to accomplish this.

******
Keys to Tetouan
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes

Like SheriSh's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Jaime Lync]

Great review. I have read a few of Benarroch's books and while I find them thought- provoking, they are poorly edited. I think they are usually written in Hebrew or Spanish and then translated to English so if he is not the one who translates them then he is not to blame for the editorial issues but...I don't know.