Review by pet5nd -- Raquel Says (Something Entirely Unex...

[pet5nd]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Raquel Says (Something Entirely Unexpected)" by Mois benarroch.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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‘Raquel Says (Something Entirely Unexpected)’ by Mois Benarroch is the modern cry for help when it comes to alienation, loneliness and the search for love. It is based on the idea of the main character being given the chance to create a person - Raquel.

The story follows the confused life of Mois with its many twists and turns, through a couple of different countries and cultures; it is a journey to finding a long lost self. The opening lines however can make you throw the book out: ‘…I am forty years old and what I want is to die, what I want is to not continue, what I want is to not decide,..’’

It turns out the main character is a writer who has lost his inspiration and does not know what he wants to write; he keeps hesitating between poetry and novels, between languages – Spanish or English; he writes about his Jewish roots and then goes back to the present day life. According to him what he wrote was just an exercise, those words were written between two novels to keep him from loosing his touch.

Raquel on the other hand appears as a narrator at the end of the novel, she is a writer too, and she is, according to me, the mirror image of the main character – also lost and without purpose in life. Meanwhile the real families of the two are stuck in between them and there is a general sense of betrayal throughout the whole book.

The author’s idea to make the main character recreate Raquel is a good one; he is told by a computer “Today, and only today, you may create a person.” “A person that you may choose yourself.” “The only condition is that the person must have been born in the same year you were born and in the same city.” but somehow this idea gets lost along the way and does not unfold temptingly enough as to trick the reader into reading the book through.

My impression as I read on was that the story, if you can call it a story, has no plot, it is totally chaotic and incoherent. The author jumps from one idea to another seemingly without any connection or logic. The nearly opening phrase ‘what I want is to die’ struck me as extremely ridiculous. Correct me if I am wrong but this is down right depressing. The idea of creating a person is a wonderful hit but the rest is far from appealing to the common reader. I give the book a rating of 1 out of 4.

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Raquel Says (Something Entirely Unexpected)
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