Review by Sunia_Mukherjee -- Keys to Tetouan
-
Sunia_Mukherjee
- Posts: 11
- Joined: 19 Jan 2017, 07:51
- Bookshelf Size: 4
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-sunia-mukherjee.html
- Latest Review: "Keys to Tetouan" by Mois Benarroch
Review by Sunia_Mukherjee -- Keys to Tetouan
[Following is a volunteer review of "Keys to Tetouan" by Mois Benarroch.]
2 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Introduction
‘’Keys to Tetouan’’ is a historical fiction written by Mois Benarroch and has many aspects to the story. The story revolves around the Benzimra family which has its roots in a small city called Tetouan in Morocco and now the family is spread across the globe. Some of the members of this family are in respectable positions in cities like Madrid, Spain; New York, USA; Paris, France, so on and so forth.
The book is not originally written in English and it is translated by Orna Taub. The story starts with the family trying to trace the roots of their other family members through telephone directories. They search by the family name Benzimra, and try to meet each other.
The storyline
Fernando Benzimra, one of the last people to leave his motherland Tetouan, did not know that he is a Jewish by birth. Now this revelation has left him quite perplexed. This family speaks in Hebrew, which is close to Kaddish, the language spoken by the natives of the land. They believe that the evil angels only speak Hebrew, and if they speak in Kaddish, they will remain protected.
Then the story takes another turn and shows the conversation of a mother and son. The lady longs to go back to her homeland Israel, but the fear of returning there engulfs her. The story jumps from scenes in 1996, conversations of people from this family, to 1868.
An old man Mimon Benzimra tells his grandson to write everything what he remembers as he is educated and writes good Spanish. He talks about the days when Spaniards left the city. He talks about the loots done by the Arabs in 1860 in their beloved city of Tetouan.
The story takes different turns and the conversation of the mom and son returns when they start their journey back to their beloved Tetouan. Again the old man Mimon Benzimra starts talking about his city and his existence was shown in 1914.There were some trials of conversions of Jews into Christianity, but the Rabbis did not approve of it.
There was a rabbi Yitzhak Benwalid, who raised the issue of having a school for all the Jewish children amidst the turmoil in the land. There were many sub plots in between the main theme of the story talking more about the motherland Tetouan, and the people, turmoil the land saw over the centuries.
What I liked the most
While reading the book, one will often feel that they are deported to that land, and they are experiencing the life there. There were moments which made me nostalgic, made me think of my homeland which I too had left many years back, in search of a livelihood. Most of the readers will feel the same while reading portions of this book.
What could have been done better
Since the original book is not in English, the translation often does not give out the essence of the story in its true spirit. Though, the quality of translation is very good, I still could not connect with it.
The stories were not interlinked very well. It feels that we jump from one family’s story to another, and the flow is quite choppy. Even though the homeland of Tetouan is the common thread, binding all the pearls, a smooth flow would have helped the readers to connect with the soul of the story better.
The Verdict
I would like to rate the book as two out of four. If the flow of the story-line would have been better, then it could have gone up to three. However, since often I felt disoriented while trying to connect the sequence of events, I could not rate it higher.
******
Keys to Tetouan
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Like Sunia_Mukherjee's review? Post a comment saying so!
-- 13 Mar 2017, 23:20 --
Happy to see that my first book review was published.
2 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Introduction
‘’Keys to Tetouan’’ is a historical fiction written by Mois Benarroch and has many aspects to the story. The story revolves around the Benzimra family which has its roots in a small city called Tetouan in Morocco and now the family is spread across the globe. Some of the members of this family are in respectable positions in cities like Madrid, Spain; New York, USA; Paris, France, so on and so forth.
The book is not originally written in English and it is translated by Orna Taub. The story starts with the family trying to trace the roots of their other family members through telephone directories. They search by the family name Benzimra, and try to meet each other.
The storyline
Fernando Benzimra, one of the last people to leave his motherland Tetouan, did not know that he is a Jewish by birth. Now this revelation has left him quite perplexed. This family speaks in Hebrew, which is close to Kaddish, the language spoken by the natives of the land. They believe that the evil angels only speak Hebrew, and if they speak in Kaddish, they will remain protected.
Then the story takes another turn and shows the conversation of a mother and son. The lady longs to go back to her homeland Israel, but the fear of returning there engulfs her. The story jumps from scenes in 1996, conversations of people from this family, to 1868.
An old man Mimon Benzimra tells his grandson to write everything what he remembers as he is educated and writes good Spanish. He talks about the days when Spaniards left the city. He talks about the loots done by the Arabs in 1860 in their beloved city of Tetouan.
The story takes different turns and the conversation of the mom and son returns when they start their journey back to their beloved Tetouan. Again the old man Mimon Benzimra starts talking about his city and his existence was shown in 1914.There were some trials of conversions of Jews into Christianity, but the Rabbis did not approve of it.
There was a rabbi Yitzhak Benwalid, who raised the issue of having a school for all the Jewish children amidst the turmoil in the land. There were many sub plots in between the main theme of the story talking more about the motherland Tetouan, and the people, turmoil the land saw over the centuries.
What I liked the most
While reading the book, one will often feel that they are deported to that land, and they are experiencing the life there. There were moments which made me nostalgic, made me think of my homeland which I too had left many years back, in search of a livelihood. Most of the readers will feel the same while reading portions of this book.
What could have been done better
Since the original book is not in English, the translation often does not give out the essence of the story in its true spirit. Though, the quality of translation is very good, I still could not connect with it.
The stories were not interlinked very well. It feels that we jump from one family’s story to another, and the flow is quite choppy. Even though the homeland of Tetouan is the common thread, binding all the pearls, a smooth flow would have helped the readers to connect with the soul of the story better.
The Verdict
I would like to rate the book as two out of four. If the flow of the story-line would have been better, then it could have gone up to three. However, since often I felt disoriented while trying to connect the sequence of events, I could not rate it higher.
******
Keys to Tetouan
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Like Sunia_Mukherjee's review? Post a comment saying so!
-- 13 Mar 2017, 23:20 --
Happy to see that my first book review was published.
Latest Review: "Keys to Tetouan" by Mois Benarroch
