Review by AzRevRead -- The Stealer of Memories

[Azrevread]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Stealer of Memories" by Mois Benarroch.]

---

3 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Author Mois Benarroch has written a fascinating book that encourages the reader to think- and think again. The Stealer of Memories is a unique read for many reasons: the writing style of poetic prose, the collection of varied short stories, and the sections within the stories that have unique characters. The book I read was translated into English, and is separated into five parts: First Part - The autobiography The Stealer of Memories, Second Part - Memories of the Stealer of Memories, Third Part - The Letter, Fourth Part - The return of Raquel, and the Fifth Part - The Dialogue. The book is about a man who is moving from one point to another in his feelings and reactions to the world around him. He has reasons, such as health problems, religious beliefs and language interests that give him unique memories of people, places and events. He eventually realizes how his memories have an effect on his lifestyle, personal boundaries, and relationships. I refer to him as "he" or "the narrator" because he is recalling other people's memories as well as his own.

In the First Part- The autobiography The Stealer of Memories, the narrator describes health problems that have an effect on his lifestyle and caused him to be concerned about his unusual memories. He remembers that when he was a boy, he fainted while riding his bicycle and fell. He thought that the accident was trivial, and thought that the adults who tried to help him, didn't agree with him. Years later he was diagnosed with high blood pressure and didn't like the pills. He thought that the high blood pressure was a sign from God to change his lifestyle. He also recalls about how his life relates to his being a Sephardic Jew. These events lead in to the narrator being concerned that he can't separate his memories from the memories of other people. That statement made me wonder why the narrator would make that statement. I decided to continue reading to find the reason.

Although The Stealer of Memories is listed as science fiction/fantasy, there are short stories in the book that can be listed as fiction, mystery, romance, history, and others. The collection of varying genres
can be seen the Second Part- Memories of the Stealer of Memories and the Third Part- The Letter. There are scenes where the reader can see how the narrator's personal boundaries and religious faith affect his memory and emotions. In the Second Part, he remembers his birth and his mother's mysterious death two years later. Also he recounts that in 1967, there was a war and many of his classmates (including a friend named Raquel) left their school. In a separate story, he mentions a memory of gun violence in a bar. The Third Part - The Letter, the narrator receives a letter with no return address. He later finds out that the sender is Sinombre, a man who served as a soldier in the German military in World War II.

In the last two sections of the book the narrator's memories affect his relationships with the people around him. In the Fourth Part - The return of Raquel, he writes to his friend Raquel and asks her to write a book with him. He decides to stop reading letters from Sinombre. The Fifth Part- The Dialogue, mentions an encounter with a hand reader in Lisbon. The book concludes with a series of statements that appear to be a conversational type of poetic prose.

I am impressed by The Stealer of Memories because of the way the author and the translator created several short stories of various genres and allowed the basic idea of experience versus memory to remain. Since there are varying genres in this book that is listed as science fiction/fantasy - it gives the impression that the narrator is recalling memories that are either imagined or coincidental. The author Mois Benarroch has written over thirty books, seven of them are: The Gates to Tangier, The Cathedral, Muriel, The Nobel Prize, (Ways to) Lucena, Keys to Tetuoan, and Raquel Says (Something Completely Unexpected).

I thought that the book deserved at least two stars for writing and translating several compelling stories. I didn't rate the book at four stars because of the intensity of some of the subject matter and the poetic prose. I rate the book at 3 out of 4 stars. I would recommend this book to readers who are used to the tone of books written by Feodor Dostoevski (Crime and Punishment) or Erich M. Remarque
(All Quiet on the Western Front). Also I would recommend this book to readers who have an interest in ongoing human interest issues such as health care, women's rights, terrorism, immigration, and other global problems. I plan to read at least one more book by Mois Benarroch because there are various stories in the book that sound like samples from his other books

******
The Stealer of Memories
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes

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