Review by Harsh99 -- The Stealer of Memories

[Harsh99]

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

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2 out of 4 stars

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The book, The Stealer of Memoirs tries to make us view the world through the eyes of a Jew writer who can involuntarily glimpse through others' memories. And fails, horribly.

Firstly, the book is translated by a guy not fluent in English. That means there are a lot of errors, which were apparently not edited. One has to spend a lot of time to make sense of it and understand what the writer wants to say. At times, it can get very confusing as the story is through first person perspective and it is almost always unclear which character is narrating. If you want to enjoy reading, this book is not for you.

Next, the plot is really boring. That is, if you can make sense of the story. Once you do, you'd be confused why you tried so hard. There is just nothing worth spending the time on. You'll be glad that the book is a short read. It has a very weak central character, who seems to be clueless about his world for the better part of the time. The character development is weak, too and the story feels to be progressing rather aimlessly. It becomes a tad interesting though, when he lives through the memories of other people. The description of each person's memory is very brief but vivid. The memories of different people alternate between chapters and then the reader has to make sense which character's memory is being viewed in each chapter using the elements of the memory itself. Still, it is hardly enough to give meaning to the plot.

The idea was interesting but the execution was terrible. Compared with the previous works of the author, it feels the translation was the main problem. Other titles like Gates to Tangier and Keys to Tetouan by Benarroch are really thought-provoking and possess none of the weaknesses of this book. His poems are equally well-written, so much so that in 2009, he was awarded the Israel Prime Minister’s Prize for Literature.

Despite all the shortcomings, the book can be a whole lot more interesting if it is translated right and then properly edited. That is why I'm giving it a score of 2 out of 4. Read it only if you want to try something new and it does not need to be necessarily good.

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The Stealer of Memories
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Like Harsh99's review? Post a comment saying so!

[UttamGupta]

You gave a good and a brief review...

[Toria Mason]

That is unfortunate that the book wasn't well translated, especially if the author had previously good works. It sounds like it would be a difficult book to follow along. Changing points of view through characters (especially when unstated) is really hard to pull off well, and not being well translated on top of that. Perhaps the author needs to come out with an updated edition using a more fluent translator.