Review by MTReader91 -- (Ways to) Lucena by Mois Benarroch

[Alyssa Nugent Washburn]

[Following is a volunteer review of "(Ways to) Lucena" by Mois Benarroch.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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A Review of (Ways to) Lucena by Mois Benarroch

An ancient man, going on 1,000 years old, needs to pass on his legacy to his great-great-great grandson. The ancient man prepares his great-great-great grandson for a journey of one thousand years. The older man starts with his first days in Lucena, a Jewish city, at the start of the second millennium. The great-great-great grandfather continues the journey ending in Israel and in Spain. The great-great-great grandson meets his great-great-great grandfather in Málaga, Spain at a hotel. The great-great-great grandson is attempting to find his place within his family and in life. The younger man aspires to become a writer by writing short stories in the genre of science-fiction. With his aspirations, the younger man fights with his parents about whether he should work for his father at the store or be disowned by his father and become a writer. The book takes the reader from the past to the future, through the world of Sephardi Jewry, the Inquisition, lives of Mexican-Jews and to present day modernity.

I rate this 2 out of 4. This book is more of a 2.5, but not good enough to round-up to 3. The book flows better than the last book I read by the same author. I rate as a 2.5 because I am easily confused by the author’s references to places and countries. For example, within two sentences of each other, the author says Grenada (the country) and Granada (city in Spain). I researched both spellings because I thought they were one in the same throughout the book. There is a lot of weird spacings such as page 48-49 where the title of the new section or chapter is on page 48, but the story, with another title, starts on 49.

The book originally appealed to me because it was under the genre of science fiction/fantasy. The book reads more as historical fiction or historical biography. The main ideas of the stories were fascinating as well, but the jumping from story-to-story took away some of the appeal.

This book may appeal to those who like historical recollections of the Middle East. The book could appeal to those who study Zionism, the history of the Jews, or the ways different religions affect other religions.

I previously read a book by the same author and was not too thrilled with his way of writing. This story is a bit better, but still lost me while reading due to the jumping from story-to-story. I did like learning about Zionism, the ways of the Jewish people, and how the author depicts other religions.

I dislike the author’s use of similar words (although the translation to English could be to blame). I still do not like the author’s way of writing, where he jumps from one story to another and another with minimal to no transitions.

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(Ways to) Lucena
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[Jaime Lync]

Very honest review. I have read and reviewed a few of Benarroch's books and they all have interesting premises but they suffer from grammatical and editorial flaws.