Review by Masked_Eros -- Keys to Tetouan by Mois Benarroch
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Masked_Eros
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Review by Masked_Eros -- Keys to Tetouan by Mois Benarroch
[Following is a volunteer review of "Keys to Tetouan" by Mois Benarroch.]
1 out of 4 stars
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Keys to Tetouan by Mois Benarroch is a work of historical fiction. I rate it 1 out of 4 stars.
Why so low? Simply put, editing. I do not mean just a few missing spaces between words or misspellings. Punctuation was atrocious! Sentences ran on and on and on. Commas took the place of periods causing everything to run together. However, this may have been due to the language translation. Still, they should have gone back and fixed that to make it much more accessible to English readers. There were few paragraph breaks. If it wasn't for sheer determination, I'm not sure I would have made it very far in the book. For example, my kindle estimated one chapter to be about 53 minutes read time, or about 26 pages. The entire thing was virtually one paragraph! You're screwed if you lose your place and have to close the book before finishing a chapter. Last but not least, the final chapter was interrupted by a “Prologue” warning the reader that the following book is not grammatically correct or friendly to vegetarians, things like that.
That out of the way, the book is about generations of a Jewish family torn between where they feel they belong, Jerusalem or a town called Tetouan in Morocco.
In a lot of ways, it reads like a family history. I really felt like I was there with the writer learning about my ancestors. There were letters and conversations between a boy and his parents about getting “there,” as much about travel as finding a time and place without persecution of their people.
There were times too that it even felt like was sitting there, listening to the rambling tales of old aunts, uncles and grandparents. Unfortunately, those were the same parts that seemed to be never ending sentences. Eventually, my brain adapted and figured out where to add periods and made it much easier to read. Also, despite being different speakers, they all seemed to have the same voice. Most of them were men. There was one woman speaker. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that until halfway through her part.
Would I recommend it? Probably not. It's not a bad story. The family's history and the things they went through to find where they felt they most belonged was interesting. I would even say it felt philosophical here and there. Unfortunately, the difficulty reading so very much of it may not allow a reader to get deep enough into the story to feel those things. It just not may not be worth it to someone looking for a light read.
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Keys to Tetouan
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1 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Keys to Tetouan by Mois Benarroch is a work of historical fiction. I rate it 1 out of 4 stars.
Why so low? Simply put, editing. I do not mean just a few missing spaces between words or misspellings. Punctuation was atrocious! Sentences ran on and on and on. Commas took the place of periods causing everything to run together. However, this may have been due to the language translation. Still, they should have gone back and fixed that to make it much more accessible to English readers. There were few paragraph breaks. If it wasn't for sheer determination, I'm not sure I would have made it very far in the book. For example, my kindle estimated one chapter to be about 53 minutes read time, or about 26 pages. The entire thing was virtually one paragraph! You're screwed if you lose your place and have to close the book before finishing a chapter. Last but not least, the final chapter was interrupted by a “Prologue” warning the reader that the following book is not grammatically correct or friendly to vegetarians, things like that.
That out of the way, the book is about generations of a Jewish family torn between where they feel they belong, Jerusalem or a town called Tetouan in Morocco.
In a lot of ways, it reads like a family history. I really felt like I was there with the writer learning about my ancestors. There were letters and conversations between a boy and his parents about getting “there,” as much about travel as finding a time and place without persecution of their people.
There were times too that it even felt like was sitting there, listening to the rambling tales of old aunts, uncles and grandparents. Unfortunately, those were the same parts that seemed to be never ending sentences. Eventually, my brain adapted and figured out where to add periods and made it much easier to read. Also, despite being different speakers, they all seemed to have the same voice. Most of them were men. There was one woman speaker. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that until halfway through her part.
Would I recommend it? Probably not. It's not a bad story. The family's history and the things they went through to find where they felt they most belonged was interesting. I would even say it felt philosophical here and there. Unfortunately, the difficulty reading so very much of it may not allow a reader to get deep enough into the story to feel those things. It just not may not be worth it to someone looking for a light read.
******
Keys to Tetouan
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Like Masked_Eros's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: The Bonding by Imogen Keeper
