Review by March Reviewer -- Andalusian in Jerusalem
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March Reviewer
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- Latest Review: Andalusian in Jerusalem by Mois benarroch
Review by March Reviewer -- Andalusian in Jerusalem
[Following is a volunteer review of "Andalusian in Jerusalem" by Mois benarroch.]
1 out of 4 stars
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This book is titled Andalusian in Jerusalem. It is written by Mois Benarroch who has written a few works of fiction in Spanish. This book has been translated from Spanish to English by Enriqueta Carrington.
The book is written in the first person point of view. I struggled badly reading this work. The translation seems to have been very poorly done. The story is about a Jewish man called Jorge who travelled to Jerusalem. He grew up in Spain, being surrounded by people who discouraged him from talking about his Jewish ancestry. While in Jerusalem he was able to see Jerusalem as it was during the time of Jesus.
The entire work is just page after page of directionless ramblings. Initially, I had decided to review this work to see if I could get a feel for Jerusalem or Andalusia. I was let down on both counts. There is a lack of details in the descriptions used in the novel. There are too many unfamiliar towns mentioned in the book. The author seems to keep jumping from one town to another. This is rather disorienting as the author does not provide clear description of any of the towns. Feel like there is some prior knowledge of these towns that the author assumes the reader would know. Unfortunately, this made this work rather difficult to comprehend. The overall plot line is unclear. This work was probably targeted for readers who are already familiar with Spanish history.
Just as I was beginning to warm to the story on page 61 the author suddenly veered off from the original story by lamenting about a place called Lucena for the rest of the book. This made it feel like this novel is still not yet completed. It was not brought to any kind of conclusion. This was interspersed with some rather disconnected poems and monologues in between. The author has left too many questions hanging.
I believe I should not have attempted to read this novel before finishing the author’s previous books. Those who read the author’s previous books may better appreciate what the author is on and on about. There is very little structure to the writing. Somehow in the story the author kept lamenting about a place called Lucena. Numerous characters were brought unto the scene but somehow they never got mentioned again in the rest of the novel. They just seem to have appeared and disappeared out of the novel for no reason and without helping the novel to move along. There is no clear plot. No clear protagonist in the entire book or at least I came away without feeling there was one. There does not seem to be a central theme. Or, if there’s one I could not decipher it.
The translation has been done from Spanish to simple English in a very literal way. I feel that the beauty of the original writing in Spanish may have been lost. Some sentences are more than 50 words long with only commas used to separate the sub-sentences. I felt cluelessly breathless trying to visualize the imagery the author is trying to project. Some sentences are so long and punctuated only with commas where full stops should have been used. It made me feel breathless reading some of the sentences. Some words may have been confused by the translator. For example the words “come to” have been used where the proper words should have been “go to.”
There are some rather appalling translation errors e.g. on page 21 “You’re 23, goodness mine.” On page 9 “guy” is wrongly spelt as “goy.” All the minor spelling errors made the reading a tad more difficult to understand. On top of that some contextual translation errors made this book a real drag to read through. The sentence “I think I was a bit in love with her” would have come out more elegantly if written as “I think I was in love with her a little.” Some words are obviously wrongly translated e.g. on page 50 the phrase “but it's not mortal” should have been translated as “but it is not terminal.” On page 44 the sentence “I've got go by my house” should have been written as “I’ve got to go by my house.”
It was a real struggle to read with very little detailed descriptions of the towns which the protagonist of the story seems to switch in and out of. I found this rather disorienting to read. I never ever really got into the flow of the story.
The author tried too hard to impress the reader that he can understand the many Spanish accents used in the Americas but his attempts at subtle descriptions did not come out too well e.g. “She was Uruguayan although her accent sounded Argentinian to me.” The sentence just rings hollow and does not add any additional meaning to the story.
I rate this book with 1 out of 4 stars. Overall, I find this work to be a disappointing read. There is no clear plot. The translation seems to have been done rather literally with very little respect for context.
******
Andalusian in Jerusalem
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1 out of 4 stars
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This book is titled Andalusian in Jerusalem. It is written by Mois Benarroch who has written a few works of fiction in Spanish. This book has been translated from Spanish to English by Enriqueta Carrington.
The book is written in the first person point of view. I struggled badly reading this work. The translation seems to have been very poorly done. The story is about a Jewish man called Jorge who travelled to Jerusalem. He grew up in Spain, being surrounded by people who discouraged him from talking about his Jewish ancestry. While in Jerusalem he was able to see Jerusalem as it was during the time of Jesus.
The entire work is just page after page of directionless ramblings. Initially, I had decided to review this work to see if I could get a feel for Jerusalem or Andalusia. I was let down on both counts. There is a lack of details in the descriptions used in the novel. There are too many unfamiliar towns mentioned in the book. The author seems to keep jumping from one town to another. This is rather disorienting as the author does not provide clear description of any of the towns. Feel like there is some prior knowledge of these towns that the author assumes the reader would know. Unfortunately, this made this work rather difficult to comprehend. The overall plot line is unclear. This work was probably targeted for readers who are already familiar with Spanish history.
Just as I was beginning to warm to the story on page 61 the author suddenly veered off from the original story by lamenting about a place called Lucena for the rest of the book. This made it feel like this novel is still not yet completed. It was not brought to any kind of conclusion. This was interspersed with some rather disconnected poems and monologues in between. The author has left too many questions hanging.
I believe I should not have attempted to read this novel before finishing the author’s previous books. Those who read the author’s previous books may better appreciate what the author is on and on about. There is very little structure to the writing. Somehow in the story the author kept lamenting about a place called Lucena. Numerous characters were brought unto the scene but somehow they never got mentioned again in the rest of the novel. They just seem to have appeared and disappeared out of the novel for no reason and without helping the novel to move along. There is no clear plot. No clear protagonist in the entire book or at least I came away without feeling there was one. There does not seem to be a central theme. Or, if there’s one I could not decipher it.
The translation has been done from Spanish to simple English in a very literal way. I feel that the beauty of the original writing in Spanish may have been lost. Some sentences are more than 50 words long with only commas used to separate the sub-sentences. I felt cluelessly breathless trying to visualize the imagery the author is trying to project. Some sentences are so long and punctuated only with commas where full stops should have been used. It made me feel breathless reading some of the sentences. Some words may have been confused by the translator. For example the words “come to” have been used where the proper words should have been “go to.”
There are some rather appalling translation errors e.g. on page 21 “You’re 23, goodness mine.” On page 9 “guy” is wrongly spelt as “goy.” All the minor spelling errors made the reading a tad more difficult to understand. On top of that some contextual translation errors made this book a real drag to read through. The sentence “I think I was a bit in love with her” would have come out more elegantly if written as “I think I was in love with her a little.” Some words are obviously wrongly translated e.g. on page 50 the phrase “but it's not mortal” should have been translated as “but it is not terminal.” On page 44 the sentence “I've got go by my house” should have been written as “I’ve got to go by my house.”
It was a real struggle to read with very little detailed descriptions of the towns which the protagonist of the story seems to switch in and out of. I found this rather disorienting to read. I never ever really got into the flow of the story.
The author tried too hard to impress the reader that he can understand the many Spanish accents used in the Americas but his attempts at subtle descriptions did not come out too well e.g. “She was Uruguayan although her accent sounded Argentinian to me.” The sentence just rings hollow and does not add any additional meaning to the story.
I rate this book with 1 out of 4 stars. Overall, I find this work to be a disappointing read. There is no clear plot. The translation seems to have been done rather literally with very little respect for context.
******
Andalusian in Jerusalem
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
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Latest Review: Andalusian in Jerusalem by Mois benarroch
