3 out of 4 stars
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[Following is a review of "Andalusian in Jerusalem" by Mois benarroch.]
The novel Andalusian in Jerusalem by Mois benarroch is the fascinating account of a Spanish writer’s encounters in Jerusalem while he was invited to a strange writer’s festival . During his teenage years when he found out that many inventors, scientist and writer’s were Jews, he revealed to his friend a false secret that he is a Jew and to his astonishment the friend replied “I knew it” and before long everyone knew it. This lie lead him to be a respected writer till he finally writes an historical novel about the Shoah, this was his first novel to be translated into Hebrew. This novel gets him invited to a strange writers festival in Jerusalem where he meets an old woman that resembled his mother, who also claimed that he is her son. He also meets Charly, a Jewish-moroccan Israeli writer suffering from self identification, who is doing his first steps writing a novel about Lucena in Spanish. It gets much better with his abduction and Charly’s manuscript.
The author Mois Benarroch, an Israeli writer and poet used his mastery of the country’s landscapes and history to create a superb imagery of Jerusalem and events. The book is incredible, mind cracking, when you feel lost, the writer would pick up. Guillermo is such a great narrator. The descriptions of events and the logical contradictions by which the writer accepts the turnout of these events is fascinating
The book shown the incongruity between reality and appearance: where some streets exists only at night, characters gets older and younger in the spaces of minutes. Here reality is changed at will by the writer, when he assumed that his new born mother’s house exists only at night and is proved to be correct and also when Nora appeared like she’s an old woman and later like a young lady in the writers eyes.
It also highlights the conflict of self identification, where the characters assumes different identities in the face of societal pressures such as Charly and his characters, Charly’s manuscript detailing the stories of forced conversation between a thousand year old man and his descendant about the religious persecution suffered by their people. It also exposes the unrests that comes with these dual identities such as Charly who criticizes everything and everyone. Similarly the profound insight into the lives and natures of the characters, who are all writers. This entails the mindset that writing is of great importance and shouldn’t be all about material gain
In conclusion ,this book is well written, a thrilling adventure and travel with a great mind, a mind where reality and appearance are in disparity. It takes you to Jerusalem. It is extremely sophisticated, complex and very hard to comprehend at times but all together a good read. Endorsed to people interested in Spanish or Jewish history and culture. I rate it 3 out of 4 stars for its excellent characters and great imagery.
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Andalusian in Jerusalem
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