Review by Norach -- Keys to Tetouan by Mois Benarroch
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Review by Norach -- 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 an eclectic story of a family of jews, the Benzimras, and their spread around the world, from Morocco to Israel to Latin America. It's written as a bewildering series of letters, dictations, and other soliloquies, seemingly lacking any consistent characters or settings to anchor to.
The plot summary above is short, but I have to admit that I found it difficult to piece even that together. Our focus ping pongs through time and around the world, with the only constant being the name Benzimra and Tetouan, the city in Morocco where all this began. I struggled consistently to understand what was happening, where it was happening, who it was happening to, and why it was happening. The utter lack of structure, both on an overarching, plot level, and on the paragraph level, brought me to my knees within the first hundred pages, and I found the rest a slog.
Benarroch, opts for a series of vignettes, detailing the emotions and tribulations of the various Benzimras throughout time, but the overuse of stream of consciousness leads to formidable walls of text. Page long paragraphs are the norm, often with sparse punctuation, which makes the entire novel seem breathless and overwrought. Whilst discussing the book with friends, I found myself referring to it as “Jewlysses”, because most will struggle with Keys to Tetouan in much the same way as with Ulysses.
I chose to read Keys to Tetouan out of curiosity. I don't know anything about Jewish culture, beyond the most basic tenets, and hoped to find the book enlightening. Instead, I found it confusingly burdened with Hebrew and religious terms without any elaboration at all, and it soon became apparent that the author wasn't interested particularly in transparency.
The vignettes themselves do a good job of showcasing Benarroch's writing chops, but that merely made the entire thing more frustrating. Emotion comes through incredibly well in Keys to Tetouan, and Benarroch clearly has a fantastic eye for humanity, but has hamstrung himself with his commitment to stream of consciousness and a totally opaque way of writing. I genuinely believe that, with a lot of additional full stops, Keys to Tetouan could be seen as a gorgeous, non-linear anthology of flash fiction about the collective experience of Moroccan jews over the last century and a half. Readers who lapped up Ulysses and who have some keen background in Jewish culture will likely find Keys to Tetouan a fantastic read. Mere mortals like myself, who can only handle sentences under two dozen words will likely end up bewildered and frustrated.
I give Keys to Tetouan 1 out of 4.
******
Keys to Tetouan
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
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1 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Keys to Tetouan, by Mois Benarroch, is an eclectic story of a family of jews, the Benzimras, and their spread around the world, from Morocco to Israel to Latin America. It's written as a bewildering series of letters, dictations, and other soliloquies, seemingly lacking any consistent characters or settings to anchor to.
The plot summary above is short, but I have to admit that I found it difficult to piece even that together. Our focus ping pongs through time and around the world, with the only constant being the name Benzimra and Tetouan, the city in Morocco where all this began. I struggled consistently to understand what was happening, where it was happening, who it was happening to, and why it was happening. The utter lack of structure, both on an overarching, plot level, and on the paragraph level, brought me to my knees within the first hundred pages, and I found the rest a slog.
Benarroch, opts for a series of vignettes, detailing the emotions and tribulations of the various Benzimras throughout time, but the overuse of stream of consciousness leads to formidable walls of text. Page long paragraphs are the norm, often with sparse punctuation, which makes the entire novel seem breathless and overwrought. Whilst discussing the book with friends, I found myself referring to it as “Jewlysses”, because most will struggle with Keys to Tetouan in much the same way as with Ulysses.
I chose to read Keys to Tetouan out of curiosity. I don't know anything about Jewish culture, beyond the most basic tenets, and hoped to find the book enlightening. Instead, I found it confusingly burdened with Hebrew and religious terms without any elaboration at all, and it soon became apparent that the author wasn't interested particularly in transparency.
The vignettes themselves do a good job of showcasing Benarroch's writing chops, but that merely made the entire thing more frustrating. Emotion comes through incredibly well in Keys to Tetouan, and Benarroch clearly has a fantastic eye for humanity, but has hamstrung himself with his commitment to stream of consciousness and a totally opaque way of writing. I genuinely believe that, with a lot of additional full stops, Keys to Tetouan could be seen as a gorgeous, non-linear anthology of flash fiction about the collective experience of Moroccan jews over the last century and a half. Readers who lapped up Ulysses and who have some keen background in Jewish culture will likely find Keys to Tetouan a fantastic read. Mere mortals like myself, who can only handle sentences under two dozen words will likely end up bewildered and frustrated.
I give Keys to Tetouan 1 out of 4.
******
Keys to Tetouan
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Like Norach's review? Post a comment saying so!
