The Moor's Account in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Mar 24, 2017 Jennifer rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, fiction, historical-fiction

I cannot tell you how many times I picked up this book in the bookstore before I bought it -- drawn in by its lovely cover and interesting title. I don't know why I kept putting it back down. But I'm glad I finally carried it to the register.

There are so many things that I loved in this book that I don't know where to begin. From Mustafa's childhood -- in love with the bustle of the marketplace despite the disapproval of his father, who wants him to follow in his footsteps as a notary -- to the I cannot tell you how many times I picked up this book in the bookstore before I bought it -- drawn in by its lovely cover and interesting title. I don't know why I kept putting it back down. But I'm glad I finally carried it to the register.

There are so many things that I loved in this book that I don't know where to begin. From Mustafa's childhood -- in love with the bustle of the marketplace despite the disapproval of his father, who wants him to follow in his footsteps as a notary -- to the indignities of his life as a slave in Spain, where it doesn't take lashings or beatings to drive home that the very denial of self is violence -- to the rising sense of dread when the tiny band of survivors' time in the wilderness comes to an end, and they are brought into contact with "civilization" once again. Really, once the story reached that last stage I couldn't stop reading -- hunched over my book while I faked my way through the motions of interacting with my family -- then staying up way into the wee hours of the night to finish.

So much of this story is horrifying to the modern reader -- and I don't mean the mysterious diseases, the starvation, or even the occasional cannibalism. I mean the utter hubris of a group of explorers reading a proclamation to an empty beach about how this land now belongs to God, therefore the crown, therefore us, and therefore you (reminder, the absent you, who never heard the proclamation because you weren't there) will comply with everything we say or we will make war with you. A thing that was real and apparently happened all the time. And that proclamation gave them authority to torture, steal, rape, desecrate, and destroy their way across the continent. But then when the expedition floundered, and handfuls of survivors found themselves dependent on various tribes of natives, oh the bitching and whining at how they were treated!

Maybe this is the era Trump is nostalgic for when he wants to make America great again. He and his fondness for Andrew Jackson. Back when rich white representatives of power could do anything they liked with anyone who was not. "Oh, don't worry!" says the smiling man in charge! "They're not slaves, we're much more civilized than that now!" as he steadfastly refuses to release a group of natives, and nimbly deflects all questions as to why they're being held in the first place.

It's not survival porn, though. Mustafa as a narrator keeps us grounded in humanity, with his longing for home, with his empathy, with his desire to be free.

Such a wonderful book. And important for these times. ...more

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Dec 14, 2016 Jessica rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, book-club

The Moor's Account is written in the style of a travelogue from the 1500s, presenting the imagined experiences of a real Moroccan man who was known to have been a part of the failed Narváez expedition from Spain to America. The book was, for my taste, too faithful in its attempt to sound authentically sixteenth-century - I found it very tedious.

The parts set in Morocco were interesting, so I know it's not that the writer's natural style is this plodding. I do think the parts set in America were ...more

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Apr 19, 2019 Jessica Haider rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction

Two thumbs up for this historical fiction novel about a 16th century Spanish expedition in North America as told from the perspective of a Moroccan slave. Mustafa sold himself into slavery in order to (hopefully) secure his siblings a better life. He ends up as the slave for a young Spanish explorer who is part of the Narvaez expedition to Florida. (This was a real life expedition.) The expedition is ill fated and the members succumb to disease, starvation, and attacks from Native Americans.

I k ...more

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Sep 30, 2014 Alya rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015

I really wish this had a map, but then that gave it the extended feeling of being a parable, of being a myth. Excellent consequence since it is based on true events, however fictionalized or hypothesized.
Plus, I ended up pulling out my own map and determining for myself the track of the expedition and survivors... The sparse, clear storytelling makes that almost straightforward to figure out.

Still. A map would be nice. But the heart aching story was enough. This narrative questions what is hum ...more

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