Realistic and entertaining

• Book: More Ketchup than Salsa: Confessions of a Tenerife Barman
• Location: Tenerife
• Author: Joe Cawley

Review Author: IsobelB

A punchy, upbeat tale of two couples buying and running a bar in Tenerife, More Ketchup than Salsa is written with oodles of lighthearted humour. The story set-up is swift, from a fish market in Bolton, the reader is soon on a plane with the narrator, en route to the Canary Islands.

Cawley portrays the British tourists and migrants he encounters with sharp observation, capturing perfectly the various types who choose to visit or live in Spain. The memoir exemplifies the struggles that beset foreigners moving to a faraway island and finding themselves having to deal with the bureaucracy and local ways.

More Ketchup Than Salsa is written well, and has a little intrigue, some escapades and enough drama to hold the reader. This memoir is a story of sun and booze and strays, both human, feline and canine.

Set primarily in a bar, More Ketchup Than Salsa is light on natural setting; there is little description of Tenerife, its culture, history or landscape. The primary focus is on the Brits themselves, their foibles and challenges.

In all a realistic and entertaining read.

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