Actually, this book by Amos Oz is already 12 years old, first published in 1996. I just came across it somewhere, whilst looking for family birthday presents (she says, rapidly wracking (sp?) her brain, is there anyone she's forgotten recently?).
It's a leisurely kind of book, set in one long summer in a town in Israel, claimed back from the desert - and perhaps the desert will reclaim it in the future. Nothing much goes on in the town, except that a teenager died of drugs, his father, living abroad wants to start a residential rehabilitation centre.
The book is narrated by a couple, with him, Theo, aged around 60, and her, aged around 45; they narrate it directly, first person singular, or it is told through their eyes. But it always takes a while to work out in each chapter who is telling the story. In passing it looks back at their lives, and the lives of others. There are many, many dramatis personae (listed in more than two pages at the end of the book), though the drama itself flows along in a very low-key approach. Things happen, resistances are met, interest is lost, the summer goes on, the school holidays start, but it all seems very calm underneath. Occasionally peripheral characters suddenly get a great role, and spurt out their life stories in a way that reminds of Beckett's Lucky in 'Waiting for Godot'. In some ways it reminds me of Zeruya Shalev's books, using the same narrative style. It's quite different from Oz's other books, though it does also have humour, again in a very low-key way.
It's a nice read, and lovely in the way it describes small-town life in Israel. I just don't think as 'out-of-town' being desert. Also a slim volume and very recommendable for reading on the plane or in a hospital bed.....
It's a leisurely kind of book, set in one long summer in a town in Israel, claimed back from the desert - and perhaps the desert will reclaim it in the future. Nothing much goes on in the town, except that a teenager died of drugs, his father, living abroad wants to start a residential rehabilitation centre.
The book is narrated by a couple, with him, Theo, aged around 60, and her, aged around 45; they narrate it directly, first person singular, or it is told through their eyes. But it always takes a while to work out in each chapter who is telling the story. In passing it looks back at their lives, and the lives of others. There are many, many dramatis personae (listed in more than two pages at the end of the book), though the drama itself flows along in a very low-key approach. Things happen, resistances are met, interest is lost, the summer goes on, the school holidays start, but it all seems very calm underneath. Occasionally peripheral characters suddenly get a great role, and spurt out their life stories in a way that reminds of Beckett's Lucky in 'Waiting for Godot'. In some ways it reminds me of Zeruya Shalev's books, using the same narrative style. It's quite different from Oz's other books, though it does also have humour, again in a very low-key way.
It's a nice read, and lovely in the way it describes small-town life in Israel. I just don't think as 'out-of-town' being desert. Also a slim volume and very recommendable for reading on the plane or in a hospital bed.....
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