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These three short novels share a common
theme of heartbreak and I found each to be frightening and upsetting and
yet was totally engrossed reading it during a long airplane flight. For many
English readers, this book is an introduction to the Israeli "30-something".
The most notable difference from the American counterpart of the "30-something"
population is the lack of emphasis on career. Housebroken
is a must-read for those who want to understand a microcosm of Israel in
a way that is significantly different from what we read in the newspapers
or see on our tourist visits.
In the title story, Housebroken,,
the tale is told from the point of view of a stray dog that is taken in by
a just-forming couple. The story of the romance from its unhopeful beginning
to its predictable, but sad end, parallels the life of their dog. The dog's
own feelings and thoughts reflect the moods, hopes and despairs of the unnamed
man and woman. The lack of names throughout the story frightened me. The
pervasive insistence on anonymity extends to the lack of names of streets,
cities, and holidays, and makes it impossible to identify the locale as Israel.
The man is even told, "Your children probably won't have names either", and
the dog is named `Anonymous'. I found myself desperate to locate the story
in familiar territory and decided that it took place in Tel Aviv based on
the constant traffic jams, meetings in cafes, and proximity of apartments
to the beach. It is the specter of emptiness, loneliness, desperate sex,
depression, acts of kindness that resolve grotesquely, and the lack of any
spark of joy that made me feel like there is an entire and vast segment
of Israeli society whom the average non-Israeli reader will not have met
before. This is the strongest and most compelling of the three novellas
and well worth reading for its intimate insights.
The second novella, The Happiness
Game, was more recognizably Israeli because of certain reference points:
going to the Rabbinate for a divorce, Purim masquerade parties, and Hebrew
names. The story is about the effects that emotional withdrawal have on
relationships but it concludes optimistically that relationships can be
repaired, and that it is never too late to grow up.
Matti, was a little hard to
follow because of its many voices. However, the many "I"s speaking, are
a way to let the reader see the same events from several points of view.
The story of a man's infatuation with an underage girl, his compromise marriage
to a woman he doesn't love and his death from cancer is again a side of Israel
that we don't often think about.
On the whole, Housebroken turns
Israelis into 3-dimensional people from the somewhat static image many non-Israelis
may have of a society focused to a large extent on political, military,
and religious issues. The characters in Housebroken are secular
and apolitical, thereby enlarging the non-Israeli reader's picture and understanding
of life in Israel.
Reviewed by D. Rosenbloom.
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