Asides

Judas by Amos Oz is set in Jerusalem in the winter of 1959. Shmuel is an idealistic left wing student who drops out of college and takes a job as a companion to Gershom Ward, an elderly invalided intellectual. As the novel unfolds Shmuel becomes obsessed with Atalia, Gershom’s widowed daughter-in-law and her late husband and father.

At one level this is a story of a young man’s fascination with an older woman and the gradual unfolding of tangled family relationships. At another level it provides an interesting insight into the debates within the zionist movement before independence in 1948 and the political tensions in the subsequent period, I don’t know how historically accurate the book is but Oz provides a thought provoking glimpse of alternative possibilities. A third strand to Judas is Shmuel’s stalled PhD thesis on Jewish attitudes to Jesus and the character and role of Judas in Jesus’ betrayal. If the Israeli politics and Judas strands are meant to be linked, the connection passed me by.

I found Judas to be a tiresome and unrewarding read, I struggled to empathise with any of the characters, I’d rather read history than search for glimpses in the narrative and by the end I didn’t care how the plot finished I just wanted it to be over. This was 2 star material slightly redeemed by the interesting historical bits.

2.5/5

A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman is an uncomfortable read to say the least.

Dovaleh (David) is an ageing stand up comic performing in a poorly attended bar in Netanyah in Israel. Instead of telling the jokes that the audience had expected they are exposed to the detail of his personal tragedy and some formative events from his childhood years. Several of the audience members turn out to be old friends who had been invited to this performance at whom the personal pain is partly directed.

This is one of several books by Israeli authors focussed on the the early life stories of the children of Holocaust survivors who arrived in Israel before 1948. The parents were scarred by the events they experienced and then had to adapt to making a new life in a new country, the children struggled to balance integration in the evolving Israeli society with their loyalty to their parents. Dovaleh is one of these kids.

This is a profoundly disturbing read, I felt like a voyeur who was compelled to watch someone’s melt down and unable to turn away. I can’t say that I enjoyed it but I didn’t want to put it down until I had finished it. The end was a little flat but perhaps after the emotional rollercoaster ride that was a relief rather than a disappointment.

A Horse Walks into a Bar won the Man Booker Prize for 2017

4/5