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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
Highly recommend.
I first encountered Nathan Englander on The Moth. (Listen to this: https://themoth.org/stories/unhooked). Then read What we Talk About When we Talk about Anne Frank (excellent); and recently read his new novel and heard him speak and read from it. I had liked but not loved the novel, but hearing him read from it and speak about it was magical. Sought out, this, one of his earlier novels.
Set in Argentina during the late 70s, during the period of “the disappeared,” it is a tragic but beautifully written tale of a poor Jewish family facing the absurdity and cruelty of the state. It’s a desperate tale but written with such intelligence and wit that it isn’t just a bleak and depressing read.
I first encountered Nathan Englander on The Moth. (Listen to this: https://themoth.org/stories/unhooked). Then read What we Talk About When we Talk about Anne Frank (excellent); and recently read his new novel and heard him speak and read from it. I had liked but not loved the novel, but hearing him read from it and speak about it was magical. Sought out, this, one of his earlier novels.
Set in Argentina during the late 70s, during the period of “the disappeared,” it is a tragic but beautifully written tale of a poor Jewish family facing the absurdity and cruelty of the state. It’s a desperate tale but written with such intelligence and wit that it isn’t just a bleak and depressing read.
Read on one of many bus rides in Argentina. Interesting introduction to the country's awful history in the 1970s and 1980s
Kaddish is sort of on the outskirts of society. Literally a son of a whore, he isn't really welcome into mainstream society. He does the best that he can do and is allowed to perform a job as an eraser of names in Jewish graveyards. His son, Pato, is a university student in Argentina. This is the 1970s and the Dirty War is in play. Basically during the Dirty War, anyone seeming to not be in line with the military junta in charge had a chance of being "disappeared," where they would be taken away by the government never to be seen again.
Pato is taken away by the military junta, which throws Kaddish and Lillian, his wife into an uproar. Both deal with the tragedy in different ways. Kaddish is willing to believe that his son is probably dead and never returning. Lillian, on the other hand, decides to try to deal with the bureaucracy that is Argentina's government at the time and try to find out what happened to her son.
I read this book for book club and feel like I got a lot more out of the book once discussing it within the club but admittedly, I didn't like it much after first reading it. It's full of symbolism and after awhile, it seems like overkill. I don't mind a bit of symbolism (and in many cases, a bit of symbolism can add a lot to the book) but this was too much definitely.
Another thing that I didn't care for in the book was the lack of a sense of place. It's supposed to take place during the Dirty War in Argentina but with the nebulous way that the book is written, you would never know where the book was written other than the author writing that they are in Argentina. I was definitely disappointed in that. I can't tell if the author wanted it to be that unclear as to where they were or what.
The human story in the book, the story about a parent's love for their child is universal and important. I'm just not sure if this book really carried it off.
Bottom line: This book wasn't really for me.
Pato is taken away by the military junta, which throws Kaddish and Lillian, his wife into an uproar. Both deal with the tragedy in different ways. Kaddish is willing to believe that his son is probably dead and never returning. Lillian, on the other hand, decides to try to deal with the bureaucracy that is Argentina's government at the time and try to find out what happened to her son.
I read this book for book club and feel like I got a lot more out of the book once discussing it within the club but admittedly, I didn't like it much after first reading it. It's full of symbolism and after awhile, it seems like overkill. I don't mind a bit of symbolism (and in many cases, a bit of symbolism can add a lot to the book) but this was too much definitely.
Another thing that I didn't care for in the book was the lack of a sense of place. It's supposed to take place during the Dirty War in Argentina but with the nebulous way that the book is written, you would never know where the book was written other than the author writing that they are in Argentina. I was definitely disappointed in that. I can't tell if the author wanted it to be that unclear as to where they were or what.
The human story in the book, the story about a parent's love for their child is universal and important. I'm just not sure if this book really carried it off.
Bottom line: This book wasn't really for me.