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jeensjaams 's review for:
The Girl on the Fridge
by Etgar Keret
I first came across Etgar Keret in Four Letter Word: Invented Correspondence from the Edge of Modern Romance, a collection of love letters from today's leading fiction writers. After making a note to look him up later and then entirely forgetting about it, I was reminded when I saw the striking cover of this book at Barnes & Noble. After reading the first short story, I immediately put it on my library queue to read the rest.
This collection of short stories feature some of the shortest I've ever read. The first one, "Asthma Attack," is half a page, and the average length of the others does not extend beyond three pages. Irregardless of how short or shorter a story may be, the diversity of imagery and impact of Keret's impressions never seem to lessen in intensity. Throughout all of that is his haunting brand of yearning and disillusionment in unexpectedly surreal scenarios. Although the thinness of the book tempted me to read it straight through, I found that reading in intervals allowed for maximum relishing of each unique story. This is almost necessary in the second half when the stories start to dip into an insider's social commentary on the state of Israeli-Arab interactions; Keret wrote these stories while serving in the Israeli army in the '80s. Neither the fellow Israeli or the Arab escapes criticism for the abuses committed toward the other in their longstanding state of animosity and tension. Yet, countering the heaviness is the author's easy-flowing, colloquial language, which almost sounds like he is telling you these stories personally. It made me wonder if Marjane Satrapi had ever read Keret and received inspiration to tell her story in the disarmingly simple way of Persepolis. Even so, I found his anti-politic fable the most enjoyable with the self-explanatory title "No Politics. The burly tightlipped Romanian cafe owner, who only rouses himself to warn patrons that all political opinions should be left at the door, digs a fresh grave in his backyard for the unfortunate customer who thought him all talk. The exaggerated contrast between the politics-loving lip-clapper and the gruff owner who says only what he means felt like an appropriate pause before the majority of his more somber conflict allegories.
Regardless of whether they are political or not, Keret's stories lead the reader along what seem to be familiar paths and then a surreal turn of events plop you onto an unexpected train of thought. At times quite magical ("Crazy Glue") and at times horrific ("Hat Trick"), it didn't take me too long before I started each new story with fresh anticipation, trying to guess if I would be left with a smile or a rounded "o." The first story ends with a bickering couple who ironically end up stuck to each other at the lips with none other than crazy glue and the second story is narrated by a retired magician who is suffering from post-traumatic stress after pulling out the severed head of his bunny of his top hat . Somehow walking the fence between these two modes are the stories (like "Freeze!) that mix a fun element (the ability to freeze time and to alter other people's actions) with a despicable one (a loser whose sole goal in life is to command women to obey his every whim). The despicable is made all the more despicable, and though the fun element doesn't necessarily brighten, the dark humor of the situation sinks in with the reader while simultaneously evoking pathos for the fiend.
This collection of short stories feature some of the shortest I've ever read. The first one, "Asthma Attack," is half a page, and the average length of the others does not extend beyond three pages. Irregardless of how short or shorter a story may be, the diversity of imagery and impact of Keret's impressions never seem to lessen in intensity. Throughout all of that is his haunting brand of yearning and disillusionment in unexpectedly surreal scenarios. Although the thinness of the book tempted me to read it straight through, I found that reading in intervals allowed for maximum relishing of each unique story. This is almost necessary in the second half when the stories start to dip into an insider's social commentary on the state of Israeli-Arab interactions; Keret wrote these stories while serving in the Israeli army in the '80s. Neither the fellow Israeli or the Arab escapes criticism for the abuses committed toward the other in their longstanding state of animosity and tension. Yet, countering the heaviness is the author's easy-flowing, colloquial language, which almost sounds like he is telling you these stories personally. It made me wonder if Marjane Satrapi had ever read Keret and received inspiration to tell her story in the disarmingly simple way of Persepolis. Even so, I found his anti-politic fable the most enjoyable with the self-explanatory title "No Politics. The burly tightlipped Romanian cafe owner, who only rouses himself to warn patrons that all political opinions should be left at the door, digs a fresh grave in his backyard for the unfortunate customer who thought him all talk. The exaggerated contrast between the politics-loving lip-clapper and the gruff owner who says only what he means felt like an appropriate pause before the majority of his more somber conflict allegories.
Regardless of whether they are political or not, Keret's stories lead the reader along what seem to be familiar paths and then a surreal turn of events plop you onto an unexpected train of thought. At times quite magical ("Crazy Glue") and at times horrific ("Hat Trick"), it didn't take me too long before I started each new story with fresh anticipation, trying to guess if I would be left with a smile or a rounded "o." The first story ends with a bickering couple who ironically end up stuck to each other at the lips with none other than crazy glue and the second story is narrated by a retired magician who is suffering from post-traumatic stress after pulling out the severed head of his bunny of his top hat . Somehow walking the fence between these two modes are the stories (like "Freeze!) that mix a fun element (the ability to freeze time and to alter other people's actions) with a despicable one (a loser whose sole goal in life is to command women to obey his every whim). The despicable is made all the more despicable, and though the fun element doesn't necessarily brighten, the dark humor of the situation sinks in with the reader while simultaneously evoking pathos for the fiend.