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A review by meggiebennett
The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis
3.0
Midpoint review originally posted at www.bookertease.blogspot.ca
This is a fairly small book - only 225 pages, so it didn’t take me very long to finish, however it’s also possible that I read it so quickly because I am not completely sure that I understood it - there are a lot of politics in this book! The book starts off with an elderly man and his quite-a-bit younger companion attempting to get a room in a Crimean Hotel. Baruch Kotler is a soviet Russian dissident and a disgraced Israeli politician on the lamb with his mistress Leora, one of his staffers. They are not able to get a room, so end up taking a room in the house of a Russian woman and her Jewish husband. There is much made of the fact that the woman’s husband is Jewish; Kotler taking it as a sign of something and his companion, Leora reluctantly and wearily giving in.
I enjoyed the story, even though I definitely did not following all of the politics. I tried doing a little research, but was not even completely sure what I was looking for. The story seems to revolve around the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as well as Russian Zionism. Kotler is a Jewish cabinet minister who has been publicly opposing the prime minister, and a Zionist hero who, years earlier, spent 13 years in jail for treason after being denounced by a KGB plant. His current predicament has come about as a result of the opposition of the current government – news of his affair has been splashed all over the papers, leading to his desertion of this wife, son and daughter.
The story gets interesting when the owner of the house that Kotler and Leora are staying at turns out to be the man who decades earlier betrayed him to the KGB. Vladimir Tankilevich is a sad, bitter old man for whom life has not turned out well. And now believes that Kotler has come to gloat about his success, while Kotler believes that he has arrived at Tankilevich’s house by divine providence.
While I found the story interesting, I really think I would have gotten more out of it if I knew more about Israeli politics or Russian Zionism. As it is, I don’t know much, so the political part of this story has really just been in the background for me. I do think it is a little cliché that the old man has run off with his beautiful young secretary, although Bezmozgis makes a comment on this as well – about all the old men running around with young women nowadays. The thing that I don’t understand is why Kotler has decided to run off with Leora in the first place. He doesn’t seem like the type of man to back away from a fight, which he says himself before the news ‘goes viral’. “… I will be as clear as I can. I spent thirteen years in Soviet jails and camps fighting for my right to come to Israel. If you or the people you represent think that I can be intimidated by this sort of KGB thuggery you are mistaken.” So why has he run away? I get that it needs to happen to further the story, but I needed a little more than that. The history is definitely interesting however, and I enjoyed learning about a culture that I have not been much exposed to.
I believe the old adage goes “don’t meet your hero, they’ll only disappoint”; this story turns that around to don’t meet your betrayer. As we all know, people are never what we think they are, and you never know what is going on on the inside.
This is a fairly small book - only 225 pages, so it didn’t take me very long to finish, however it’s also possible that I read it so quickly because I am not completely sure that I understood it - there are a lot of politics in this book! The book starts off with an elderly man and his quite-a-bit younger companion attempting to get a room in a Crimean Hotel. Baruch Kotler is a soviet Russian dissident and a disgraced Israeli politician on the lamb with his mistress Leora, one of his staffers. They are not able to get a room, so end up taking a room in the house of a Russian woman and her Jewish husband. There is much made of the fact that the woman’s husband is Jewish; Kotler taking it as a sign of something and his companion, Leora reluctantly and wearily giving in.
I enjoyed the story, even though I definitely did not following all of the politics. I tried doing a little research, but was not even completely sure what I was looking for. The story seems to revolve around the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as well as Russian Zionism. Kotler is a Jewish cabinet minister who has been publicly opposing the prime minister, and a Zionist hero who, years earlier, spent 13 years in jail for treason after being denounced by a KGB plant. His current predicament has come about as a result of the opposition of the current government – news of his affair has been splashed all over the papers, leading to his desertion of this wife, son and daughter.
The story gets interesting when the owner of the house that Kotler and Leora are staying at turns out to be the man who decades earlier betrayed him to the KGB. Vladimir Tankilevich is a sad, bitter old man for whom life has not turned out well. And now believes that Kotler has come to gloat about his success, while Kotler believes that he has arrived at Tankilevich’s house by divine providence.
While I found the story interesting, I really think I would have gotten more out of it if I knew more about Israeli politics or Russian Zionism. As it is, I don’t know much, so the political part of this story has really just been in the background for me. I do think it is a little cliché that the old man has run off with his beautiful young secretary, although Bezmozgis makes a comment on this as well – about all the old men running around with young women nowadays. The thing that I don’t understand is why Kotler has decided to run off with Leora in the first place. He doesn’t seem like the type of man to back away from a fight, which he says himself before the news ‘goes viral’. “… I will be as clear as I can. I spent thirteen years in Soviet jails and camps fighting for my right to come to Israel. If you or the people you represent think that I can be intimidated by this sort of KGB thuggery you are mistaken.” So why has he run away? I get that it needs to happen to further the story, but I needed a little more than that. The history is definitely interesting however, and I enjoyed learning about a culture that I have not been much exposed to.
I believe the old adage goes “don’t meet your hero, they’ll only disappoint”; this story turns that around to don’t meet your betrayer. As we all know, people are never what we think they are, and you never know what is going on on the inside.