Someone To Run With : A Novel (Sifriyah Ha-Hadashah Li-Menuyim, 2000 (1).)

Someone To Run With : A Novel (Sifriyah Ha-Hadashah Li-Menuyim, 2000 (1).)

David Grossman

Date: 01 January, 2004 — $16.80 — Book

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Oh my. What a wonderful book. What an amazing story. Ronnie had said, “Get the Zig Zag Kid. That is good Israeli writing.” I said, “Maybe, remember when you recognized Ayn Rand?” But, of course, gave in and bought it this week. No, actually I didn’t. I had it off the shelf and then decided, “I’ll borrow that from him and buy a different book. WHy not this one?”

Someone to run with.

First of all–I soak up anything having to do with modern Israel. For some reason, the images still shock me. No–not settlers in Gaza, that is all we are fed. But neon lights and trance music and espresso and subways. The scenes in Tel Aviv in that movie we saw shocked me–but it is Israel, the holy land?

This wonderful book is full of modern Isreal and real characters. Assaf–the painfully shy protagonist. Tamar–the pained singer. Shai. Dinka the dog. Leah the friend. Theodora the friend. Jeruselum the city.

I don’t want to give anything away–other than the title. You must read it. I am anxious to run out and buy more, piles more, of David Grossman.

And no, this one didn’t have the painful Isreali forshadowing that Foiglman and Tales of Aleppo had. But it did have some. I think it is an Israeli thing, but this is proof it can be subtle.