Although most of us agreed upon having a hard time reading Amos Oz's A Tale of Love and Darkness, we found many positive aspects in the book. Most if not all of us found it a bit too long with many descriptions/repetitions which did not necessarily bring much added value. Consequently, not everybody made it to the end before the meeting. We also agreed that it would have been very helpful to have a family tree or some kind of index of the individuals, friends, friends-of-friends, relatives-of friends-of-relatives-of-neighbors…. even famous historical characters became confused. We were often a bit lost with the appearances/disappearances/reappearances of many characters throughout the book. Many had read other books (novels) by Oz before and found them easier to read. But overall, we agreed A Tale of Love and Darkness was a good choice, and we did appreciate the witty passages, wishing the author could have kept it up throughout the full length of the book. Everyone found the subject matter extremely interesting, and it is obvious that the situation between Israel and Palestine never fails to stimulate debate and conversation.
While initially Amanda could not recall why she recommended the book, she was able to realize while discussing for a bit that she found the pioneer spirit of the first settlers quite interesting, and indeed it paralleled a bit the experience of North American pioneers. She also noted the relations between the heavily trained intellectuals from East Europe, and the strong, sun-tanned Israelis, born on their own land, building it up with their hands and singing. The contrast between the ones, having everything lost and barely able to support their families, and others, the dynamic pioneers, was interesting. It explained also the enormous disappointment and difficulty that the Eastern Europeans had assimilating and accepting (in the case of the mother, especially) that they had to start over, and that their education was necessarily not going to help them to succeed.
Michel noted how he got a real practical education from reading the book, because his travels to the region in recent times paint only one picture, with Palestinians often looking like victims. The book helped show some of the history which explains perhaps a bit of the Israeli point of view, which a snapshot of the current situation cannot accurately show us. One thing we all easily accepted which was clearly expressed in the book: The British do tend to make a bit of a mess of things when they leave their colonies behind.
Perhaps the strongest debate was on whether the mother or the father was worthy of sympathy. Most believed the mother was sympathetic but two of us thought the father, while annoying as hell, was indeed a sympathetic character and that the mother had to have known what she was getting herself into by marrying him in the first place. The story of the suicide itself was quite built up throughout the book and some found it deeply moving, others thought it was a bit anticlimactic. We also did not really find the narrator very likeable as a child. One could argue that everyone was suffering and struggling, trying his best, and therefore everyone was deserving of sympathy.
Please feel free to forward us your comments as well !
Cynthia & Maren
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