Zeruya Shalev

Welcome to a whirlwind of thoughts, emotions, confusion, obsession, pain, and love. It does take some getting into because Ya'arah's stream-of-consciousness tale seems so rambling at first. However, her scattered mind is never confusing (it's evident that Zeruya Shalev is also a poet), and it is soon clear that the frantic pace at which she tells her tale is a reflection of the frantic pace in her emotional and physical life.

It would be easy to dismiss Ya'arah as just an immoral woman who show more cheats on her husband, but at the root is her parents' relationship, her infant brother's death, her unsuccessful marriage (indeed a poor copy of her parents' unhappy marriage), and all the secrets that surround her. Her parents are a mystery to her and when Aryeh shows up with his intimate link to both of them (the details of which he is very reluctant to reveal), Ya'arah is immediately fascinated and her obsession starts.

This is very much a psychological novel, but there are also huge amounts of religious and literary references that could keep a scholar busy for a long time. Indeed, I was wishing I was back at University when I read it, because I could think of so many topics to write on. show less

Ya'ara is a young woman who is caught between a loveless marriage and the beckoning sexual advances of Aryeh Even, an older man who is a friend of her father's. When Aryeh later tries to distance himself from Ya'ara, she becomes so obsessive about keeping him until a point is reached in the novel that the reader never knows exactly who is keeping whom.

This is a dark psychological study of a woman who is trying to understand herself, the two men in her life, and her parents. Written very show more densely in long paragraphs with no quotation marks, the prose looked as if it would be hard to read. It didn't turn out to be that way. I realized that the way the story was written never bothered me at all because I was so captivated by how it was told - more than a little bit sexy, sort of scary, but, most of all, deeply sad.

I liked that this novel was different than most other stories of love, but I would have preferred a more definite ending. I'll live with the one I got, though, as I'm pretty sure I know what will happen next. show less

What is the essence of a marriage? Or of parenthood? In this beautiful novel, Na’ama Newman expresses what it feels like to sense the impending dissolution of one’s own marriage. As a manifestation of marital difficulties, Na’ama’s husband Udi experiences paralysis which is diagnosed as “conversion” or physical symptoms with a psychological basis. In desperate attempts to avoid psychiatric care for Udi, the couple first takes a short trip and later invites Zohara, a Tibetan show more spiritual guide, to work her craft on them. The solutions, it turns out, cause as much harm as they do good. Complicating matters, their having a 10-year-old daughter who is ostracized by her peers is an additional stress for the couple. Na’ama, always the controller, sabotages any effort on Udi’s part to become closer to his daughter.

Although the writing is lyrical and flowing, the sentences run on and on in a style which may not be to everyone’s liking. The narrative is written this way purposely to fuel the reader’s imagination with Na’ama’s innermost thoughts and concerns. What evolves from this is a detailed story of how one woman learns to be true to herself and discover her role in relation to the other important people in her life. show less

Wat doet tenauwernood ontsnappen aan de dood door een bomaanslag op een Jeruzalemse bus met je leven? De Israëlische Zeruya Shalev verweeft haar traumatische ervaring met de hoofdpersoon Iris in haar roman Pijn. Iris heeft in de achterliggende tien jaar haar oude leven opgepakt, is directrice van een school geworden, maar in haar hoofd spookt het nog behoorlijk. In de razend knap uit het Hebreeuws vertaalde Nederlandse editie zijn de in elkaar overlopende bijzinnen intact gelaten. De roman show more leest als wegwijs zien te worden in een hersendump, waarin personages, flash backs, schijn en werkelijkheid, haat en liefde ten opzichte van de Palestijnse zelfmoordterrorist door elkaar lopen.

Om zelf de rode draad vast te houden, vond ik een behoorlijke opgave en heb besloten gewoon door te lezen, ook al ben ik zelf de weg kwijtgeraakt. Misschien is dat ook wel de bedoeling geweest: laten zien hoe verwarrend het leven kan zijn of worden. Een gewaarschuwd mens telt voor twee. show less