Ayelet Gundar-Goshen

Wow! This was a fantastic, page-turning read which I highly recommend to others, particularly those who are familiar with Israel, the Israeli people and Israeli culture. I was captivated by this book because the author detailed so well the nuances of Israelis living in America. The subtle nostalgia about Israel within the pages of this novel I also found very moving.

Most of this thoroughly engaging novel, though, focuses on the psychological relationship between an Israeli mother living in show more Silicon Valley, California, with her always-preoccupied-with-business husband, their one son, high school student Adam, and a new Israeli family friend, Uri, who is a Krav Maga instructor. The story begins when Jamal, a Black student in Adam’s school dies of a drug overdose at a party they both attend, following which Adam suddenly becomes obsessed with learning self defense skills in Uri’s course. The mom seems to alternately suspect and then deny her son’s involvement with Jamal’s death throughout the novel. The dad seems to completely deny it. It helps that the author is a clinical psychologist as she is so adept at describing the mother's thoughts and the other characters' actions, both of which need ongoing analysis by the reader to form an opinion of what is going on with everyone.

This book reminded me a bit of the novel [Defending Jacob] by [[William Landay]] in which a father refused to believe his own teenage son was capable of murder.

It wasn’t until near the end of the book that I fully realized how deftly the author wove her story line, bringing all the characters alive with their complex relationships of one to the other. This was a great story, and now I am so ready to read more work by this author! show less

I found the beginning of this book making me very uncomfortable. That was not because of the hit and run accident that began the book, but it was more about Dr. Eitan Green's forced relationship to a group of poor, black, and sickly Eritrean immigrants to Israel. Eitan was a successful, married neurosurgeon and father of two boys. The character who stood out the most was a sort of a mysterious Eritrean woman named Sirkit whom we learn more about as the story advances. Extreme inequality show more always makes me uncomfortable, but this book set this contemporary Israeli social problem directly in front of me.

Not only did I have to deal with a doctor facing a moral dilemma in a repugnant manner, but I also had to face his attraction to a woman with whom he should have had no contact as well as to deal with his uncompromising arrogance. I had to keep telling myself that this was only a story in order to continue reading it!

This book was ultimately about all about lies and race. So many despicable and poor choices were made by the characters! The book hit a turning point for me about 90% of the way through it, when I had to keep turning the pages to see what would happen. Know as you read this long, involved story, that all is not as it seems at first. Then come along for the ride as I ended up feeling that this was a pretty good novel after all!

There is a long paragraph within this novel which gives voice to the idea of trying not to feel superior to a group of “others” and yet knowing guilt just because of that feeling. It was a relief to me learning before reading this novel that the author has worked for the Israel civil rights movement. show less

Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen is a literary thriller that is set in Israel. Neurosurgeon Eitan Green has a good life, married to a beautiful police officer and the father of two young boys but one night as he is coming off a long night shift at the hospital, he drives out into the desert and as he is speeding along a moonlit road, he hits someone. This one deadly mistake could ruin his life, his family and his reputation so as he gazes down upon the dying man, he makes the decision to show more not report the accident. This decision brings Sirkit into his life. She is the dead man’s wife who blackmails him into providing medical care to other illegal African refugees.

The story advances and we share in Eitan’s moral crisis as his guilt and shame engulf him. To make matters worse, his wife has been assigned to the hit and run case, and although her supervisors aren’t particularly interested in whether she finds culprit who killed an illegal immigrant, she does want to find out who did it. Eitan also can’t explain the building relationship he is developing with Sirkit, on one hand he hates her for the power she has over him, but on the other, he is struggling with the building sexual tension that arises between them.

The story is excellently written but is very dense and the pacing is quite slow. Not only are we reading of Eitan and his dilemma but also of the prejudice that exists when dealing with refugees and illegal immigrants. It’s a grim story but one that probes the complexity of our moral choices. The book is beautifully translated from Hebrew by Sondra Silverston and is a remarkable novel that deals with morality, power and prejudice. show less

After pulling the late shift at the hospital, rather than going home to bed right away, Eitan decides spontaneously to take a joyride along a rural desert track. Lost in his enjoyment and lost in thought, he's horrified when he collides with and fatally injures a man who turns out to be an Ethiopian refugee. Fearful for his reputation and livelihood he chooses to return home without contacting the police and just pretend the accident never occurred, but the woman who appears on his doorstep show more the following morning isn't about to let that happen.

First, the positive: the book is very well-written. I was consciously impressed every so often by and admired particular turns of phrase. Whether it's the original writing or the translation, from that perspective it was a joy to read. But, alas, the negative: the biggest issue I had with the story is that the pro(ant?)agonist was unlikeable to the point where I could no longer empathize with his predicament and actually hoped he'd get caught. Some aspects of the narrative seemed a bit far-fetched; I would think a hospital would be much more concerned about missing drugs, than Eitan's hospital appeared to be, and that source of supplies would have dried up pretty rapidly. I can't recall if I rolled my eyes or whether my jaw dropped (or both?) in chapter 8 when Eitan begins fantasizing about Sirkit's "perfect body" and "gorgeous breasts." Did I pick up a dimestore romance by mistake? The objectification came out of nowhere for this type of novel and was just kind of gross, considering the circumstances. show less