A Wall of Light

This last installment of Ravel's trilogy about love in the midst of war follows the family members of a previous character in the series. Here too, the story is told in sections, this time from the viewpoints of three different characters from three different generations. Of the three, Sonia comes across as the main character because she talks to the reader directly, and her past history and her search for love become urgent to us. Anna's story is told in one-sided letters, so the intrigue of her sections comes from questions about what is written between the lines and what possible responses might have been. Noah's portions are told through his journal entries and they are nothing short of hilarious - he has a fantastic voice and a show more wonderful sense of humor. It's great to listen to him, first as a young child, and as we follow him through his teenage years, toward adulthood.

What is really particular about Ravel's novels is her ability to create characters that seem real. You get a feeling that you could run in to these characters in real life. The trilogy as a whole presents a universe where characters have to deal with their personal lives during a politically difficult time and they comment, quite severely, on how a society in flux affects the individual and his or her choices. show less

So I'm neurotic. I think we all know this, yes? One of my neuroses is that, if a work is part of a series, I want to read the series in order. I put this book on my list after it was nominated for some award years and years ago. When I finally got around to it, it's part of a trilogy. Not just a part, but the third and final part. This makes me start to twitch (metaphorically). Thank goodness the three books are linked only very loosely, through ancillary characters, so each work can stand on its own. The book itself wasn't Super Amazing, but it was an easy, quick read & certainly finishable. And it did make me want to investigate the other two books in the trilogy.

So I'm neurotic. I think we all know this, yes? One of my neuroses is that, if a work is part of a series, I want to read the series in order. I put this book on my list after it was nominated for some award years and years ago. When I finally got around to it, it's part of a trilogy. Not just a part, but the third and final part. This makes me start to twitch (metaphorically). Thank goodness the three books are linked only very loosely, through ancillary characters, so each work can stand on its own. The book itself wasn't Super Amazing, but it was an easy, quick read & certainly finishable. And it did make me want to investigate the other two books in the trilogy.

So I'm neurotic. I think we all know this, yes? One of my neuroses is that, if a work is part of a series, I want to read the series in order. I put this book on my list after it was nominated for some award years and years ago. When I finally got around to it, it's part of a trilogy. Not just a part, but the third and final part. This makes me start to twitch (metaphorically). Thank goodness the three books are linked only very loosely, through ancillary characters, so each work can stand on its own. The book itself wasn't Super Amazing, but it was an easy, quick read & certainly finishable. And it did make me want to investigate the other two books in the trilogy.

An interesting, overwhelmingly warm and modern book. It is set in Israel over one day sometime in the late nineties, and narrated by the main character, but we also learn about the past in a fragmentary snippet like fashion- through letters and diary entries of other characters. The story is populated with colourful characters: an aging Russian Jewish actress, a doctor, a Palestinian taxi-driver, and some Israeli intelligentsia including a deaf professor of mathematics, who is the main character. No, not what you think: it’s not an old man; she is a young 32-year-old woman.

‘I am Sonya Vronsky, professor of mathematics at Tel-Aviv University, and this is a story of a day in late August. On this remarkable day I kissed a student, show more pursued a lover, found my father, and left my brother.’

The book is about Sonya, but can be read on many levels. It is also about prejudice and about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it has a message. We shouldn’t judge by appearances and stereotypes, says Ravel, a deaf math prof is not a man. Likewise, if somebody is disfigured or ugly, it doesn’t mean that this is reflected in their character: “People think that my brain is affected by my looks, but my brain is exactly the same as Elizabeth Taylor’s”, says one of the characters in the book. This same idea is then transported into a larger context: people who live on both sides of the wall (Palestinians and Israelis in this case) are normal and human, but no one cares to find out. Prejudice takes over. show less

Excellent book. I'd recommend any of the books in the so-called Tel Aviv trilogy. I really don't know anything about Israel, but her writing really brings the place, its problems and its people to life.