Book review: “My family right or wrong” by Ephraim Kishon
June 25th, 2004 at 1:36 pmI’ve read this book in its (original) Hebrew edition. In Hebrew
the book name translates directly to “A family book”. I have no
idea why they’ve chosen the title “My family right or wrong” for
the English edition. I wonder sometimes at name changes like this,
most of the times they don’t do any good…
Ephraim Kishon is a famous satirist in Israel. He had (or maybe
still has) columns in Israeli papers for many years, most known
for aphorisms and funny quotes. No doubt, a very creative man, and
the books shows it…
The book basically tells about the life of Kishon and his family
in the 60-80s in Israel. It’s not a continuous novel, but rather
a collection of short stories, 2-10 pages each, almost unrelated,
but in rough chronological order.
In these stories, Kishon basically tells funny episodes (many times
hugely exaggerated just to emphasize the absurds) about his wife,
kids, dog, neighbours, friends, furniture, electrical appliances, TV
shows, radio, the goverment, policemen, what not. I bet many of
the stories are made up, but it’s really hard to spot them.
The book is highly entertaining, but not very enthralling. It’s hard
to read consecutively for a long time - you just get bored at some
point. On the other hand, it’s definitely one of the “lightest” books
I’ve ever read. And I need a “light” book at times… the brain can’t
always swallow “heavy” stuff.
I’d recommend it maybe only as a present to/from someone.
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