(read in Hebrew)

This book was written 40 years ago and is set in Jerusalem of the 1950s. I liked the description of Jerusalem and of life in Israel at that time, and I liked the writing style in general (there’s something delightfully old-style in it). What I didn’t like was the main characters. Most of all I hated Hannah. She’s a terrible human being. Terrible to herself, but mostly for others - who have to bear the relationship with her.

I think the idea for such a character isn’t a new one, as Hannah reminded me a lot of the main character in Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary” (I hated that one as well, as you can guess). Why didn’t I like her ? Many reasons: negativity, irrationality, inconsideration. In reviews I read that many people identified with the character. I feel sorry for these people, I truly do.

And I didn’t like Michael either. He’s a bit better though, since it seems that he leads the life he wanted to lead and is relatively happy about it. Not that it’s an excuse to be in a relationship like that.

Ooh… that was a negative review, wasn’t it. I don’t want to create a wrong impression - although I disliked the book, I wouldn’t say it’s terrible or something like that. It’s very readable, and I actually enjoyed parts of it. It’s the main character who got to me. There’s simply a fundamental conflict between her and my view of life, and I couldn’t get over it while reading the book. And the most annoying part is that the book and its reviews in some sense seem to be glorifying Hannah, rather than criticizing her - and I just don’t understand why.

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