A Woman in Jerusalem

The original name of the novel in its Hebrew version is "The Mission of the Human Resource Man." And indeed, the journey is more of the nameless Human Resource director at a Jerusalem bakery than that of a woman killed during a Palestinian suicide bombing and becomes the focus of the Human Resource director's investigation. The owner of the bakery is a retired, rich man who is sensitive to public criticism when it is discovered that the deceased woman was being paid her salary after she had left her job as a member of the night cleaning crew. He wants to do the right thing, and compels the Human Resource director to take upon himself not only the responsibility, but also the blame for the negligence in noticing her absence. And so begins a journey for the Human Resource director, a journey that changes him as he becomes enmeshed in the dead woman's life--and death. In comparing the English text to the original Hebrew version, it is clear that the editor had made a crucial decision (which must have been imposed upon the translator) to forgo the present-tense fluid, free-association narration of A. B. Yehoshua in favor of standard, commercial syntax in which the English version is written in the past tense, with the dialogue lines set apart in quotes. This major decision has decapitated the beauty of the A. B. Yehoshua's lyrical prose, stripping the novel from its fast-moving, seamless style into more of a plot-driven story than a character-driven story. Nevertheless, this is a story worth reading as, in some interpretation, A Woman in Jerusalem parallels the capitulation of the Human Resource director to that of the State of Israel taking blame to placate public opinion even when there is no fault on her part. Talia Carner, author, Puppet Child and China Doll

A woman is murdered in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem, her body long unclaimed, a journalist traces her to a bakery where she once worked and was not in death missed. The burial of this woman, Yulia Ragayev, the only person in this wonderful novel to have a name, launches the tale. The Bakery's Human Resource Director must find out who she was and what was her relationship to the bakery, in the process becoming emotionally attached to her. Indeed, it is a testament to Yehoshua's skills how well he brings this dead woman to life as a character in the story without using flashbacks or others recounting long memories of her. To tell much more would give to much away about this engaging humorous story. A note should be said about those reviewers who complain that "A Woman in Jerusalem" lacked subtlety or depth. To say that this story is simple would be akin to saying that Carver's "What We Talk About when We Talk about Love" is about two couples having a drink or "Ulysses" is about a day in Dublin. The subtle layers of Yehoshua's novel contain much richness and thought, along with a great deal of pathos. Indeed, one must be impressed at the humanity and humor he brings to a subject as overwhelming as terrorism. Serious readers will not be disappointed.

Yehoshua's book is both amusing and deadly serious at the same time. His writing style is reminiscent of J. M. Coetzee and Saramago. He uses a straightforward, simple but poignant language that expresses so much through its brevity. The book truly paints a marvelous picture of a journey, one that represents the roots of many an Israeli resident. Yehoshua accomplishes his tremendous illustration by painting a picture that is at once both Kafkaesque and surreal. He takes his protagonist, a human resource manager from a large Jerusalem bakery, through a journey all the way to the old Soviet Union. With him, he takes the body of a woman that died in Jerusalem in a terrorist bombing attack. The trip brings him in contact with the two living blood relatives of the dead woman and the ex-husband. Each meeting has a special character and each one drives the human resources manager to proceed in a specific direction. In addition, Yehoshua makes certain commentary on the government and the Cold War. But the central theme of the book regards the attempt to give the body dignity under very difficult conditions, no matter what it takes. As there is "no choice" but to do what is necessary. The book is recommended for all serious literature readers. It truly is one of the great works of the 21st Century to date. It is highly recommended.

A Jerusalem bombing results in the death of an unidentified woman, whom no one visited at the hospital while she was dying of her injuries. Unmourned, she remains in the local morgue for more than a week, until she is finally traced to the bakery where she worked. An aggressive newspaper reporter threatens to break the story of the unmissed employee, and the bakery's eighty-seven-year-old owner, furious at the story's implications of callousness, assigns the human resources manager to learn about the woman so that "a more tangible expression of regret from himself and his staff" can be made.The resources manager soon learns that Yulia Ragayev was a Russian engineer working on the bakery's night-time cleaning crew. Creating empathy for Yulia, the author shows details about her life and those who have loved and abandoned her. He uses symbolic details to create parallels and contrasts--the warm, homey smell of the bakery contrasting with the smoky horrors of the bombing, the abandoned doll of a barefoot monk in Yulia's shack providing a touching parallel to the cold poverty of her own life. Serious thematic questions arise: Who is responsible for Yulia in Jerusalem? And if she is not solely responsible for her own life, how much, if anything, does anyone else owe her? Eventually, the bakery owner demands a dignified funeral for Yulia, and he assigns the resources manager to escort her body back to her Russian village so she can be buried there. The timid human resources manager soon learns more than he ever bargained for about Yulia, life, bureaucracy, and ultimately, about the human resources he himself possesses. Wonderfully dark humor gradually emerges from the ironies that occur on the Russian journey, as Yehoshua emphasizes the continuing absurdity of life. Eventually, the novel becomes an almost slapstick noir comedy with the manager discovering that "Atonement was turning into lunacy." Readers will celebrate the ending, as Yehoshua brings the action, themes, and characters full circle, showing the growth of the human resources manager, his pragmatism (learned on the trip), and his awareness of the larger mission with which he has been entrusted. This novel about "a dead temporary resident who believed in Jerusalem more than Jerusalem believes in itself" is one of the most satisfying novels I've read this year. n Mary Whipple

In A. B. Yehoshua's "A Woman in Jerusalem," a local newspaper publishes a scathing article in which a reporter denounces the owner of a commercial bakery for not missing one of his employees when she no longer shows up for work. It turns out that this individual was a cleaning lady who was killed in a terrorist bombing. The eighty-seven year old owner is mortified and conscience stricken by what he considers his company's dereliction of duty. He calls in his human resources manager and tells him to do whatever he can to set things right. Thus begins this whimsical and touching tale that launches the unnamed human resources manager on a strange odyssey. The fact that no one in the novel except the bombing victim is given a name lends the novel an allegorical feel. The dead woman is Yulia Ragayev, a mechanical engineer who emigrated from the former Soviet Union, and was subsequently granted temporary residence status in Israel. She lived in a run down shack in Jerusalem, and cleaned the bakery at night. Yulia was resigned to being separated from her thirteen-year old son, who had gone back to his mother's native country. The human resources manager looks into the entire matter, at his boss's behest. He visits the morgue where the body lay for days, unclaimed, and he confronts the reporter who broke the story. He seeks answers to these questions: Why was the victim found with a pay stub from the bakery when the night manager claims that he had fired her a month earlier? Why was an obviously intelligent person like Yulia living in Jerusalem while holding such a menial job? Who will take responsibility for arranging her burial and where should she be buried? The human resources manager gradually pieces together the facts of Yulia's life and death, and he subsequently does whatever he can to provide closure for her next of kin. "A Woman in Jerusalem" is a moving story of how humanity can blossom in the midst of a faceless bureaucracy. Theoretically, no one should care that Yulia is dead. She was a solitary woman, with no relatives in Israel. Yet, after the newspaper article appears, many people work together to give Yulia the dignity and recognition in death that she lacked in life. Yehoshua avoids sentimentality, and he fills his book with satirical and gently humorous passages, lovely descriptive writing, and psychological insight. The old bakery owner is terrified of death, and he hopes that his belated concern for Yulia and her family will bring him peace of mind. The human resources director is a lonely and lost man, divorced with an only daughter. He would rather not have gotten involved in this whole mess. Yet, gradually, he finds himself drawn to Yulia, and he realizes that his mission has brought him a feeling of satisfaction that he had previously lacked. This is a simple story whose theme may be that acts of mercy towards strangers can have enormous impact. We must strive to achieve redemption and make an effort t