The Liberated Bride

It's rather hard to describe this enormous book in one short review. It's not a book really, but rather a chunk of life that sits quivering on your bookshelf. Other readers have summarized the plot well enough - it's a book about relationships, both political and personal - husband and wife, father and son, Israeli and Arab. I won't repeat. What sets this book apart from other books is it's slow pace and masterful attention to detail. It draws you in, without your realizing it. By revealing so many aspects of the characters' lives and relationships, it gradually builds a complete and entire picture of the characters' world, until you feel as though it's your world too. Nothing is particularly suspenseful - you just feel as though you're living the main character's life, day by day, and discovering the world from a new perspective. At age seventeen, I am proud to state that I have served as a judge, studied Algeria's war-torn history, been through a broken marriage, and visited the West Bank with my personal driver. I cried and laughed with Ofer, felt Rivlin's anxiety and curiousity and excitement. A book that causes a female high school student to identify with a meddlesome old orientalist has to be something special. I visited Jerusalem a few weeks after I read the book, and I was completely excited when we ate at a Humus place in Abu Gush, and when we passed through the Talpiyyot Neighborhood and saw the signs pointing to Shai Agnon's house, as if I was revisiting places that I knew well. In that sense, this is a good read for anyone who wants to get a feel of Israel. However, the book was written before the recent intifada, and Israeli/Arab-Palestinian relationships in the book are FAR more easygoing and friendly than they are now. I cried when I read the beautiful chapters describing Rivlin's visits to Ramallah, because there was once a time when Palestinians and Israelis could listen together to poetry about love. Not anymore! I can't even tell you whether the characterization of Arabs in the book is accurate or not, because I met more Arabs while reading than I ever have in real life! To all the readers who are wondering about the awkward prose - it must be the result of translation. I read the book in it's original language, and the writing flows completely naturally. Nothing sounds contrived. However it is impossible to translate the author's toying with titles and tenses into English, because of differences in Hebrew and English grammatical structure which I am sure no one wants to hear about! Anyway, I highly recommend this book to everyone. Read it in Hebrew if you can, but if not, the story is worth struggling through the most mediocre of translations. It will give you a personal insight into lives that could easily have been real, as well as teaching you more than you ever wanted to know about some aspects of Israeli society.

A fifth-generation Israeli, this author has a deep understanding of his land and his people. He wrote this book in 1998, just before the recent troubles, and, while I was reading the book I kept thinking that it represented a somewhat kinder gentler time. True, there were checkpoints and identity cards and clear-cut tension between Arabs and Jews, but it was still possible to have respectful relations between the two groups. This very real landscape of Israel, as well as the world of academia, is only a background of this novel, however. The basic story is about relationships between husbands and wives and children and parents. However, after 556 pages of a slow but insightful read, I came away with an understanding of the people and the culture from the inside out. The main character is Rivlin, a semi-retired professor of Arabic studies. He lives in a duplex apartment with his wife who he adores. She's a judge and holds a prestigious position. They have two grown sons. One is in the Army; the other one lives in Paris where he has fled after his marriage broke up five years before. The son has never told his father what happened to his marriage and the father is curious. One of the themes of the book is how Rivlin tries to discover this secret. Another theme is about a Arab female student who is working on her Master's degree and translating some Algerian works for the professor. The book opens with Rivlin and his wife attending her wedding. The theme of weddings and couples and marriages is returned to again and again. The individual human beings, both Arab and Jew, are all nice people, doing their best to simply live their lives in the complicated world in which they live. The book is told from the professor's point of view, a man of about my own age and I couldn't but help relate to some of the universal themes he introduces. The politics of the region were present throughout although they always stayed in the background while the professor struggled with his own personal problems. I liked this. And I also liked the depth to which the author developed all the characters. In the hands of a less skilled writer I might have been bored because I tend to like high adventure. The adventure in this book, however, was very subtle and had more to do with personal insights and self-discovery. This is a good book. I recommended it.

the existential struggles both within the Israeli Jewish community-their families, associations, and the Palestinians are exquisitely examined in the context of personal angst,historic,and religious realities. Being extremely involved with the current situation,this book is a beautiful companion in a way that the NEW YORK TIMES will never be. The translation by Hillel Halkin is poetic and careful in the best senses of these words-a treat

The insight into the human condition, the overall writing style, and the incredible characters make this one of the best reads I've come across in a long time. Yehoshua is remarkable in the way he blends atmosphere, plot, and people into this revealing tale. I highly recommend this book!!!Also recommended: McCrae's Bark of the Dogwood and House of Sand and Fog

This much-anticipated novel by the prominent Israeli writer confirms his stature as one of today's greatest living authors. At once meticulously authentic and lyrically imaginative, the book follows the Orientalist Y. Rivlin in his insistent, even obsessive, quest for truth - both in his personal life and in the current and historical dynamics of conflict and politics in the Middle East. At its core is the ever-present exploration of identity - fluid, interdependent and ultimately undefinable. In beautiful passages translating Arabic love poetry from the middle ages, there is also a subtle hint of surrender for Rivlin - a grudging acknowledgment of failure to rationally understand his "subjects", leaving no option but a renewed immersion in the profound soulfulness and humanity of their lyrics.Yehoshua is a master at combining detailed descriptions of everyday life with an ambitiously wide scope, creating for the reader the illusion of a mere plot-driven human story while actually presenting a masterpiece dripping with substance from its myriad artfully-designed folds, layers, nooks and crannies. A masterful achievement and a pleasure to read and re-read.