Rhyming Life & Death
A Novel
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Fiction and reality merge inside the mind of a famous Israeli author in this “hilarious and profound . . . slyly philosophical novel” (Booklist).
In this novel, Amos Oz offers a prismatic portrait of the storytelling impulse, with an extended glimpse inside the mind of a celebrated, unnamed Author.
On a stiflingly hot night, the Author is in Tel Aviv to give a reading from his new book. As his attention wanders, he begins to invent lives for the strangers he sees around him: here, a self-styled cultural guru, Yakir Bar-Orian Zhitomirski; there, a love-starved professional reader, Rochele Reznik; to say nothing of Ricky the waitress, the real object of his desires. Reality and fiction blend in this ingenious, poignant work by the author of A Tale of Love and Darkness, a winner of the Koret Jewish Book Award.
“A fable on themes of sex, death and writing pitched somewhere between the fictional universes of JM Coetzee and Milan Kundera.” — The Guardian
“The witty and melancholy recorder of his country’s brilliant sufficiencies. . . . Now Oz takes an equally witty, equally melancholy look at his role as a writer.” —Los Angeles Times
“From the prodigious Oz comes a delightfully elusive . . . story of imagination, talent and the transitory nature of fame. . . . Stamped with Oz’s charm and graceful skill in creating rich characters.” —Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
From the prodigious Oz comes a delightfully elusive if slight story of imagination, talent and the transitory nature of fame. The novella takes place over the course of a suffocatingly hot evening, narrated by an unnamed writer who whiles away his time at a Tel Aviv cafe a few hours before a dreaded reading. As he meditates on the inevitably asinine questions attendees will ask, he concocts stories about those around him. There is Ricky, the pretty waitress who is heartbroken over her first love, football-playing Charlie, who left her for a beauty pageant runnerup. Later, at the reading, he imagines that his listeners include a trade union hack and a low-ranking activist. As the night winds down with an awkward romantic entanglement with Rochele Reznik, a professional reader, he continues to revisit and expand upon the scenarios he has created. Woven throughout are rhymes by a local poet who was once quite beloved, but now the author cannot even recall if he is still alive. Stamped with Oz's charm and graceful skill in creating rich characters, this is a must for any fan.
