A Tale of Love and Darkness Summary and Reviews

A Tale of Love and Darkness
by Amos Oz

A Tale of Love and Darkness
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Book Summary Information

Author: Amos Oz
Translator: Nicholas de Lange
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-11-01
ISBN: 015603252X
Number of pages: 560
Publisher: Mariner Books

Book Reviews of A Tale of Love and Darkness

Book Review: A Jerusalem childhood . . .
Summary: 5 Stars

This 500+ page memoir by Israeli novelist Amos Oz is an absorbing "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." The first 200 pages are about his mother's and fathers' families, Russian-speaking emigrants to Israel in the 1930s from Eastern Europe. An only child, he devotes much of the rest of the book to his parents and the years until his mother's death when he was still a teenager. It is a richly detailed book peopled with a Dickensian cast of characters. He allows readers to experience a total immersion in the daily life of a low-income Jerusalem neighborhood during the years leading up to and following the creation of Israel in 1948. It is a troubling story, capturing on the one hand the intensely felt emotions of being young, self-aware, and sensitive, while portraying also the humiliations and the least flattering of the author's personality and character, all played against the difficulties of his parents' lives and what seems to have been a disintegrating marriage.

Meanwhile, with its view of anti-semitic nationalism in Europe, readers can begin to understand something of the motivations driving zionist movements and the waves of Jewish settlement in Palestine before and after WWII. As Oz records the political discussions and obsessions of the friends of his parents, it's easier to understand the insularity and paranoia that led to the need for a homeland with defended borders and the eventual efforts to achieve military solutions to conflict with Palestinians and Arab neighbors. Though recognized today as a peace activist, Oz provides only hints of his evolution to a broader view, describing only his complete break with his past by leaving home for a kibbutz at the age of 15. As a companion memoir, readers will also be interested in "Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life," by Sari Nusseibeh.

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