The Crime of Writing (Toby Crime) [Paperback]

Haim Lapid (Author), Yael Lotan (Author)

Book Description

Series: Toby Crime | Publication Date: June 2002

This is an intelligent, sensitive and tense novel about the intimate triangle of man, woman and child. The Crime of Writing explores sexual identity and the relationship between life and literature.

A young woman meets an elderly Englishman, George Brown, while she is visiting London. After his death, she receives his written confession. Her husband, a novelist, decides to publish it.

The confession opens with the so-called sin of writing. Brown, who never married or had a family of his own, persistently tries to find out the secret of his mother's disappearance. His relationship with his father and longing for his absent mother creates a conundrum, which is only revealed to Brown in the closing pages.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lapid (Breznitz), in his muddled second novel, seeks to link a man's search for his mother with the hunt for a murderer. The book opens intriguingly, when a young woman travels to London and has a brief meeting with an older Englishman, George Brown. She returns to Israel and, upon Brown's death, receives a series of his letters. Her novelist husband, who narrates, decides to publish the letters, which describe Brown's quest to find his mother, who fled when he was a young boy to escape her tyrannical husband. The novel wanders off into a series of murky ruminations about the so-called "crime" of writing, and Brown remains stymied in his search until finally a few clues surface concerning his mother's involvement with the family business. At the outset, Brown is a beguiling character, but Lapid's lack of consistency in identifying characters and voices makes the plotting tough to follow; his tendency to introduce transitions, subplots and secondary characters with almost no warning or setup renders the narrative even more baffling at several pivotal junctures. The ending yields a revelation that is supposed to be startling, but given the inconsistencies in the framework and the frequently unfocused writing, even this climactic scene is something of a letdown. While the novel is long on atmosphere and Lapid does some solid character work, the erratic, wandering story line makes for a difficult, tangled read.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A really wonderful book, a singular, eye-opening achievement. It says something very profound and true about the act of writing." -- YEDIOT AHARONOT

"Every sentence is crafted meticulously." -- The Jerusalem Post

"The kind of book for which you disconnect the phone or retire to a remote cabin in the mountains." -- HA’IR

This is an important book which challenges and inspires. The crime would be not to readit. -- The Jerusalem Post

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 106 pages
• Publisher: Toby Pr (June 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1902881621
• ISBN-13: 978-1902881621
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,098,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Haim Lapid is the author of 6 novels many of which have been translated from Hebrew into English, Italian, German and French including Breznitz, and The Crime of Writing. He has also written several essays, and screenplays for documentary films. Additionally Haim was a member of the editorial board of the Periodical Theory and Criticism and lector in the Committee for the Support of Feature Films.

He studied Social Psychology at Tel-Aviv University and currently works working as an organizational consultant for hi-tech industries.