Customer Reviews

Friendly Fire

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

(4.5 stars) With Friendly Fire, A. B. Yehoshua, one of Israel's most honored contemporary novelists, creates a magnificent novel filled with real, flawed characters who come alive from the first page. The alternating narratives of Daniela Ya'ari, who is visiting her brother-in-law in Tanzania, and her husand Amotz Ya'ari, who remains behind in Tel Aviv, reveal their relationships to each other, their family, their culture, and ultimately their country. Daniela has been protected by Ya'ari (as he is usually identified) for her entire marriage, but she has traveled to Tanzania alone this time. Her older sister Shuli died two years before, while Shuli and her husband Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) were living in Tanzania, and Daniela, who has never really grieved, wants to come to terms with her death.

Yirmi has suffered a double loss. He has lost not only Shuli but also their son Eyal, a soldier who was killed in the West Bank by "friendly fire." Yirmiyahu refuses to return to Israel, wanting a rest from "the whole messy stew, Jewish and Israeli...a time out from my people, Jews in general and Israelis in particular." Working on a remote anthropological dig, he feels most at home with the African researchers.

Daniela's husband Ya'ari, who runs a Tel Aviv engineering company, needs to be in control, and his inability to control the vagaries of nature (and other people) frustrates him. In an unforgettably described passage at the outset of the novel, Ya'ari has been summoned to correct the unbearable moaning noises which emanate from an elevator whenever the wind blows, an engineering problem that Yehoshua actually manages to make exciting. Ya'ari is also facing family issues involving his elderly father, his son Moran (who has repeatedly refused his call to army reserve duty), Moran's gorgeous but irresponsible wife, and their two unruly children.

The action, which takes place during one week, opens on the second day of Hanukkah, the eight-day "festival of lights," with each chapter representing one of the eight candles. Though Ya'ari and Daniela observe the holidays, Yirmiyahu, in Tanzania, prefers the "friendly [camp]fires" of the dig in Africa to the "friendly fires" of the Hanukkah candles. Ya'ari's children are also less observant. The use of fire as a symbol sometimes combines with religious symbolism. Daniela discusses with Yirmi the Book of Jeremiah (Yirmiyahu), a prophet who predicted God's judgment on Jerusalem. Yirmi read it, ironically, after Eyal's death in Jerusalem by "friendly fire," and when he then read the Song of Songs, a book about the fires of love, the contrast overwhelmed him, and he gave up organized religion forever for the animism of Africa.

Friendly Fire goes beyond Israeli and Jewish issues to touch on universal issues affecting all of humanity. Intensely realized, thoughtful, and stunning in its unique imagery and symbolism, this unusual novel deals with seemingly everyday issues, offering new insights into the human condition--life, love, and death--while fire serves throughout as a universal symbol of man's humanity and his evolutionary differences from the rest of the animal world. Readers familiar with Judaism and Israeli history may appreciate some aspects of this book more than other readers, as may those who practice a strong religious faith, but Yehoshua is so skillful at developing rounded characters that most readers, regardless of background, will find them memorable, if not touching, as they deal with their everyday lives. n Mary Whipple

A Woman in Jerusalem

The Lover

The Liberated Bride

Biography - Yehoshua, Abraham B. (1936-): An article from: Contemporary Authors Online

Intelligently written novel with many well drawn introspective characters and a subtle philosophical plotline that will appeal mainly to those interested in Israeli life and/or foreign literature of quality. The translation reads exceptionally well. Mainstream readers will probably not go out of their way to find and read this one. But if they do, a lush, satisfying experience awaits them.

Here is the case of a dual-sided, character-driven novel. There are many character-driven books that fail because they aren't done properly and equally as many duets that fall because there's no harmony between the two. Still, somehow A.B. Yehoshua manages to find a perfect balance, creating two brilliant stories that exist side-by-side.

"Friendly Fire" follows long married husband-and-wife Ya'ari and Daniela during their week apart throughout Hanukkah, such that each day is marked by Ya'ari lighting the daily candles, each time with different friends and family. Daniela, in Africa, comes to soul-search about the death of her sister and hears instead stories of another death. Ya'ari juggles work, his grandchildren, his children, and his ailing father as he awaits his wife's return. The two stories start together and end together, touching only a few times where one thinks of the other, one mentions the other, and when Ya'ari and Daniela talk on the phone, briefly.

The dual qualities offer a lot. The chapters switch off, so the reader is constantly immersed in the story, even if there's not much in the way of plot. It's not a plot driven book, but rather a day-by-day account of two very real lives. It's a book to be read slowly, to savor the special style of Yehoshua's writing and to appreciate the depth of his characters. By the end of the book, the reader feels so connected to these men and women that it is a bit difficult to let go.

In the end, "Friendly Fire" tells two strikingly real and important stories. Ya'ari's half describes the many facets of ordinary Israeli life, from obstinate business suppliers for so long "he's family" to bratty but lovable grandchildren. Daniela's half, meanwhile, shows glimpses of Africa as seen through someone who does not fit in but wants to be liked. Daniela shows many traits of Israeli philosophy (for good and for bad) while brother-in-law Yirmi displays a type of self-hatred in regards to his Israeli past. Each character is wholly real and stands as a testament to Yehoshua's brilliant writing. "Friendly Fire" is a book about loss, life and love.

Highly recommended.

Friendly Fire is like most of Yehoshua Novels. It is interesting from the start. Like his last book, " A Woman in Jerusalem", this plot revolves around a death. A death of a son,a nephew,and a cousin. Unlike a woman of Jerusalem, the death happened years ago. The characters all have names unlike the previous work where they had titles. Only the dead woman had a name.

Each person in this splendid novel has a connection with thr dead soldier and it is in the telling of the story and the family love that makes this a remarkable novel. We learn how the parents, The aunt and uncle, and the cousins deal years later with this unfortunate event. Yehoshua can tell a simple story so well, I was transformed to Israel and Tanznia with the written characters. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Friendly Fire is a little obvious in its orientation and often sinks into sentimentality about the Israeli-Jewish experience, yet despite these flaws, A.B. Yehoshua has crafted an interesting literary meditation on contemporary Israeli life. This novel appears to comment at length on his recent, controversial utterances about Diaspora Judaism. In the character of Yirmi, Yehoshua plays with the idea of the man trying to become a Diaspora Jew - or even more so, to totally efface his Jewish identity. This character is not totally one dimensional, nor unlikable, so Yehoshua may here by showing some sympathy for the plight of the common Israeli, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Overall, this is a compelling novel that looks with sympathy on all its characters - portraying Israeli Jews as one big family - with moral culpability as the common thread connecting them all.

I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the two stories, of Amotz and his trials in Israel and of Daniela and her trip to Tanzania and her struggles there with her brother-in-law. The combined symbolism of the fire (Chanukah lights, death of Eyal by friendly fire) gave a useful structure to the book.

My only complaint is the translation. Hebrew and English are very different languages, not united by any common linguistic history (pace, those who say that modern Hebrew is just German in Semitic), but there are magnificent translations from Hebrew (like the Bible) and this is just not one of them. the language is stilted, with a Hebrew accent that reads as quaint and silly to me. The translation really detracted from the story. Some of the imagery read like an assignment in a creative writing class and was not at the level of literature, which is what Mr. Yehoshua writes. It was florid and distracting. My Hebrew is not good enough to know how faithful the translation is to the original, and I kept trying to translate it back to see if was more graceful, but in the end, I found it distracting, which is why I only gave the book 3 stars.

AB Yehoshua is a fine writer, perhaps the finest of Israeli artists. He is a major voice and critic of developments within the state and its treatment of citizens and Palestiniansisince 1967;angered by politics and action taken in the name of law by extremist factions.

He clearly calls a spade a spade, particularly through the character of the grieving brother-in-law, disengaging from Israeli society and culture in rage and despair. The somewhat naive accepting sister-in-law who visits him in Africa remains dismayed by his behavior and lacks understanding of the profundity of the current situation,

Beautifully written. A work to be read and read again. There is sheer poetry in the text.

It's an eyeopener. With the violent news every evening we lose sight of the middle class existence of most Israelis and their experiences of family life and relationships, and their experience of a mild and permissive government presence. Yehoshua is excellent in providing this depth. It makes wonderful reading. My only objections are to Yehoshua's apparent lack of contact with the natural world. In this novel, people who leave the city are unaccounrtably confused by the lack of street lighting and lose track of the road right behind them. Wild animals are fierce and attack trucks! But the people are real and we learn from their social relationships.

I have never read anything about this author before, and I have to say that I was delighted with his work. I enjoyed this novel a lot, and it gave me a good glimpse of what life can be for a well-off older couple in modern Israel. How they cope with everyday life, family issues, death, mourning, separation, etc. It was a slow read, but not boring at all. It all happens during an eight-day holiday; Hanukkah. And with the lighting of each candle we get to see how the past and present of this family unfolds.

However, I would have liked to know more of some characters, like the couple's son and daughter, for example, or the grandfather, but you still get some hints as to what their lives are like. You can pretty much put the puzzle together, or develop the characters in your mind any way you want. After all the story revolves around the married couple, Daniela and Amotz, who by the way make a nice couple. The brother in law, Yirmiyahu, is so mysterious and obscure, that you get hooked with him trying to unravel his mind and feelings. Africa seems then the appropriate setting for this man, and all that surrounds him enhances the mystery. And he does spice the book a lot. Overall, I think it's a good read, and an enjoyable book.

The subject, plot and events of this novel hardly matter, although they are both entertaining and unusual. The characters are excellently realized, incredibly alive and perfectly believable. The conversation is totally natural, the settings described so that the reader can picture them in detail. What happens among and between the characters feels completely driven by who they are, not by a manipulative author as is so often the case in today's prizewinning novels. Whoever did the translation from Hebrew was a genius. Hurray for A.B. Yehoshua, one of modern literature's true stars.