A Guide to the Perplexed [Paperback]

Gilad Atzmon (Author), Philip Simpson (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2003

The year is 2052, and the state of -Israel has been defunct for 40 years, the majority of its citizens having become refugees overseas. Gunther loves European, especially German, women and soon leaves Israel to find fame, fortune and fornication in Germany, whose collective guilt-trip is a goldmine for the licentious professor. A darkly funny reflection on the dangers of racial purity and the position of the outsider in Western Europe,A Guide to the Perplexed marries the playfulness of Nabokov with the sexiness of Philip Roth. It is an angry rant on the effects of ethnic cleansing both our bodies and our minds.

Gilad Atzmon was born and grew up in Israel. An outspoken anti-Zionist, he now lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Debut novelist Atzmon has penned a comic polemic against his fellow Israelis, set in the near future, soon after the collapse of the Jewish homeland. The novel takes the form of an autobiography by Gunther Wunker, who grows up in Ramat Gan in the 1960s and never feels comfortable with Israel's triumphalist culture. He leaves in the 1980s, believing that "the people around me were becoming more stupid, more blind, more credulous, more pious and less and less in touch with reality." He resettles in Germany, where he becomes an esteemed expert in voyeurism and takes advantage of Holocaust guilt to seduce Aryan women. From there, he observes the demise of Israel and its rebirth as the State of Palestine. Gunther's account of the unraveling of Israeli society is frustratingly vague, relying on familiar Jewish stereotypes ("the Hebrew... was revealed as a type full of bombast and lacking in dignity, exposing his soft belly for money or a powerful gesture"). Atzmon's tone and premise may remind readers of Michel Houellebecq's The Elementary Particles, as well as Philip Roth's novels about Israel. But too many of Atzmon's satirical riffs-on the vengeful pleasure of sex with German women, on Israel's meager cultural and intellectual contributions, on the ironic thrill of a Jew preferring Germany to Israel-have been given voice in Roth's novels with more acuity. Atzmon clearly wants to provoke, but his approach is so familiar that few readers will take the bait.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

'Atzmon's book is one of the funniest books I have come across. He manages to finely scrutinize male apathy and to come up with very accurate observations about men, women and unimportant subjects such as global politics' Ynet; 'A brilliant hidden Nabokovian approach' Maariv; 'Plucks on the most sensitive strings of Israeil society' Haaretz

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Serpent's Tail (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852428260
• ISBN-13: 978-1852428266
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,338,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sex, Philosophy, Politics,....., May 21, 2003

By 

Karin M Hussain (Highland Park, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Guide to the Perplexed (Paperback)

This is a book that I could not put down. It is a treasure. I would have to say it is the best book I have ever read. The story is complex and subtle, and written with deep intelligence camoflauged behind what appears to be crude humor. Atzmon's philosophy of the psychology of the human being, and how the soul flounders helplessly between being consumed by desires and reaching for the divine is devastatingly poignant as political connections are made between this and the pleasure-obsessed consumer culture as the sublimation of denial and anger into a zen experience of lust.

The story is about the search for absolute love in today's sick society. "A Guide to the Perplexed" explores cultural identity in exile, the nihilism of the overfed, the collapse of the western democratic ideal, the existential fear of the absurd, and the subsequent withdrawal of society into collective schizophrenia.

The book takes on an incredible task of explaining the world through the philosophical framework of Peepology. This philosophy is actually very close to the Islamic philosophy of Turkish philosopher Harun Yahya in his book, "The Truth of the Life of This World" (harunyahya.org). However, Gilad Atzmon's parable of Al-Haqq (Reality) is far more entertaining and crass. Ultimately, the Bible itself is broken down into "word as meaning in flux within the anecdotal context," therefore annihilating the basis for the historical claims of the "Chosen People. This book is a delightful thought crime. It changed my life.

9 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Picaresque Dystopia, May 7, 2003

By 

E. L. Megel "himselves" (Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Guide to the Perplexed (Paperback)

It's a screed - and like many, one should pay attention - but be on guard.
This novel is not what it promises. The title is taken from Maimonedes, the great 12th Century Jewish Physician/Philosopher/Talmud Chochom (wise man) - but this novel has nothing to do with the style or substance of The RAMBAM (as Maimonedes is affectionately known in the Jewish world). It is the picaresque tale of one Gunther Wunker who escapes a latter day (but near term) Israel before it falls - the author's loathing of this state is palpable and unredeemed. What he does give us is a fitfully amusing picaresque tale of a n'er-do-well who never finds his place in the world - though the world tries to give him an honored one. Atzmon mixes metaphors like crazy and never delivers on a clear vision of why Israel may fall or what should take its place. Just the story of a dislikable man.

Because it's a short little screed, and amusing in reasonable intervals - it's digestible. I recommend one digest it - if Atzmon represents what could have been Israel's best and brightest of the generation who should be running things now - and I believe he DOES (brightest, at least) - we need to know what failed and why (Atzmon's no help there).

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rarity, May 20, 2005

By 

Mark Levine "leevyne" (Jersey City, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Guide to the Perplexed (Paperback)

Those finding Atzmon's book fascinating should be hipped to his group's new CD, Exiles, which essentially raises the same points musically as he does here verbally. There is an irony in this Israeli's use of Israeli songs to suggest contrary opinions of Israeli policy vis-a-vis the Palestinians. The rhythms are mid-Eastern, the substance is thought-provoking, the liner notes are in-your-face anti-Zionist, and the whole business is straight-on, sincere, controversial, and--- musically--- quite beautiful.
This is that rarity: a commentator at home woth both words and music.