Customer Reviews

House of Windows: Portraits from a Jerusalem Neighborhood

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

 

 

One of the many things I hate are books about foreigners who come to Jerusalem and through exploring the city find themselves. "The Book of Windows" is most definitely not one of those horrid books. Yes, Ms. Hoffman is a newcomer to the city, but the lovely book she's written is not one of neurotic American soul-searching but a minutely crafted portrait of a couple of streets she lives in that just happen to be in Jerusalem. Of course, as a Jerusalem resident I recognize the stories she tells as possible only in Jerusalem and nowhere else in the world. But Ms. Hoffman doesn't try to make any of the characters or events she so evocatively describes stand for anything except for themselves - there are no cheap attempts to turn the everyday occurrences of a tiny neighborhood and its residents into either "The Story of Jerusalem" or "The Story of Adina Hoffman". Instead, Ms. Hoffman has given us a series of small events which constitute the daily drama of living in Jerusalem: meeting the neighbors, food shopping, planting a garden. There are no earth-shattering revelations here, but the quiet, steady rhythm of real life which is far more satisfying and enjoyable.

I read this book while visiting Israel last summer. It is gentle. The writer has a poetic soul and now, reading it from USA, it gives us a vision of Jerusalem that isn't at war, a nice image if unfortunately not a true one-- not now. But there is a lyrical rhythm to this book that I recommend. 4 Stars.

I read this book a month ago and it had a calming effect on me. I think the writer intended this, intended to slow life down, even life in Jerusalem, which is not a slow moving city. She succeeds in drawing us readers slowly into a world she found, but one suspects it's also a world she made. Look for the next book by a talent that is bound to grow.

"House of Windows" is a marvelous book which I have recommended to everyone I know who has ever started life over in a new place - or who has visited or lived in Israel, where these essays take place. Hoffman's every word is important and forms a fabric rather like a tapestry. In an appealing personal and affectionate way, Hoffman shows us her own feelings of vulnerability and humility in relations with her neighbors. Her intelligence and sensitive observations and conclusions are admirable - and quite enjoyably readable.

I have gotten to page 74 and decided that I will not read any further. The author begins well enough to create a general feeling and mood about the neighborhood that she has moved into, but as she progresses into describing the neighbors in more detail, she seems to continually focus on what makes them different in a negative way. She constantly reminds the reader that she is not condenscending but she is! She is "embarrassed" to have dinner with her neighbors in the chapter "The Mayor"- why - because they are poor! She describes another neighbor as a "simpleton" in "Ahmed's Garden" - why - because he does not have a good use of the Hebrew language! She never seems to be able to get into the neighbors' heads and view their lives through their eyes. The sentence structure throughout is tedious and by the time I get to the end of the sentence, I have lost the train of thought if there was one! Sorry, I pass on this one.

What a beautiful, intimate, touching book...humorous and sometimes lonely, sad and deep. I almost couldn't believe I could not look out of my window and see Ms. Hoffmann's neighbors in the garden, or go to the grocer in search of olive oil just before sunset on a Friday. And beautifully published too, with little photographs beginning each section. It will stay by my bed to read again.

I could not disagree more with "readernyc"! I hope that the reader is aware that this book is a work of non-fiction, where plot, per se, is not the purpose. The book is full of stories and characters -- real live characters vividly and sympathetically portrayed. I found Hoffman's descriptions evocative and powerful. This book provides a far more realistic portrait of life in Israel than does the evening news. But it is more than a story about a Jerusalem neighborhood and the people living side by side there. It is about simultaneously being an insider and an outsider, it is about challenging one's initial judgments of others and of the unfamiliar, and it is about understandings one's context. I highly recommend this book!

Unlike her fellow Jerusalemite, David Horovitz, Hoffman knows how to poetically render the city of lights. She is a fine craftswoman, might well have been or become a fine poet.

I lived in Jerusalem and what I liked most there was how lively and friendly everyone was. That aliveness is not inside this book. You don't get the flavor of how exciting Jerusalem is. But then everyone has their own Jerusalem.I guess this just isn't mine. I would like to meet the author though, since she sounds very smart and understanding.

This is a fascinating view of a neighborhood very different from what Americans have come to expect in pictures of Israel. Adina Hoffman writes about her mostly Moroccan neighbors with subtlety, perceptiveness and even humor. They live behind walls in a sort of village, a section of the city most visitors don't see, where life is rich and full of vigor on the one hand, and frustrating and sometimes even dangerous on the other. Although the writer is a film critic, her essays aren't about movies, but her eye is as sharp as a film maker's and I felt like I saw "Musrara" very clearly. This is a very satisfying collection by a sensitive and attentive writer.