Customer Reviews

A Late Divorce

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A Late Divorce is one of my very favorites novels. This ordinary tale about the late divorce of a middle-aged couple, one of whom is in a mental institution, is told from the perspective of each member of the family: children, their spouses and mates, grandson,etc. I have rarely laughed so much, or been touched so much, by the insightful description of the Kaminka family and their travails over a failed marriage, real estate and conflict. The scene with the rabbis at the mental institution is literary hilarity at its best...A wonderful work, original, illuminating and FUNNY!

A short synopsis - the family patriarch returns to Israel from America to seek a divorce from his estranged, and institionalized wife who is living in an institution. Along the way in a James Joyce-like fashion, we hear from each key character in the family dynamic. The young grandson, the son, the beautiful daughter-in-law, the son-in-law, the daughter, and of course the patriarch and his wife themselves.

Some of the chapters are absolutely inspired, electric, and brilliant. Others are weaker and more tiresome. This is at its core a book about family and its dynamics, not about Israel. Those looking for insight into Israeli society should try Yehoshua's brilliant novel, The Lover.

For hardcore Yehoshua fans, this is a must read, others would do better looking elsewhere.

In A Late Divorce the reader gets to see what A.B. Yehoshua does particularly well. There is the concern with the form of the novel, the play of different styles and experiments in writing prose, all in a modernist vein, all done with very great effect. There is the variety in view point and vantage. The reader gets to experience the world of each major character from their particular perch. Then there is the thematic concern. Yehoshua is deeply involved with family dynamic. He plots the twits and turns of some `original sin' in family life. He allows the original sin to seep into every arena of his characters' lives and he plots their reactions with precision. While this work is not the masterpiece of a Mr. Mani, it comes close to the level of Yehoshua at his best, one of the great living masters of Hebrew writing. So good Yehoshua still is far ahead of the pack.