Customer Reviews

The Loves of Judith

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4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have a great love for Jewish literature and culture, and this book reinforces the beauty of each of those things through Shalev's marvelous storytelling. Each one of the characters is uniquely and vividly drawn, from jealous Aunt Bathsheba to mournful Moshe to cold and beautiful Rebecca. The book takes place over several decades, weaving in and out of time as each person's history is revealed. As you begin the book, you might think that "The Loves of Judith" only refers to Zayde's three fathers, but you soon find that even Zayde himself and Naomi, his adopted sister, are defined by their love for this mysterious woman.

The story is told primarily through the memories of Zayde, Judith's son, and Jacob, one of Judith's suitors. Each of the four sections of the book circles around a meal which Jacob prepares for Zayde. As Zayde savors the food Jacob prepares, he also savors the memories of his mother that Jacob shares with him. Through their remembrances, we learn that Judith is a woman who defies the common practices of the time period, remaining true only to herself and rejecting her suitors' attempts to possess and define her. Every main character's path is set by Judith's actions, and each comes to love her for a different reason.

"The Loves of Judith" explores the ways in which love affects individuals, families and even entire villages. Love brings some characters together and tears some apart, predicts their destinies and lingers with them until their deaths.

The story is like a good meal: flavorful, unpredictable, and completely satisfying. Trust me, you'll want to help yourself to this novel again and again.

In post World War II Palestine, Judith is dead and her son Zayde inherits something from each of his three fathers. Moshe, the first of the three fathers, hires Judith to care for his two children when his own wife dies in a tragic accident. Globerman, the cattle dealer and the second of the three fathers , falls in love with Judith when he comes to do business with Moshe. Sheinfeld, a canary breeder and the third father, believes he has a relationship with Judith when, in fact, he doesn't. Who the fathers are and the extent of their relationships to Judith and Zayde are revealed as the story is told.

Shalev is most magnificent when he describes the pioneers of Israel as individual characters. They are colorful, quirky, and strong. Again in this book, the author uses the splendor of animals and nature to create a rich, complex story. It may seem confusing at the onset, but all pieces fall into place in the end and the vivid imagery lingers long after the book is closed.

Meir Shalev's work has been called wordy, but I beg for more. Shalev paints a world which is best described as having a literary resemblance with paintings by Chagall. Colorful images tumble across a stage set with minute imagination. Shalev's eye for detail is delicious. A startling story of love and loss unfolds gracefully, as the author introduces the characters with their idiosyncracies, their shortcomings and strengths. The narrator, Judith's son, is an old man looking back at his life. His tale is fresh, as though he has finally put the puzzle pieces together. Allegedly the son of three possible fathers, he shares insights concerning his creation and the people involved; sharing and witholding information, offering bits and pieces, until all that has happend in his life makes sense. As far as such is possible anyway. By letting his narrator come to terms with the ingredients of his existence, the author's comment on life seems to be that it is fantastic, outragious and far from sensible. Shalev is a master story teller with a poetic inclination. His bizar characters are larger than life as we know it and yet they are believable and in the end the reader may recognize universal and even individual truths about loss, love and if not recovery and survival than at least continuation. Meir Shalev's work is a celebration of life and should be on everyone's list.

The narrator of this marvelous novel has three different fathers. There is no rankle nor fuss here, this is just the way things are. With characters both real and unreal and plots that vibrate with expectancy, the tale is as mystical and luminous as the land, Israel, from which it sprang. Hurrah to the author for such a fine piece of writing.

I won't add to the description of the book, I just want to add my praise. This is the 3rd novel I have read of Shalev's and he is a great Israeli writer. Up there with Yehoshua who I also enjoy and respect tremendously. Try Shalev's other books, Blue Mountain and Esau, and Yehoshua too - especially Mr. Mani, the Late Divorce and the Lovers! Beautifully written and great stories.

Man Plans, and God Laughs, is the frequent Yiddish refrain in Meir Shalev's sprawling novel The Loves of Judith (an unfortunate title... the original Hebrew is Ke-yamim ahadim, But a Few Days, from Genesis 29:20: "And Jacob worked for Rachel seven years, and they seemed to him but a few days").

The original title reveals a great deal of the central motivation of this novel. It is a long explication of the nature of love; the characters constantly wrangle over the meaning of love, its place in our lives, how it should be expressed, found and kept.

In the end, Shalev has done something exceptional here. He has created a work of fiction that keeps an opened ended sense of the mystery of love, even as it explores its every nuance.

"You can hide everything in a box...in a box and in a cage and in a closet and in a room. Even love you can close up like that, real good. But memory has all the keys, and regrets...they even pass through walls. They're like the magician Houdini, they know how to get out and like ghosts they know how to get in, when and where they want."

Aphorisms and sayings, a book full of lessons sprinkled full of natural beauty in the land of Israel and the passing of the seasons. Paper boats in Russian rivers bearing messages of love; a lonely woman's love of a lost daughter and a male milk cow who may or may not have borne the same name; three men's different loves for Judith, the center (curiously undefined) of the novel. A son named "Grandfather" belonging to one or all of the men, four meals over many years---at each one we eat the times as well as the food. Crows fly through the pages, a giant eucalyptus grows over our heads, and death, weddings, humor, trucks, portents, the cattle business, and unusual characters march by. In the English translation certain characters speak with Yiddish-derived grammar and many Yiddish words. Perhaps it adds to the color.

As I read THE LOVES OF JUDITH I began to feel that the author must have written children's books because of his whimsical didacticism and his love of the tiny beauties of nature. Turns out he did. His desire for miracles outstrips his feeling for tragedy. Judith, like her ancient namesake, remains apart. We don't really know her thoughts or feelings; we know Sheinfeld most intimately as he serves the four meals to the three-fathered son Zayde. We know Globerman, the tricky but cool cattle dealer but only the beginnings of Moshe Rabinovitch, a farmer, the third and possibly most successful in the quest for Judith's hand. His own children, Oded and Naomi, play supporting roles to the central story. But who is Judith ? Why did she love or reject each of the three ? Not clear. The story lasts too long, the ending is not as riveting as the beginning. The ancient, pious Judith fooled the Greeks and brought the cut-off head of the enemy general to her beseiged town. On seeing that, the enemy broke and fled. This modern, self-contained Judith buries the cut-off braid of one of the men under a large rock. When it is found, her situation is also resolved. Mythology upon mythology. The first two hundred pages of this novel read like a bright reflection in a still, blue pond, but when Salvatore (`the savior'..an extraordinarily talented Italian POW) comes to Sheinfeld, I felt things had gotten out of hand, one deus ex machina too many. Original writing with many wry and poignant insights, beautiful and poetical metaphors---the giant tree falls to end the story---but it could have been sharpened with some editing.

this is one book you have to read, it's entertainment, romance and yet in a way also educative. the story, though seeming to progress slowly because it's being told bit by bit by an old man, managed to keep me on the edge of my seat and filled me with an urge to finish the book quickly yet wanting to savour every sentence.

I can't review it yet because I only read it once. Now that I have some idea of the plot, point of view which shifts around, time, characters, I might be able to give the book the just review it deserves after a second helping of this marvelous teasing that the author does with the reader.

Hi i refuse to give this book a worthy so called star. it doesn't deserve it. you'll want to sell the book before you even finish it. before you buy it check at your local library first. it is a book i took out of my collection and trashed it. it wasn't worth my time and i'm sure it won't be worth yours either. it was just about judith going to all these guys. personally it reminds me of someone from where i came from. don't fall for the book it's not worth anyones time. Thank You.