A Man and a Woman and a Man: A Novel [Paperback]

Savyon Liebrecht (Author), Marsha Pomerantz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 24, 2003 | Series: Karen and Michael Braziller Books

An international bestseller--a novel of passion by one of Israel's finest writers. In the unlikely setting of a Tel Aviv nursing home, Hamutal, wife and mother, falls in love with a man in a green jacket. Like herself, he has come to visit a dying parent. As Hamutal's mother reveals unsettling truths about her Holocaust past, Hamutal's obsession with the man grows. With sensitivity and insight, Liebrecht captures the intensity of their sudden love affair and its aftermath

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Chronicling a romantic fling initiated in a nursing home, of all places, this convincing if sometimes heavy-handed first novel by respected Israeli short-story writer Liebrecht takes readers on a trip into the adulterous psyche. Hamutal meets Saul when they are both visiting parents at a nursing home in Tel Aviv. Hamutal's mother, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, confuses her daughter with figures from her Holocaust past; Saul's dying father is a once-handsome man rendered pathetic by the difficulties of aging. Hamutal, feeling trapped by her family and her job as the editor of a psychology journal, begins a fling with Saul for the feeling of pure escape she derives from it. But what starts as diversion quickly spins out of control, as Hamutal finds herself increasingly attached to Saul. He seems to love her too, momentarily promising marriage, but he can't commit, because he will have to move back to Chicago, where his family awaits his return. Throughout, the author writes perceptively of Hamutal's feelings, such as the abandon with which she throws herself into her doomed affair and the inner release it provides her. However, more trite, melodramatic aspects of the scenario the cartoonishly documented wasting away of the lovers' parents, or Hamutal's exaggerated exasperation with her domestic situation overshadow its moments of understanding and subtlety. The translation is also stiff in places, obscuring the dialogue and disrupting the emotional flow of the tale. Although the situation Liebrecht describes is a universal one, and she approaches it with considerable emotional intelligence, the buttons she pushes to tell her story have been pushed too many times before.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Moorcock (The Cornelius Quartet), the Whitbred-nominated British author well known for his sf and fantasy novels, here ventures into the world of destructive, morally corrupt John Barbican Begg. When he reappears in the life of London paparazzo Dennis Dover, the out-of-work tabloid junkie sees that his friend has become not only richer but more powerful and avaricious; his plans to engulf and devour now extend beyond monies and land rights to Dover's beloved cousin Rosie. Begg's onslaught awakens Dover from his extended stupor and galvanizes him into action. Much of the pleasure of the novel results from Dover's recounting of his life as a rock musician turned journalist turned photographer through the latter part of the century, which is like a catalog of England's pop culture fads and fashions. Dover, who narrates the book, is a wonderful creationall wit, sarcasm, and opinion. Despite the topical references, most readers stateside should find it fascinating and highly entertaining. And despite the lack of traditional sf elements, the book is dense with activity and detail and presents a kaleidoscopic view of London, which will likely appeal to fans of Moorcock's previous popular works.Marc Kloszewski, Indiana Free Lib., PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Persea Books (July 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892552972
• ISBN-13: 978-0892552979
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,251,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite reading, August 17, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Man and a Woman and a Man: A Novel (Hardcover)

Savyon Liebrecht was born in Germany, but immigrated to Israel (Tel Aviv) as a child. She is a feminist writer who portrays the lives in women in present-day Israel in its present conflict with Arab and Palestinian neighbors. She has written four short-story collections and a volume of three novellas. Recognized as a stunning writer, her novel A Man And A Woman And A Man has been published in Israel, Germany, and Italy.

Hamutal, daughter of Shifra, a nurse who never saw fit to give her daughter a nurturing type of love, is tending to her mother in a nursing home. Shifra now has Alzheimer's, and her increasingly bizarre behavior is tearing Hamutal to pieces and threatening her own relations with her husband and family:

"Arnon remained tight-lipped, which was unlike him, then asked, `Am I to be deprived of this pleasure as well?' She didn't answer him with the girl there, just marveled at how easily he projected onto her mother all the anger he'd gathered elsewhere. In their bedroom she said later, `Do I have to explain to you, too, that she's sick?' `If she's so sick then it won't matter to her whether we come or not.'"

Stung by her family's rejection of her plight, Hamutal turns to a stranger named Saul Inlander, who is tending his dying father across the hall from her mother's room. The intensity of their affair terrifies and exhilarates both of them. Hamutal's family flees to kibbutz, freeing her from their demands. As her mother's dementia grows, she gives in to the affair, while memories and revelations of her past surge through her consciousness with help from her cousin Tzippie.

A Man And A Woman And A Man is intensely psychological, yet Savyon Liebrecht skillfully underplays the characters in order the allow the reader's imagination to take flight. Hamutal is, in essence, every woman, as she deals with "becoming an orphan" as her last parent prepares for death. It is the epitome of a middle-aged experience, interspersed with a grown up affair that is borne of childhood experiences. Hamutal looks at her life, finally finding the understanding of her mother that she never saw as her child. Exquisite reading.

Shelley Glodowski, Reviewer

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Showcases a passionate affair, October 14, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Man and a Woman and a Man: A Novel (Hardcover)

Savyon Liebrecht's technically brilliant novel, A Man And A Woman And A Man is the vividly portrayed story showcasing a passionate affair that begins at a time when each of the lovers is facing the disability and death of a parent. Liebrecht depicts with insight and feeling all the complexities of a woman's relationship with her lover, her husband, her children, her mother, and her past where the shadow of the Holocaust is unescapable. A Man And A Woman And A Man is a true literary gem and highly rewarding reading -- a novel that will linger in the mind long after it is finished and set back upon the shelf.

5.0 out of 5 stars Nursing home--the perfect setting for a young love affair, November 14, 2009

By 

Talia Carner "Author, Jerusalem Maiden, Puppe... (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Man and a Woman and a Man: A Novel (Paperback)

When Hamutal visits her mother, and Alzheimer's patient at an Israeli nursing home, she also feels isolated from her own family as her husband and her children continue their daily lives and make little accommodation to Hamutal's worries and her attempts to reconnect with the mother she still hopes exists behind the fog. At the time that Hamutal needs support and understanding the most, she finds it with Saul, a son similarly occupied with the caring for his father across the hall from Hamutal's mother.

Saul is visiting from the United States, where he's left his family in order to be with his father. The facts of Saul's temporary visit--and the late state of illness of their respective parents--put a yet-unknown time limit on the passionate affair that develops. But for the time being, theirs seems to be the only possible relationship in the constellation of the small world that makes up their life these days, a world that is also forever in the shadow of the Holocaust.

Savyon Liebrecht is an accomplished Israeli short-story and novels writer. A Man And A Women And A Man is a masterpiece.