Customer Reviews

Not of This Time, Not of This Place

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first of all, let me emphasize that yehuda amichai's poetry is-in my modest opinion-almost peerless. only neruda, qabbani and hikmet are comparable. amichai often makes me cry with only two or three lines. as soon as i read about this book, i was very enthusiastic and wanted to buy it at once. as a refugee who spent 7 years in germany and a middle east studies major, i was convinced that the novel would touch me emotionally and teach me a lot about coping with memories and pain. however, i felt the book was quite devoid of originality and freshness. the first-person-narrator was rather convincing, but the love story was highly conventional and there was absolutely nothing in patricia's character that would provoke such lyrical outbursts. i felt guilty for not appreciating it, especially since it seems to be autobiographic, echoing several of his poems. i am afraid that the book even spoiled much of his poetry for me, destroying the simplicity and the timelessness i had deeply admired.

"Not of this time, Not of this Place" by Yehudah Amichai is an original novel, which is its only strength. I was captivated nor really feeling anything for Joel, who basically pulls a "Sliding Doors" thirty years before the movie. The novel follows a divergence where Joel either stay in Jersusalem and falls in love with an American, or goes back to Germany to revisit old wounds. Joel talks of revenge but only finds sad memory. The love story between Joel and Patricia seems totally unreal.