Real Time (Hardcover)

by Pnina Moed Kass (Author) "Thomas Wanninger?" "Yes." "Traveling alone?..." (more)
Key Phrases: Hadarim Hospital, Thomas Wanninger, Sameh Laham (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up–This surprisingly slim volume is an exhausting but illuminating read that will provide much-needed insight into life in modern Israel. Kass ably communicates the internal as well as external lives, histories, and observations of a diverse cast of characters, including a naive, conflicted Palestinian youth who believes his heroic suicide will mean glory and financial stability for his family; a guilt-ridden German teenager who needs to know what sins his grandfather may have committed during World War II; a young Israeli kibbutznik escaping the demons she left behind in Russia; and an old, embittered Holocaust survivor who heals himself by making things grow. Readers follow these and other individuals hour by hour as three of them board a bus that is bombed en route to Kibbutz Broshim, near Jerusalem. The climactic explosion occurs mid-book; the remainder is devoted to the aftermath, as survivors and their loved ones attempt to put back together their shattered lives. The reading experience is immediate, and the characters are deeply developed and painfully sympathetic as they find that they are inextricably and unexpectedly connected to one another.–Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CA
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From Booklist
Gr. 9-12. A suicide bomb attack on a crowded Jerusalem bus is the focus of Kass' tense, terrifying debut, told from the viewpoints of the passengers and their families, friends, and lovers. Among the narrators are a German boy wanting to find out if his grandfather was a Nazi; a young woman who has reclaimed her Jewish heritage, which her father denied; and an elderly Holocaust survivor. Their stories draw readers in. Then the bomb explodes, and the second half of the book focuses on the wounded and those who care for them in a Jerusalem hospital. The Israelis and the victims, if somewhat idealized, are drawn with complexity. In contrast, the brief, first-person Palestinian perspectives are flat and distant, with little sense of the Palestinian experience: the Arab doctor is perfect, and the teenage suicide bomber and his mentor are ignorant, poor, filled with hate, and trying to be martyrs. What's unforgettable is the grief and the chaos of the bombing and its aftermath--the stories behind the news headlines. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books (October 18, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618442030
• ISBN-13: 978-0618442034
• Product Dimensions: 15 x 9.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,031,105 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely realistic. , January 19, 2006

By	NK (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I was apprehensive about reading this book because I wasn't sure whether it would be from a balanced perspective or whether it would take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Having read it, I wouldn't classify it in either category; I'd just have to say that it's realistic. The book revolves around a homicide bombing of a bus in Israel. It is told through the perspectives of various characters, including a German teenager who's come to Israel to find out about his grandfather who may have been a Nazi, an Israeli soldier, an Israeli immigrant, the 16 year old Palestinian boy recruited as a "Shaheed," the Israeli who imploys this boy illegally, a Palestinian doctor treating the bomb victims in an Israeli hospital, and others.

The author presents a startlingly realistic portrait of what living and being in Israel is like for all of these people. She communicates the emotions and tensions that come with living under such tense circumstances and brings readers into this challenging world, allowing them to see what it's like for themselves.

I highly recommend this book and challenge audiences to try to step out of their secure worlds for a few hours and into the lives of the people in this book. I think it will be an enlightening experience.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Award winner from the Association of Jewish Libraries!, January 25, 2005

By	Heidi Estrin (The Book of Life podcast, www.jewishbooks.blogspot.com) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is the 2004 winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Older Readers category. The award is given each year for the best in Jewish children's literature.

Real Time follows a number of characters hour by hour to the moment when their lives intersect at a bus bombing in Israel, and through the aftermath of the event. We hear the voices of kibbutzniks, an earnest German youth, and even the Palestinian boy who has been persuaded to
carry the bomb. Some characters are followed through the entire book, while others make only brief appearances. The format takes some time to adjust to, but once you become immersed in the story, it is extremely readable.

The book is sophisticated in its construction, in its characterization, and in its realism. Intricate timing allows us to see simultaneous events and to understand how they are likely to become connected. Every character is realistically portrayed as a mixture of good and bad, guilt and hope, victim and oppressor, each dealing with their own unbearable situation. Each person speaks for him or herself, without interpretation by a narrator, effectively and economically revealing the relevant thoughts and emotions. While the events of the story are the stuff of today's headlines, the book's format shows how political situations are really composed of many, many overlapping personal situations. The whole concept of the book is summed up by the character Baruch, when he says "I am part of the story, and Dan, and Lidia, and also the Palestinian boy, the suicide bomber. Like tangled string when you pull it, it gets tighter."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Powerful, January 21, 2005

By	Doctor Justine (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Although the reader of Real Time begins this journey cognizant of the impending and catastrophic explosion that connects the lives of its diverse characters, there is nothing predictable about this book. It is a powerful and gripping story, and hooks the reader from the start. Each character is depicted with complexity, from the guilt-ridden adolescent grandson of a German soldier, compelled to discover the truth about his grandfather's past, to the Holocaust survivor trying to create order and beauty on an Israeli kibbutz. These are but two of the lives that are fatefully woven together, and the reader is quickly drawn into their worlds, both external and political, and internal and private. Ms. Kass artfully renders palpable the wide range of often contradictory--and therefore real--emotions that haunt each of the characters, and succeeds in the extremely difficult task of translating the wordless horror of trauma into language. There are no happy endings in this book, at least not in the familiar sense; however, amidst the interminable suffering, Ms. Kass' depiction of deep and enduring love offers relief, and serves to sustain us and give us hope.