Read The World - Israel - A Tale Of Love And Darkness

Book: A Tale Of Love And Darkness
Author: Amos Oz
Pages: 560
Book takes place in the country: YES
Author is from the country: YES
I have visited: NO

This is my 19th book for the year

This is a story of a the author that great up in war-torn Jerusalem  from the 1930s-1950s He grows up in a home with two parents who speak multiple languages.  The author actually grew up knowing Samuel Yosef Agnon (who later won a nobel prize for literature) His mother committed suicide when the author was a teenager and his father never talks about her again. This sets in motion how his life plays out.

This is a coming of age story in Jerusalem among gun fire and tension in a home where the members don't fully understand or appreciate each other.  It is a memoir of a child who grew to be a writer and wanted to write about the terror he grew up with.  

This book was a really hard read.  It took me forever to get threw it, and for a time, I actually thought about quitting.  It has some dry parts, and it is just extremely intense.  There is mountains of information and detail that you have to be in the right mindset to read something like this.  And I don't think I was.  

It was well written enough that I could never give it a low score - the problem was mine with this book.  If you know going in that it is going to be an intense, heavy read, then you might find it a wonderful memoir.

Stars: 3 1/2