Reviews

Arafat's Elephant by Jonathan Tel

jessgock's review against another edition

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2.0

You will notice that every description of this book talks about Israel. That is because Tel is masterful at setting the scene and choosing an interesting backdrop, and the location of these stories is probably the biggest selling point for the book.

This collection of short stories is set entirely in Israel, but the stories are otherwise unrelated and run the gamut of plots - love, mystery, humor. They're all written well from a technical standpoint, but my problem with the book is that the author (and hence the reader) seems distanced from the tales - I felt no emotional reaction at all. Thinking back on the stories now, I find myself questioning my initial two-star rating and saying, "but this one was interesting; and remember this one!; and that one was so unusual" - but then I flip open the book again and remember the experience of reading each, and there's just no spark. It's not a bad book, but nothing I can particularly recommend, either.
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