kairakaira's review
3.0
I reread this via audiobook while doing yard work. It’s a fine book but wasn’t worth the re-read.
liliannattel's review
5.0
An Israeli politician, who is a former Soviet dissident and gulag survivor, encounters the informant who denounced him some 40 years earlier. I knew from the first page that I was in the hands of a thoroughly competent writer in the best sense: I could relax and lose myself in the story, knowing I wouldn't be tossed out by a false note. From beginning to end, it was a gem, and I cried at the end, just bawled, even though the narrator's politics aren't mine. That is more than competence, that is enviable craftsmanship.
abookishtype's review
3.0
Baruch Kotler has just arrived in Yalta to find that his hotel reservation has evaporated. His young mistress, Leora, wants to try the other hotels in the Crimean resort town but Baruch is ready to surrender and catch a bus back to the airport. At the station, a woman offers them a room for the week. Later that night, however, Baruch learns that he is staying in the house of the man who denounced him in the 1970s. David Bezmozgis' The Betrayers takes place over just a few days as Baruch confronts his denouncer, his denoucer tries to make a living, and Leora falls out of love with her hero...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from Edelweiss for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from Edelweiss for review consideration.
agriffs's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
dandyliion's review
3.0
While I am sad to say it, I simply could not fall into the rhythm of this story. I did develop some attachment to the characters presented here, but there remained a nagging sense that the characters were under-developed, perhaps a bit flat. There were a number of moments where I felt I needed to know just a little more, but that little more never surfaced, and I eventually read in hopes only of reaching the end. Worthwhile for the unique social commentary, but I otherwise would not recommend.
mjanemartin's review
2.0
Why oh why do publishers do things like print books with no quotations? At least in this book they used the dash to indicate someone speaking, but still a lot of the time you don't know who is speaking. If there's an advantage to using weird punctuation, I wish someone would point it out.
So I'm frustrated with the lack of quotations, there's a lot of politics regarding Russia/Crimea...settlements in the West Bank, Zionism...I'm not the most well versed on these subjects, but I'm not clueless either. I get the big picture. There's a fair amount of Hebrew words and religious customs I'm unfamiliar with...but this is all on me. I don't expect all the books I read to be readily spoon-fed to middle aged, white American women. I even enjoyed my struggle with the book in some parts.
There are three main characters, none of which are likable. I'm tolerant of unlikable characters sometimes. But the two protagonists did not fall into this realm for me. There's a passage where the two men go on and on about whose fault their messed up lives are...each blaming the other for a moment in time that they let dictate the rest of their lives. One is a moral absolutist who isn't all that moral, the other guy...I don't know what he is. But at one point he's incredulous that the other man hasn't thanked him for putting him in the Gulag...if it weren't for his 13 year stint, he wouldn't be where he is today. I didn't know if it was supposed to be funny or not. The characters were a little over the top for me. I kept thinking "is he really that (selfish, stupid, uncaring etc...)" Also, the coincidence that Kotler just happened to run into his Gulag guy...pretty far fetched.
I wasn't feeling this book. But, I'm in the minority. So, happy reading.
So I'm frustrated with the lack of quotations, there's a lot of politics regarding Russia/Crimea...settlements in the West Bank, Zionism...I'm not the most well versed on these subjects, but I'm not clueless either. I get the big picture. There's a fair amount of Hebrew words and religious customs I'm unfamiliar with...but this is all on me. I don't expect all the books I read to be readily spoon-fed to middle aged, white American women. I even enjoyed my struggle with the book in some parts.
There are three main characters, none of which are likable. I'm tolerant of unlikable characters sometimes. But the two protagonists did not fall into this realm for me. There's a passage where the two men go on and on about whose fault their messed up lives are...each blaming the other for a moment in time that they let dictate the rest of their lives. One is a moral absolutist who isn't all that moral, the other guy...I don't know what he is. But at one point he's incredulous that the other man hasn't thanked him for putting him in the Gulag...if it weren't for his 13 year stint, he wouldn't be where he is today. I didn't know if it was supposed to be funny or not. The characters were a little over the top for me. I kept thinking "is he really that (selfish, stupid, uncaring etc...)" Also, the coincidence that Kotler just happened to run into his Gulag guy...pretty far fetched.
I wasn't feeling this book. But, I'm in the minority. So, happy reading.
meggiebennett's review
3.0
Midpoint review originally posted at www.bookertease.blogspot.ca
This is a fairly small book - only 225 pages, so it didn’t take me very long to finish, however it’s also possible that I read it so quickly because I am not completely sure that I understood it - there are a lot of politics in this book! The book starts off with an elderly man and his quite-a-bit younger companion attempting to get a room in a Crimean Hotel. Baruch Kotler is a soviet Russian dissident and a disgraced Israeli politician on the lamb with his mistress Leora, one of his staffers. They are not able to get a room, so end up taking a room in the house of a Russian woman and her Jewish husband. There is much made of the fact that the woman’s husband is Jewish; Kotler taking it as a sign of something and his companion, Leora reluctantly and wearily giving in.
I enjoyed the story, even though I definitely did not following all of the politics. I tried doing a little research, but was not even completely sure what I was looking for. The story seems to revolve around the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as well as Russian Zionism. Kotler is a Jewish cabinet minister who has been publicly opposing the prime minister, and a Zionist hero who, years earlier, spent 13 years in jail for treason after being denounced by a KGB plant. His current predicament has come about as a result of the opposition of the current government – news of his affair has been splashed all over the papers, leading to his desertion of this wife, son and daughter.
The story gets interesting when the owner of the house that Kotler and Leora are staying at turns out to be the man who decades earlier betrayed him to the KGB. Vladimir Tankilevich is a sad, bitter old man for whom life has not turned out well. And now believes that Kotler has come to gloat about his success, while Kotler believes that he has arrived at Tankilevich’s house by divine providence.
While I found the story interesting, I really think I would have gotten more out of it if I knew more about Israeli politics or Russian Zionism. As it is, I don’t know much, so the political part of this story has really just been in the background for me. I do think it is a little cliché that the old man has run off with his beautiful young secretary, although Bezmozgis makes a comment on this as well – about all the old men running around with young women nowadays. The thing that I don’t understand is why Kotler has decided to run off with Leora in the first place. He doesn’t seem like the type of man to back away from a fight, which he says himself before the news ‘goes viral’. “… I will be as clear as I can. I spent thirteen years in Soviet jails and camps fighting for my right to come to Israel. If you or the people you represent think that I can be intimidated by this sort of KGB thuggery you are mistaken.” So why has he run away? I get that it needs to happen to further the story, but I needed a little more than that. The history is definitely interesting however, and I enjoyed learning about a culture that I have not been much exposed to.
I believe the old adage goes “don’t meet your hero, they’ll only disappoint”; this story turns that around to don’t meet your betrayer. As we all know, people are never what we think they are, and you never know what is going on on the inside.
This is a fairly small book - only 225 pages, so it didn’t take me very long to finish, however it’s also possible that I read it so quickly because I am not completely sure that I understood it - there are a lot of politics in this book! The book starts off with an elderly man and his quite-a-bit younger companion attempting to get a room in a Crimean Hotel. Baruch Kotler is a soviet Russian dissident and a disgraced Israeli politician on the lamb with his mistress Leora, one of his staffers. They are not able to get a room, so end up taking a room in the house of a Russian woman and her Jewish husband. There is much made of the fact that the woman’s husband is Jewish; Kotler taking it as a sign of something and his companion, Leora reluctantly and wearily giving in.
I enjoyed the story, even though I definitely did not following all of the politics. I tried doing a little research, but was not even completely sure what I was looking for. The story seems to revolve around the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as well as Russian Zionism. Kotler is a Jewish cabinet minister who has been publicly opposing the prime minister, and a Zionist hero who, years earlier, spent 13 years in jail for treason after being denounced by a KGB plant. His current predicament has come about as a result of the opposition of the current government – news of his affair has been splashed all over the papers, leading to his desertion of this wife, son and daughter.
The story gets interesting when the owner of the house that Kotler and Leora are staying at turns out to be the man who decades earlier betrayed him to the KGB. Vladimir Tankilevich is a sad, bitter old man for whom life has not turned out well. And now believes that Kotler has come to gloat about his success, while Kotler believes that he has arrived at Tankilevich’s house by divine providence.
While I found the story interesting, I really think I would have gotten more out of it if I knew more about Israeli politics or Russian Zionism. As it is, I don’t know much, so the political part of this story has really just been in the background for me. I do think it is a little cliché that the old man has run off with his beautiful young secretary, although Bezmozgis makes a comment on this as well – about all the old men running around with young women nowadays. The thing that I don’t understand is why Kotler has decided to run off with Leora in the first place. He doesn’t seem like the type of man to back away from a fight, which he says himself before the news ‘goes viral’. “… I will be as clear as I can. I spent thirteen years in Soviet jails and camps fighting for my right to come to Israel. If you or the people you represent think that I can be intimidated by this sort of KGB thuggery you are mistaken.” So why has he run away? I get that it needs to happen to further the story, but I needed a little more than that. The history is definitely interesting however, and I enjoyed learning about a culture that I have not been much exposed to.
I believe the old adage goes “don’t meet your hero, they’ll only disappoint”; this story turns that around to don’t meet your betrayer. As we all know, people are never what we think they are, and you never know what is going on on the inside.
sophronisba's review
4.0
Lovely prose, spare to a fault. I liked the ideas here, and thought Kotler was a great, complicated character. I wish this book had been longer, though, and fleshed out the relationships and themes it only hinted at. In particular, I would like for Bezmozgis to do more with the women--Leora, Miriam, Svetlana--who all seemed a bit one-note.