i would give this book three and a half if possible, for i did end up enjoying it! it was an unlikely candidate for being a book i became immersed in, but i thought it would be decent at least, and when one lives far from any good collection of english language books, you just aren´t that picky! but while it was slow picking up, at about the halfway point, i found that i was engaged both by the characters/the story and the lovely writing. interweaving the stories of three generations of a tel aviv family, ravel takes a look at the nature of families and the unifying humanity that transcends time or place or ethnicity or circumstance. a good read...
There were so many fascinating elements of immersing myself in this story. It's set in Israel and told from the perspective of three different narrators - the main one, protagonist Sonya, in modern day, her nephew, in the 80s and 90s, and her mother, in 1957. Between the three of them, we see Israel at various stages of its development. I loved learning about this frontier world. The characters themselves were lovable (as she refers to them in the reading group notes at the end), and the plot was unpredictable and suspenseful. This is the last book in a trilogy, and I'm excited to read the other two books.
What do You think about A Wall Of Light (2006)?
This is the final book in a trilogy where the characters are loosely connected but divided by experiencing Israeli life in different decades and through opposing viewpoints. Ravel, the author, is politically left and it shows via her telling. I admire her attempts at balance as she works to show her readers how Israeli/Jewish contemporary history formed the people and the problems of today. At her best Ravel is fair-minded and introspective, rarely out and out accusing. Nothing, she seems to tell us occurs in a vacuum.
—Neena
