Originally posted here.Everybody hates him, except Uzi. I think there's this thing that after you off yourself, with the way it hurts and everything – and it hurts like hell – the last thing you give a shit about is somebody with nothing on his mind except singing about how unhappy he is. I mean if you gave a flyin' fuck about stuff like that you'd still be alive, with a depressing poster of Nick Cave over your bed, instead of winding up here.Etgar Keret's Kneller's Happy Campers manages to be funny and depressing at the same time. It's the story of Mordy's life-after-death, the events that follow him through the time after he killed himself after a break up with his girlfriend. Yes, the entire book takes place in an actual afterlife, one that's reserved for those who've committed suicide.Mordy's from Tel Aviv and his best (dead) friend is Uzi, an East German whose entire family lives together in this dark landscape. You read that right. His ENTIRE FAMILY has "offed," but they're happy they get to spend their afterlives together.It's dark. Everyone bears the scars of the manner in which they killed themselves. The "hottest" girls are those that ODed because they look just like girls did back in Life - no slashes on their wrists, no sagging skin from drowning, no bullet holes (or exit wounds) in their heads.It's not possible to ever forget that this is a land entirely populated by the dead, even if they go about their day-to-day business just like they did when they were alive. Everyone has jobs (Mordy works at Pizzeria Kamikaze [heh]), there's car trouble and drunken nights on the town.But it's not just the story of Mordy's everyday afterlife, it's the story of a quest he sets out on with Uzi once he learns that the girl he killed himself over has ALSO killed herself. He believes it means they're obviously MFEO and has decided not to stop until he finds her.I want to talk and talk and talk about this book - but it's difficult, because it's really only a novella. To say any more would give the entire thing away and I don't want to do that to you. It's possible that my attempts not to spoil things are futile, because there's a movie ( Wristcutters: A Love Story from 2006) which has a kickass soundtrack (Gogol Bordello!) and a fantastic cast, but there were a lot of changes made to try to translate the narrative for the screen.Don't worry, I'm not going to go on a rant about how the BOOK IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE MOVIE, ZOMG! but it kind of is. The ending of the book, while not as give-up-candy-for-life-cos-it's-so-sweet as the movie, is (in my mind, anyway) superior and rather hopeful.I am doing a terrible job of talking about this book. Just go read it because it's short and it's worth your time.Stop arguing with me.
At only 86 pages, I’m not sure what to call this book – a short novella? A long short story. Either way, it doesn’t matter. I call it good reading -- an extremely enjoyable and memorable read from beginning to end.Basically, it’s a dark and kind of magical picaresque story in which we follow roommates Mordy (our hero and narrator) and his rambunctious German friend Uzi on their journey through an unnamed alternate “unreality” populated entirely by suicide victims on a seemingly hopeless quest to find Mordy’s girlfriend from the real world who, rumor has it, has just offed herself as well.Told in a series of remarkably effective yet spare slice-of-life -- or beter yet slice-of-death – vignettes, Etgar Keret weaves a clever and darkly wonderful and thoughtful story.My only hang-up, I guess, is the term “Juliet,” which is used in the book to describe anyone who kills himself with pills or poison and manages to get there “with no scars.” I’m not sure if this is a mistake on the author’s part, the narrator’s part or if either are being ironic, but it’s kind of a big mistake.Assuming Juliet refers to the better half of that most famous suicide couple from Shakespeare, then the term doesn’t make sense. Romeo is the one who drinks poison. Juliet tries to but, with no poison left, she ends up stabbing herself, I’m sure leaving a major scar. Maybe “Juliets” should’ve been called “Romeos” or, perhaps, “Sylvias” after Sylvia Plath who stuck her head in the oven. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. I really like the book and I look forward to reading more stories by this author.
What do You think about Kneller's Happy Campers (2009)?
A couple of years ago after I broke up with my girlfriend of 3 years I watched the movie Wristcutters. And I absolutely loved the vibe it captures because it displays the familiar feeling of stasis and absurdity present in my own world. As a matter of fact, after we broke up, I started working at pizza place and taking long walks around my lower middle class suburban town. On these walks you'd see tons of people driving past in their cars, but on the sidewalks and parks nary a soul under the age of 60. I loved the concept of the afterlife in Wristcutters: "Everything's the same here, just a bit worse". There are no useless miracles in my world. And two years later, the more things have changed, the more they've stayed the same.A little while ago I was astonished to find out Wristcutters is based on a novella by an Israeli writer by the name of Etgar Keret. So, without any further ado, off I go. I've never read a book by an Israeli writer so I didn't know what to expect. Keret uses casual language to convey the story, complete with esoteric slang, and sometimes awkward wording/grammar usage. The story, and a lot of the dialogue, is pretty much verbatim in Wristcutters, which I found odd. There's some differences, most notably, the dearth of pointless miracles that I really enjoyed from the book. The novella is 100 pages broken up into 25 or 26 chapters so it moves really fast. Overall, I liked it, but found it to be a bit terse. Highly recommend to fans of the movie, though!
—Aaron
Durante meses (si no es que años) este libro estuvo esperando a que lo tomara, y hasta cierto punto me arrepiento de no haberle dado una oportunidad antes.No existe una manera precisa y certera para delinear el mundo de Etgar Keret. Comienzas a leerlo y parece cualquier cosa genérica a la Salman Rushdie, luego, de pronto empiezan a saltar elementos, enormes "WTF?", y fragmentos poéticos que logran una mezcla verdaderamente retorcida, donde lo irreverente e irreal se mezclan con estos mundos llenos de imposibilidad y melancolía. Extrañas y agrias redenciones, los universos de estos cuentos son como pequeños infiernos, donde el mayor purgatorio es que a pesar de todos los elementos fantásticos no dejan de ser un baño de tedio y maquinaria cotidiana. Lograr eso, bajo esa clase de propuesta, es un verdadero logro. Uno no puede evitar sentirse un poco agraviado con cada historia aquí narrada, particularmente con Pizzería Kamikaze, donde el planteamiento de una vida y segunda oportunidad después de la muerte tiene exactamente el mismo potencial y absurdo que un perro persiguiendo su cola.Keret va que vuela para ser el descubrimiento del año.
—York
La primera aproximación que he hecho al universo Keret me ha dejado con una clara sensación de querer más. Me ha sabido a muy poco el puñado de cuentos y la novela breve que componen este Pizzeria Kamikaze y otros cuentos. Si algo cabe destacar es el contar con una voz propia. Algo que no todos los autores pueden decir que poseen. La ironía, una visión de la muerte y el infierno muy distinta a la generalmente aceptada, desprovista de cualquier elemento dramtático, son los elementos que en los relatos de Keret se repiten e identifican. Ahora quiero más.
—Pedro
