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troyonyango's review against another edition
4.0
I have admired Tel’s work since I read ‘The Human Phonograph’ when it won both the Commonwealth Short Story award and the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank award, and it was for this reason that I got all his books, ‘Arafat’s Elephant’ being the first one. Tel’s ability to write about a place—Israel in this instance—in a way that makes it feel alive and real is admirable. His characters move in an almost ethereal manner and that works sometimes but not always. The language is beautiful and the structure of the sentences is so simple yet brilliant. That being said, this collection was pretty good except for a few stories that weren’t as seamless.
Would recommend it for someone who has an interest in Israel and wants to familiarise themselves with Tel’s work.
Would recommend it for someone who has an interest in Israel and wants to familiarise themselves with Tel’s work.
jessrock's review against another edition
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.
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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