Strange thing is, after reading a book because of a review, I always wonder if someone who wrote the review has actually read the book...
Anyway, the story consists of a lot of autobiographic short stories about familiy members and relatives. Most of them are tragedies with some irony, humour, political and cultural views. I feel like I have read the life stories of more than a hundred different characters without really knowing why.
Sure it's interesting to read about all his grandfathers and grandmothers in Eastern Europe, but what really matters eventually are his own father and mother through his childhood in Israel
Still, another issue from this book that's worth mentioning is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Although it's clear the writer finds it hard to really describe all the aspects of the 'the palestinian side' of this conflict, the complexity is shown by the different point of views that are among all the israeli characters themselves.
It's probably the downside of reading autobiographies. You'll get overwhelmed by all this information that wasn't quite necessary for the main story. Nevertheless, all those pieces of information made an interesting book worth reading.
If you want to read some more about this book, read this review from The Guardian. I like her conclusion: "Oz's book is a testament to a family, a time and a place. And throughout it there is the voice of the child who, 50 years later, still cries out for his dead mother."
