Someone to Run With

I read THE BEST book last week! It was absolutely beautiful in every way (well... except physical condition). It was called Someone to Run With, by an Israeli author named David Grossman. It was originally in Hebrew, but the translation was fabulous. I really hope the writing is as good in Hebrew. I know that other people liked it too, because it's been made into a film (which I really want to see).

Okay, time for a short summary with no spoilers, and then I'll get back to extolling its virtues. The book takes place in Jerusalem, and it was about a boy (named Assaf), a girl (named Tamar), and a dog (named Dinka). I know, sounds pretty ordinary and cliché, but I swear it isn't. They're both on very specific missions, that turn out to be (in some cases) more dangerous than you would expect. Actually, Tamar's mission was exactly as dangerous as you would expect, but Assaf's wasn't. Tamar's mission, which was self imposed, is to extract someone from a dangerous environment (read: criminal underground), and then once she got him out she had to get him off of his heroin addiction, all on her own. Assaf's mission, which is on the surface much simpler, was to return a lost dog, Dinka, to her owner. Dinka, however, turns out to be Tamar's, and since Tamar was busy going under cover into a dangerous criminal underground, he couldn't exactly find her. The book basically follows Assaf as he follows clues, meets people involved in Tamar's life, and gets closer to finding her, and Tamar as she undertakes her mission. Sorry, that wasn't the shortest summary ever, but the book is really complicated.

The style of writing was absolutely unique. Actually, that's probably why I loved it so much. It switched perspectives a lot, so it was really easy to see what was going on, and understand how different scenes and characters related to each other. It was also slightly random, and totally unpredictable, from little things like sometimes using quotation marks around full sentences and sometimes not, to how long a point of view would last, and similarly how much time was between each scene. It was amazing. I think that the writing style really helped me to engage in the story.

The characters were so well crafted, it was incredible. I could tell just from reading how much extra thought was put into each and every one of them. Even the minor characters that only appeared once or twice had intricate and very telling personalities. I would bet anything that there were thousands of interactions written out that didn't make it into the book, if only to help establish the characters. They had a sort of depth that is hard to get unless you work really hard for it. Another thing that I liked about the characters was how I don't think there was a single one that was not immensely complicated, and had many sides to them. None of them were all good, or all bad. Everyone was ambiguous, even the ultimate villain, just like in real life.

Okay, I think I'm done extolling the book's virtues now. Moving on, it's time to talk about the connection to Jewish culture and Israel. Well, aside from the obvious bit that it took place in Jerusalem, it gives a great perspective on the uniqueness and complexity of Israeli culture, specifically on the streets. For Tamar's mission, she had to spend a while pretending to be homeless. Since she's a singer (I don't know if I mentioned that before), she spent her time performing in the streets of Jerusalem. She encountered all sorts of people, and the descriptions of the encounters were such that the reader would get an intimate view of the kinds of people who live here. The narration allowed the reader to see Jerusalem through the eyes of someone who lived their entire lives there, and I found it fascinating. This book was a great peek into the culture of Israel, and I loved every page of it.