Status
Available
Genres
Collections
Publication
Vintage (2017), Edition: New Ed, 400 pages
Description
Seven years after their divorce, Ilana breaks the bitter silence with a letter to Alex, a world-renowned authority on fanaticism, begging for help with their rebellious adolescent son, Boaz. One letter leads to another, and so evolves a correspondence between Ilana and Alex, Alex and Michel (Ilana's Moroccan husband), Alex and his Mephistophelian Jerusalem lawyer--a correspondence between mother and father, stepfather and stepson, father and son, each pleading his or her own case. The grasping, lyrical, manipulative, loving Ilana has stirred things up. Now, her former husband and her present husband have become rivals not only for her loyalty but for her son's as well.
User reviews
LibraryThing member LB121100
This was a pretty depressing book but the talent of the writer is that he drags the reader into this incredibly dysfucntional family. the story was done through letters from the characters and it was very slow and weird. I would give it two stars.
LibraryThing member lukespapa
One of the joys of renting a holiday cottage is exploring books left for the perusing guest. This is how I discovered Amos Oz, acknowledged by many to be Israel's finest writer. After reading, Black Box, I have no doubt about such claims. It is simply one of the most intelligent novels I have read
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in a long, long time; politically thought-provoking, simultaneously erotic and theological. Through communiques of letters, telegrams, and notes, we are brought into the intense triad relationship of a couple and an ex-husband trying to sort out each other's intentions and motivations, as they pertain to the state of the woman's first born son, the Zionist nation, and their own lives. Heroic and tragic, heaven and hell, love and pain, this book comes as close to perfect as one could want. It should be required reading for all fanatics, serve as an instruction manual for troubled marriages, and rise to the top of everyone else's "to be read next" list. Show Less
LibraryThing member charlie68
A story woven through the correspondence of three characters. I found the structure tiring at first, when the story picks up steam less so. A balanced look at Israeli life and the heroes it makes.
LibraryThing member Dinci
Interesting book. It's written in the form of letters between two former lovers, now divorced, who start writing to each other reviving their past, remembering their time together, talking about their separation with anger, nostalgia and love.
LibraryThing member sprainedbrain
This book took me a lot longer to finish than I expected... it’s very complex and not an easy read at all. An epistolary novel told in notes and letters between a divorced couple, her new husband, their teenager son, and some other characters, there is a lot going on here. Religious fanaticism,
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Israeli issues, war, marriage, family... it’s a lot, but it’s so well written, it’s absolutely worth the work. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kristelh
Reading Asian authors; this month Holy Land. Amos Oz was born In Jerusalem in 1939. He died in 2018. Black Box is the story of Illana, a divorced woman, remarried to Michel, a Moroccan devout Hebrew. The story is told through letters and telegrams (epistolary). Illana writes a letter to her ex
Rating; Legacy 3.5 epistolary but nothing new and sometimes this doesn't work.
plot: 4
characters: 4, somewhat stereotyped but on purpose????
Readability: 3 nice prose but way to lengthy letters
Achievement: 3
Overall rating 3.5
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husband and that starts a bunch of correspondence between Illana, the ex, the son, the step son, the husband, the lawyer, the sister. I like reading Oz but I don't find him exactly easy to read. There is a whole lot of stuff to digest. The use of letters allows the reader to know each character. Boaz the son of the ex husband is wild and hard to control as might be expected in a son whose father walks away from him. Boaz is the kinsmen redeemer in the Bible and in this story, Boaz does bring the characters together. Black box is an allusion to the box in planes that help decode what happens in the event of an accident. Alex represents the soldier, the man who did his mandatory service but left Israel to go to Chicago. Michel represents the immigrant who has come to Israel and wants to buy back the land from the Arabs. He has never served in the military or killed anyone. He is religious, Alex is not. The novel is set in the mid 70s before email, phones are unreliable and letter writing allows the person to talk to themselves before they actually send the letter. I would fault the excessively long letters as being hard to maintain interest at times but was the vehicle by which the author provided the reader with the information to be an informed reader.Rating; Legacy 3.5 epistolary but nothing new and sometimes this doesn't work.
plot: 4
characters: 4, somewhat stereotyped but on purpose????
Readability: 3 nice prose but way to lengthy letters
Achievement: 3
Overall rating 3.5
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Awards
Prix Femina (1988)
Language
Original publication date
1986 (hebrew)
Physical description
400 p.; 7.8 inches
ISBN
0099303833 / 9780099303831