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The Betrayers
These incandescent pages give us one momentous day in the life of Baruch Kotler, a disgraced Israeli politician. When he refuses to back down from a contrary but principled stand regarding the West Bank settlements, his political opponents expose his affair with a mistress decades his junior. He and the fierce young Leora flee the scandal for Yalta, where, in an unexpected turn of events, he comes face-to-face with the former friend who denounced him to the KGB almost 40 years earlier.
In a mere 24 hours, Kotler must face the ultimate reckoning, both with those who have betrayed him and with those whom he has betrayed, including a teenage daughter, a son facing his own ethical dilemmas in the Israeli army, and the wife who stood by his side through so much.
In prose that is elegant, sly, precise, and devastating, David Bezmozgis has rendered a story for the ages, an inquest into the nature of fate and consequence, love and forgiveness.
In a mere 24 hours, Kotler must face the ultimate reckoning, both with those who have betrayed him and with those whom he has betrayed, including a teenage daughter, a son facing his own ethical dilemmas in the Israeli army, and the wife who stood by his side through so much.
In prose that is elegant, sly, precise, and devastating, David Bezmozgis has rendered a story for the ages, an inquest into the nature of fate and consequence, love and forgiveness.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2014
85 people are currently reading
2494 people want to read
About the author
David Bezmozgis
14 books142 followersBorn in Riga, Latvia, Bezmozgis moved to Canada when he was six. He attended McGill University and then received his MFA from USC's School of Cinema-Television. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, and Zoetrope. In 2010 he was chosen by The New Yorker as one of the best 20 writers under 40.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 348 reviews
October 5, 2014
The Betrayers is an interesting novel - full of political themes and characters with strong political beliefs, but one that doesn't take a definite stance on these issues; they're what define the characters in the book, but the book itself does not judge them or favor one over another. Although politics play an important role in the plot, the drama is, as always when examined up close, entirely human.
Baruch Kotler is a 64 year old influential Israeli politician, and a legendary Soviet dissident who spent many years in prison for allegedly spying for the CIA. Kotler is one of the former Refuseniks - Soviet Jews who were refused permission to emigrate to Israel, on the ground that they supposedly came to hold vital information regarding national security and couldn't be allowed to leave - and had to stay at home, where they faced condemnation from both the state and society.
Now, years later, Kotler once again finds himself persecuted for dissent - he uniyeldingly opposes withdrawal of Israeli settlements from the West Bank, which leads to the opposition threaten him with character assassination - they know of his affair with a woman decades his junior, and threaten to expose it. Kotler refuses to back down from hid principles, and the Israeli press soon receives photos of them together. To escape the media crackdown Kotler takes his lover, Leora, to a Crimean resort in Yalta, where he used to vacation as a boy with his family; he does not suspect that by an accident - or fate? - the woman whose boarding offer he chooses will be the wife of Tankilevich, a former friend and a fellow Zionist Jew, but one who has secretly denounced him to the KGB as an American spy and condemned him to the Gulag almost four decades earlier.
Even readers who have absolutely no interest in Zionism or Israeli/Ukrainian politics will find the book interesting - Bezmozgis wrote a well-constructed drama which unfolds in just 24 hours in a small, crumbling resort in the Crimea, and which asks important questions: What does it mean to be a Jew? Is the moral choice always the right one? How do we betray one another? What is the price of loyalty? Who do we love, and how?The novel examines Baruch's relationship with Leora and Miriam, his wife; his daughter, Dafna, and son, Benzion - who serves in the Israeli army and has his own personal dilemmas about following orders.
All the characters are interesting and well-developed for such a short novel, and Bezmozgis writes really well - particularly with the dialogue, where the conversations touch upon the subject mentioned but always sound natural and never sermonic. The Betrayers also manages the almost impossible feat of staying neutral on such polarizing issues - which is an accomplishment in itself. One develops an interest in Baruch and his life and history, and becomes genuinely engaged in the story and wishes to know its outcome - and this is perhaps the best compliment that a novel can receive.
Baruch Kotler is a 64 year old influential Israeli politician, and a legendary Soviet dissident who spent many years in prison for allegedly spying for the CIA. Kotler is one of the former Refuseniks - Soviet Jews who were refused permission to emigrate to Israel, on the ground that they supposedly came to hold vital information regarding national security and couldn't be allowed to leave - and had to stay at home, where they faced condemnation from both the state and society.
Now, years later, Kotler once again finds himself persecuted for dissent - he uniyeldingly opposes withdrawal of Israeli settlements from the West Bank, which leads to the opposition threaten him with character assassination - they know of his affair with a woman decades his junior, and threaten to expose it. Kotler refuses to back down from hid principles, and the Israeli press soon receives photos of them together. To escape the media crackdown Kotler takes his lover, Leora, to a Crimean resort in Yalta, where he used to vacation as a boy with his family; he does not suspect that by an accident - or fate? - the woman whose boarding offer he chooses will be the wife of Tankilevich, a former friend and a fellow Zionist Jew, but one who has secretly denounced him to the KGB as an American spy and condemned him to the Gulag almost four decades earlier.
Even readers who have absolutely no interest in Zionism or Israeli/Ukrainian politics will find the book interesting - Bezmozgis wrote a well-constructed drama which unfolds in just 24 hours in a small, crumbling resort in the Crimea, and which asks important questions: What does it mean to be a Jew? Is the moral choice always the right one? How do we betray one another? What is the price of loyalty? Who do we love, and how?The novel examines Baruch's relationship with Leora and Miriam, his wife; his daughter, Dafna, and son, Benzion - who serves in the Israeli army and has his own personal dilemmas about following orders.
All the characters are interesting and well-developed for such a short novel, and Bezmozgis writes really well - particularly with the dialogue, where the conversations touch upon the subject mentioned but always sound natural and never sermonic. The Betrayers also manages the almost impossible feat of staying neutral on such polarizing issues - which is an accomplishment in itself. One develops an interest in Baruch and his life and history, and becomes genuinely engaged in the story and wishes to know its outcome - and this is perhaps the best compliment that a novel can receive.
April 17, 2015
I thought this book was terrific!!!
The themes about morals: Is being moral always right? -- allows for much introspective thinking on the readers part.
Baruch Kotler, a 60 year old, Soviet Jewish Hero took a stand against the destruction of the West Bank settlements and refused to be blackmailed. A smear campaign became front-page news. The media had a field day --taking photographs of Baruch with a young mistress named Leora. His wife was named Miriam. They had two adult children. His daughter is Dafna. His son, Benzion (who is in the army dealing with his personal challenges).
News is out --Baruch's wife and kids know about the mistress --all because Baruch was not willing to negotiate with terroists at any cost. Keeping Kotler quiet with threats is against his principals.
Kotler says: "There are matters of principle where you cannot compromise. Under any circumstances. If I'd compromise, it would have been even worse. Far worse for all of us. For our country and for our family, which is part of our country."
Dafna says: "But who cares about the country if it destroys our family? The country doesn't care about us. To hear the disgusting things they're saying on television."
To get away from all the chaos for a week -Kotler takes Leora on a vacation to lay low (and of course have their romantic time) - in a Crimea Resort.
Once they arrive --their week trip is everything but romantic. By coincidence they rent a room by a woman named Svetlana --and it turns out her husband (they will soon discover) -- is Vladimir Tankilevich.
Tankilevich is a 70 year old man -with poor eye sight, heart problems, and sciatica. He is also an old roommate -former friend --once considered a a confidant. 40 years ago --he was responsible for sending Baruck to the Gulag. For 13 years, Baruck Kotler was incarcerated in a brutish Russian prison. He had recently been married when arrested -immigrating to Israel when the Russian police picked him up. Miriam went on without him -and waited for him those years. After he was free-he went to Israel to raise his family.
Vladimir Tankilevich in the meantime --changed his last name --did his own type of hiding -Living in Simferopol --in the Crimean resort area. He and his wife suffered for most of these 40 years. They were poor -- needed to ger financial support from a Jewish agency: Hesed.
However, the woman who ran the Jewish firm - hate Vladimir -He was a disgrace to the Jewish people because of what he did for the KGB - He sent the GREAT BARUH KOTLER to the Gulag. She could never forgive him...
Yet...she made a contract with him --which was ---
Every Saturday, Shabbat -he had to go to the synagogue. It was a 3 hour trip -each way --on the trollybus --and sitting on those plastic seats was torture for his sciatic.
It also cost him an equivalent of $20 a month. He and his wife only received a hundred a month.
By Jewish law --10 men are required to be present -to complete the 'Minyan' ---but there was never enough men. These men were old -men were dying. It was an old temple --Plus many Jews were reluclant to attend -as the synagogue was in the worse possible neighborhood.
I don't think one needs to be Jewish to read this --(a few details help) -- this is a powerful contemporary fiction -(occasionally funny) --at its best! Very creative story --to contemplate the natures of sacrifice -revenge - forgiveness and love.
The author is speaking in our area in June --I hope to hear him speak!
The themes about morals: Is being moral always right? -- allows for much introspective thinking on the readers part.
Baruch Kotler, a 60 year old, Soviet Jewish Hero took a stand against the destruction of the West Bank settlements and refused to be blackmailed. A smear campaign became front-page news. The media had a field day --taking photographs of Baruch with a young mistress named Leora. His wife was named Miriam. They had two adult children. His daughter is Dafna. His son, Benzion (who is in the army dealing with his personal challenges).
News is out --Baruch's wife and kids know about the mistress --all because Baruch was not willing to negotiate with terroists at any cost. Keeping Kotler quiet with threats is against his principals.
Kotler says: "There are matters of principle where you cannot compromise. Under any circumstances. If I'd compromise, it would have been even worse. Far worse for all of us. For our country and for our family, which is part of our country."
Dafna says: "But who cares about the country if it destroys our family? The country doesn't care about us. To hear the disgusting things they're saying on television."
To get away from all the chaos for a week -Kotler takes Leora on a vacation to lay low (and of course have their romantic time) - in a Crimea Resort.
Once they arrive --their week trip is everything but romantic. By coincidence they rent a room by a woman named Svetlana --and it turns out her husband (they will soon discover) -- is Vladimir Tankilevich.
Tankilevich is a 70 year old man -with poor eye sight, heart problems, and sciatica. He is also an old roommate -former friend --once considered a a confidant. 40 years ago --he was responsible for sending Baruck to the Gulag. For 13 years, Baruck Kotler was incarcerated in a brutish Russian prison. He had recently been married when arrested -immigrating to Israel when the Russian police picked him up. Miriam went on without him -and waited for him those years. After he was free-he went to Israel to raise his family.
Vladimir Tankilevich in the meantime --changed his last name --did his own type of hiding -Living in Simferopol --in the Crimean resort area. He and his wife suffered for most of these 40 years. They were poor -- needed to ger financial support from a Jewish agency: Hesed.
However, the woman who ran the Jewish firm - hate Vladimir -He was a disgrace to the Jewish people because of what he did for the KGB - He sent the GREAT BARUH KOTLER to the Gulag. She could never forgive him...
Yet...she made a contract with him --which was ---
Every Saturday, Shabbat -he had to go to the synagogue. It was a 3 hour trip -each way --on the trollybus --and sitting on those plastic seats was torture for his sciatic.
It also cost him an equivalent of $20 a month. He and his wife only received a hundred a month.
By Jewish law --10 men are required to be present -to complete the 'Minyan' ---but there was never enough men. These men were old -men were dying. It was an old temple --Plus many Jews were reluclant to attend -as the synagogue was in the worse possible neighborhood.
I don't think one needs to be Jewish to read this --(a few details help) -- this is a powerful contemporary fiction -(occasionally funny) --at its best! Very creative story --to contemplate the natures of sacrifice -revenge - forgiveness and love.
The author is speaking in our area in June --I hope to hear him speak!
August 15, 2014
First, I am very grateful to the Goodreads FirstReads program and to Little Brown for enabling me to be an advance reader.
My review begins after the close of the book. In his epilogue, David Bezmozgis discusses the difference between journalism and fiction writing. He has this to say: “Journalism is reportage, and therefore retrospective. The novelist who tackles social and political phenomena has quite a different position. He must posit a world and commit to it fully. He cannot merely describe – he must anticipate an outcome, if only a little.”
Mr. Bezmozgis could not have anticipated the flare-up in Israel when he wrote this book. Unfortunately, there are zealots who will note his character – Baruch Kotler, a Soviet Jewish hero and fierce advocate of the settlements, now an Israeli politician laid low by a smear campaign – and will one-star this book without reading further.
That would be a crime. The Betrayers is a thoughtful and insightful book – a moral book – whose themes are timeless and universal. It’s also a beautifully written book that provides much food for thought about what it means to hold to one’s principles…and whether it’s better to be a saint who “loved the world more than any single person” or a “man who loved one single person more than the whole world.”
Baruch Kotler is indeed saint-like; some might call him stubborn or even rigid. He does not sacrifice his principles even if his very life is at stake. After spending many years in jail – as the result of a former friend who denounces him to the KGB – he emerges as an Israeli hero. But when photos reveal that he has taken on a much younger lover, the couple is forced to flee to a Crimean resort. (All this is set up in the first several pages.) There, Baruch and Leora end up confronting the very friend who was the cause of Baruch’s misery years ago.
The book explores major themes: is being moral always being right? Is there such a thing as absolute truth? Can rigid morality cause more harm than good? Are we all guilty of something, to a degree? Is "character" in-bred and is it possible for someone not born with character to acquire it? Are there different definitions of “doing right”, depending on what could be lost? What are the different ways we betray each other? (Mr. Bezmozgis writes, “…guilt and innocence were not fixed marks. There were extenuating circumstances. Wasn’t that the governing logic of the times?”)
The Betrayers will make you think. It will also make you feel. Any book that can do that – and do it through wonderfully crafted prose and believable characters – is a 5-star book for me.
My review begins after the close of the book. In his epilogue, David Bezmozgis discusses the difference between journalism and fiction writing. He has this to say: “Journalism is reportage, and therefore retrospective. The novelist who tackles social and political phenomena has quite a different position. He must posit a world and commit to it fully. He cannot merely describe – he must anticipate an outcome, if only a little.”
Mr. Bezmozgis could not have anticipated the flare-up in Israel when he wrote this book. Unfortunately, there are zealots who will note his character – Baruch Kotler, a Soviet Jewish hero and fierce advocate of the settlements, now an Israeli politician laid low by a smear campaign – and will one-star this book without reading further.
That would be a crime. The Betrayers is a thoughtful and insightful book – a moral book – whose themes are timeless and universal. It’s also a beautifully written book that provides much food for thought about what it means to hold to one’s principles…and whether it’s better to be a saint who “loved the world more than any single person” or a “man who loved one single person more than the whole world.”
Baruch Kotler is indeed saint-like; some might call him stubborn or even rigid. He does not sacrifice his principles even if his very life is at stake. After spending many years in jail – as the result of a former friend who denounces him to the KGB – he emerges as an Israeli hero. But when photos reveal that he has taken on a much younger lover, the couple is forced to flee to a Crimean resort. (All this is set up in the first several pages.) There, Baruch and Leora end up confronting the very friend who was the cause of Baruch’s misery years ago.
The book explores major themes: is being moral always being right? Is there such a thing as absolute truth? Can rigid morality cause more harm than good? Are we all guilty of something, to a degree? Is "character" in-bred and is it possible for someone not born with character to acquire it? Are there different definitions of “doing right”, depending on what could be lost? What are the different ways we betray each other? (Mr. Bezmozgis writes, “…guilt and innocence were not fixed marks. There were extenuating circumstances. Wasn’t that the governing logic of the times?”)
The Betrayers will make you think. It will also make you feel. Any book that can do that – and do it through wonderfully crafted prose and believable characters – is a 5-star book for me.
January 2, 2015
At last, my streak of lackluster fiction experiences has been broken. The Betrayers is everything I could possibly want in a novel: fast-paced and well-plotted, with great characters; smart and funny and poignant and entertaining. It also taught me a few things about a part of the world I know little about. I don't feel that I can say much more without giving things away, but this is a truly unique, well-written novel that I would recommend to just about anyone.
A few reviewers have mentioned this book's political stance, so I'll offer my opinion: it doesn't have one (a stance, that is). The characters in this book have political stances, not the book itself--a subtle but important difference. This is a novel, not a tract, and I don't think it's trying to change anyone's mind. What it is trying to do, like any good novel, is depict several characters' viewpoints with as much humanity as possible. At this, I think, it succeeds.
I received this ARC via the Goodreads First Reads program.
A few reviewers have mentioned this book's political stance, so I'll offer my opinion: it doesn't have one (a stance, that is). The characters in this book have political stances, not the book itself--a subtle but important difference. This is a novel, not a tract, and I don't think it's trying to change anyone's mind. What it is trying to do, like any good novel, is depict several characters' viewpoints with as much humanity as possible. At this, I think, it succeeds.
I received this ARC via the Goodreads First Reads program.
December 27, 2015
Finished the audiobook in 3 days. Loved it.
Full disclosure: my family had emigrated from the USSR in the 70s and 80s. More than that: Natan Sharansky, on whom the main character was based, has been a hero of mine. And the "bad guy" protagonist had been an acquaintance of my father and my grandparents, and I may have even seen him in their home, where many refuseniks and activists of that time had been welcome. So my interest in this story was more that only literary.
Of course, I was intrigued by the alternative history approach. As in "what if...". I found the psychological/philosophical thought experiment at the center of this novel to be fascinating. Of course, the vaguely religious undertones, and allusions to other historical events were totally engrossing. Events ranging from Stalin's rule of terror to the fall of Soviet Union to at the very end even the return of Crimean Tartars to Crimea. And of course, the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Issues of revenge, forgiveness, mercy, God's retribution, morality, heroism, fate, and through all of it what is justice - all these were touched upon.
Just wish the actor who read it had a better editor or director, who should have consulted those in the know, as to the pronunciation of many foreign language names, locations and words (Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish).
It stimulated some discussions with my parents, who had very different recollections and opinion of the men at the center of the story. I also dug up some information online, to get the real story straight.
So far as I was able to find out, there had been no scandal and no show trial in Israel. The affair and fall from grace was pure fiction, used to "balance" the scales of justice in the "thought experiment", to make "the saint" not so saintly. It is possible that the actual person is not a saint at all, but he is still a hero, IMHO.
Full disclosure: my family had emigrated from the USSR in the 70s and 80s. More than that: Natan Sharansky, on whom the main character was based, has been a hero of mine. And the "bad guy" protagonist had been an acquaintance of my father and my grandparents, and I may have even seen him in their home, where many refuseniks and activists of that time had been welcome. So my interest in this story was more that only literary.
Of course, I was intrigued by the alternative history approach. As in "what if...". I found the psychological/philosophical thought experiment at the center of this novel to be fascinating. Of course, the vaguely religious undertones, and allusions to other historical events were totally engrossing. Events ranging from Stalin's rule of terror to the fall of Soviet Union to at the very end even the return of Crimean Tartars to Crimea. And of course, the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Issues of revenge, forgiveness, mercy, God's retribution, morality, heroism, fate, and through all of it what is justice - all these were touched upon.
Just wish the actor who read it had a better editor or director, who should have consulted those in the know, as to the pronunciation of many foreign language names, locations and words (Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish).
It stimulated some discussions with my parents, who had very different recollections and opinion of the men at the center of the story. I also dug up some information online, to get the real story straight.
So far as I was able to find out, there had been no scandal and no show trial in Israel. The affair and fall from grace was pure fiction, used to "balance" the scales of justice in the "thought experiment", to make "the saint" not so saintly. It is possible that the actual person is not a saint at all, but he is still a hero, IMHO.
March 23, 2015
It took me a dozen starts to get into it, but when I finally did, I enjoyed it.
October 15, 2015
Okay, so there was this former refusenik who had been the victim of an informant and was sent to the Gulag, where he steadfastly refused to save himself by informing on others. He had endured and, upon release, had become an Israeli hero and politician. But now he's fallen on hard times, become involved in a political scandal, and has fled to Crimea with his young paramour.
The two are hoping to transmute the scandal into a hot seaside interlude in Yalta. Until, believe it or not, they run across....
Crimea. In the novel, we are told that after the fall of the USSR, Ukraine repatriates the Tatars, Muslims who had been deported by Stalin for alleged collaboration with the Nazis (but who subsequently had been subjected to persecution by ethnic Russians [Cossacks?] in the region).
Crimea: at one time proposed as a Jewish homeland! In trying to sketch in major historical gaps I read that after reclaiming Crimea from the Ottoman Empire in 1783, Catherine the Great opened up the area for Jewish settlement, hoping they would be a bulwark against the Turks. (So is it too far fetched to imagine the Ukrainians had brought back the Tatars, not out of simple benevolent impulse, but hoping they would be a bulwark against the Russians?) Anyway, so it seems the Kremlin at some point contemplated the area as a homeland for the Jews, although it sounds like the episode has been sentimentalized in the local Jewish memory. At any rate, who knew?
If you're a purist about realism in fiction, you'll have problems with this book. For one thing the early life and circumstances of the scandal-ridden former refusenik and hero is modeled on that of Natan Sharansky, who didn't have the scandals or affairs.
But, as regards the actual reading of this book, the main challenge would be that history marched on at an inconvenient pace, relative to the book's plot. The action of the book is set in the present (or, actually, 2013, as indicated by one subtle cue), but meanwhile Russia annexed Crimea, so that the story as we have it now proceeds within a never-never land.
As for me, I was interested in the story and the people anyway. The politics aren't mine, nor were the characters particularly likable at first, so, starting out, the story had a flat quality. But the writing is tight and clear. When I would put it down to complete other reading commitments, the story stayed with me. Reading about this heroic figure who at first seemed to have all the answers but who drove himself unquestioningly to stand by his principles, and about how that affected those around him, drew me in.
Listen to this (near the first of the book):
Then, later:
And, yet, the notion that one has the character one has simply the way we have our physique or hair texture. And one must yet select how to act. And be held responsible.
So I ended up liking this protagonist and these characters better than I had at first. In the end I decided the really surprising aspect of the plot is not the aspect I had thought it was at first.
Some of the history of Crimea and that Jewish homeland idea: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-...
The two are hoping to transmute the scandal into a hot seaside interlude in Yalta. Until, believe it or not, they run across....
Crimea. In the novel, we are told that after the fall of the USSR, Ukraine repatriates the Tatars, Muslims who had been deported by Stalin for alleged collaboration with the Nazis (but who subsequently had been subjected to persecution by ethnic Russians [Cossacks?] in the region).
Crimea: at one time proposed as a Jewish homeland! In trying to sketch in major historical gaps I read that after reclaiming Crimea from the Ottoman Empire in 1783, Catherine the Great opened up the area for Jewish settlement, hoping they would be a bulwark against the Turks. (So is it too far fetched to imagine the Ukrainians had brought back the Tatars, not out of simple benevolent impulse, but hoping they would be a bulwark against the Russians?) Anyway, so it seems the Kremlin at some point contemplated the area as a homeland for the Jews, although it sounds like the episode has been sentimentalized in the local Jewish memory. At any rate, who knew?
If you're a purist about realism in fiction, you'll have problems with this book. For one thing the early life and circumstances of the scandal-ridden former refusenik and hero is modeled on that of Natan Sharansky, who didn't have the scandals or affairs.
But, as regards the actual reading of this book, the main challenge would be that history marched on at an inconvenient pace, relative to the book's plot. The action of the book is set in the present (or, actually, 2013, as indicated by one subtle cue), but meanwhile Russia annexed Crimea, so that the story as we have it now proceeds within a never-never land.
As for me, I was interested in the story and the people anyway. The politics aren't mine, nor were the characters particularly likable at first, so, starting out, the story had a flat quality. But the writing is tight and clear. When I would put it down to complete other reading commitments, the story stayed with me. Reading about this heroic figure who at first seemed to have all the answers but who drove himself unquestioningly to stand by his principles, and about how that affected those around him, drew me in.
Listen to this (near the first of the book):
If righteous anger was the man's negotiating tactic, Kotler didn't care for it. He'd encountered it in more consequential settings and hadn't indulged it there either.
Then, later:
Even if a lesson was elementary, one rarely learned it in the abstract. The instruction had to be applied directly onto one's hide. ...
Well, what rigidity! Kotler observed with bemusement. Sometimes, after a run of such thoughts, he stood as if at his own shoulder, looking at a curious twin self. Who was the man who thought these thoughts? ... In spite of his true nature, he'd become this man. Forty years earlier, he'd been thrust, unwittingly, into this role.... ... From such pathetic beginnings he rose. Simply, he was forced to discover hidden reserves of strength. And once he rose, it was hard to return to the man he'd been before--a fairly ordinary man, with no grand designs. ...But then, after his ordeal, he was exposed to people in positions of power and saw how many of them were inadequate, even mentally and morally deficient. Little more than noise and plumage. And then it seemed impossible to leave serious matters--matters for which he had sacrificed everything--in the hands of such people. ....
And, yet, the notion that one has the character one has simply the way we have our physique or hair texture. And one must yet select how to act. And be held responsible.
So I ended up liking this protagonist and these characters better than I had at first. In the end I decided the really surprising aspect of the plot is not the aspect I had thought it was at first.
Some of the history of Crimea and that Jewish homeland idea: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-...
November 17, 2015
There were times when this book reminded me of Dostoevsky, or maybe even Tolstoy, in the philosophical back and forth of the dialogues and much melodramatic discussion about "absolution" and "repentence". No accident, as this short novel takes place in Russia, and the influence of that country's literature is certainly not one to be hidden. I smiled occasionally at the familiar idioms you find in modern (more literal, I guess) translations of Russian works, like 'Go to the devil!" and so on.
I did not really 'get" this book, though. I'm a little hesitant to say this but I feel like I might have gotten more out of it if I, like the characters here, were jewish. There's a lot I don't understand about the mindsets depicted here and all the stuff about fealty to Israel even if one lives elsewhere out of necessity, of people travelling to this "Holy Land" and then being forcibly resettled by their own police (not much mention of Palestinians here, by the way) went over my head in some way. I can't properly fathom why the son shot off his hand rather than do his duty. There was a thread of what I felt was a kind of fanatical tribalism that I simply could not relate to on any level. The Leorra character, with whom the Israeli hero was having an illicit affair, felt like a third wheel in the narrative. There was an awful lot of hand-wringing that was, despite some interesting philosophical content, not really as engaging to read as that of my man Fiodor.
I can't recommend this, basically, but it's been praised a good deal and is a short work. if you're interested in the history of Jews in Russia, this might be a significant work of contemplative fiction that you should try. I must also admit that the conflict between the former prisoner and the man who denounced him, as they (by sheer coincidence apparently) meet each other in their twilight years, is interesting, though in this case, it didnt' particularly compel me.
I did not really 'get" this book, though. I'm a little hesitant to say this but I feel like I might have gotten more out of it if I, like the characters here, were jewish. There's a lot I don't understand about the mindsets depicted here and all the stuff about fealty to Israel even if one lives elsewhere out of necessity, of people travelling to this "Holy Land" and then being forcibly resettled by their own police (not much mention of Palestinians here, by the way) went over my head in some way. I can't properly fathom why the son shot off his hand rather than do his duty. There was a thread of what I felt was a kind of fanatical tribalism that I simply could not relate to on any level. The Leorra character, with whom the Israeli hero was having an illicit affair, felt like a third wheel in the narrative. There was an awful lot of hand-wringing that was, despite some interesting philosophical content, not really as engaging to read as that of my man Fiodor.
I can't recommend this, basically, but it's been praised a good deal and is a short work. if you're interested in the history of Jews in Russia, this might be a significant work of contemplative fiction that you should try. I must also admit that the conflict between the former prisoner and the man who denounced him, as they (by sheer coincidence apparently) meet each other in their twilight years, is interesting, though in this case, it didnt' particularly compel me.
July 4, 2016
My review (which includes spoilers) appears in New York Journal of Books. Read that review first. An addendum to my NYJB review appeared in an article in a different and now defunct publication, which includes additional remarks, excerpts, and explores the novel as a roman a clef, begins with the next paragraph.
Jewish books: David Bezmozgis' roman a clef second novel The Betrayers succeeds
Encyclopaedia Britannica defines "roman à clef, ( French: 'novel with a key')" as a "novel that has the extraliterary interest of portraying well-known real people more or less thinly disguised as fictional characters." In my New York Journal of Books review (which includes spoilers) of David Bezmozgis' second novel The Betrayers (which will be published by Little Brown on September 23, 2014) I describe its protagonist Baruch Kotler as combining "some aspects of Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman and even more of those of Soviet dissident turned Israeli politician turned NGO executive Natan Sharansky."
Let's explore the similarities and differences between these fictional and real life men. Like Sharansky, Kotler is short and bald, was a human rights activist in the USSR who sought the right to emigrate to Israel, was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment in the Soviet Gulag (Kotler serves all 13 years but Sharansky was released after nine years in a prisoner swap) which separated him from his wife who had already emigrated, upon his release emigrated to Israel and became a successful politician leading a political party representing a voting bloc of fellow Russian immigrants. Kotler remains in politics in 2014 while in real life Sharansky left politics in 2006. Avigdor Lieberman filled the vacuum created by Sharansky's exit from politics and created his own political party which won the allegiance of the same Russian immigrant voters who had previously supported Sharansky. Like Sharansky, Kotler is a saintly idealist, but unlike Sharansky (as far as we know) the fictional Kotler is also an adulterer. Unlike Sharansky, and like Lieberman, Kotler stood trial in Israel and was exonerated. Kotler is six years younger than Sharansky and four years older than Lieberman.
In my NYJB review I advise liberal readers to "ignore or overlook the protagonist’s right-wing Zionist politics; the correctness of his principles matters less than his steadfastness in standing by them." It is interesting to note how in a swing of the political pendulum many post-Communist Russian gentiles have become conservative Christians and likewise many Russian Jews (both in the diaspora and in Israel) have become right-wing Zionists.
Bezmozgis uses a Russian television game show to represent the vacuousness of contemporary Russian popular culture: "This is what they had raised from the scraps of communism. This was what the struggle for freedom and democracy had delivered. Bread and circuses. Mostly circuses. From one grand deception to another was their lot. First the Soviet sham, then the capitalist. For the ordinary citizen, these were just two different varieties of poison. The current variety served in a nicer bottle."
The novel's title refers not only to Kotler's adultery but also to the supposed friend who decades earlier had denounced Kotler to the KGB. In this book about moral choices Kotler, who refuses to be politcally blackmailed, advises his son who contemplates disobeying a military order he considers immoral, "If you think you have no choice, look harder. There is always a choice. A third way, if not a fourth. Whether we have the strength to make those choices is another matter. Of which I am no less guilty than anyone else."
The advance uncorrected proof of The Betrayers refers to the novel's venue as “Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine” and the date as summer 2014, but in the real world Crimea was invaded and annexed by Russia in March 2014. In an afterward Bezmozgis acknowledges “Clearly setting my novel in the summer of 2014, as I intended, is no longer feasible. I will have to find another solution.” It will be interesting to see what that solution looks like in the published edition.
For a fuller discussion of the novel see my NYJB review, which concludes, "The Betrayers succeeds by combining thought provoking ethical dilemmas with dramatic tension in an engaging prose style and is enthusiastically recommended."
Jewish books: David Bezmozgis' roman a clef second novel The Betrayers succeeds
Encyclopaedia Britannica defines "roman à clef, ( French: 'novel with a key')" as a "novel that has the extraliterary interest of portraying well-known real people more or less thinly disguised as fictional characters." In my New York Journal of Books review (which includes spoilers) of David Bezmozgis' second novel The Betrayers (which will be published by Little Brown on September 23, 2014) I describe its protagonist Baruch Kotler as combining "some aspects of Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman and even more of those of Soviet dissident turned Israeli politician turned NGO executive Natan Sharansky."
Let's explore the similarities and differences between these fictional and real life men. Like Sharansky, Kotler is short and bald, was a human rights activist in the USSR who sought the right to emigrate to Israel, was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment in the Soviet Gulag (Kotler serves all 13 years but Sharansky was released after nine years in a prisoner swap) which separated him from his wife who had already emigrated, upon his release emigrated to Israel and became a successful politician leading a political party representing a voting bloc of fellow Russian immigrants. Kotler remains in politics in 2014 while in real life Sharansky left politics in 2006. Avigdor Lieberman filled the vacuum created by Sharansky's exit from politics and created his own political party which won the allegiance of the same Russian immigrant voters who had previously supported Sharansky. Like Sharansky, Kotler is a saintly idealist, but unlike Sharansky (as far as we know) the fictional Kotler is also an adulterer. Unlike Sharansky, and like Lieberman, Kotler stood trial in Israel and was exonerated. Kotler is six years younger than Sharansky and four years older than Lieberman.
In my NYJB review I advise liberal readers to "ignore or overlook the protagonist’s right-wing Zionist politics; the correctness of his principles matters less than his steadfastness in standing by them." It is interesting to note how in a swing of the political pendulum many post-Communist Russian gentiles have become conservative Christians and likewise many Russian Jews (both in the diaspora and in Israel) have become right-wing Zionists.
Bezmozgis uses a Russian television game show to represent the vacuousness of contemporary Russian popular culture: "This is what they had raised from the scraps of communism. This was what the struggle for freedom and democracy had delivered. Bread and circuses. Mostly circuses. From one grand deception to another was their lot. First the Soviet sham, then the capitalist. For the ordinary citizen, these were just two different varieties of poison. The current variety served in a nicer bottle."
The novel's title refers not only to Kotler's adultery but also to the supposed friend who decades earlier had denounced Kotler to the KGB. In this book about moral choices Kotler, who refuses to be politcally blackmailed, advises his son who contemplates disobeying a military order he considers immoral, "If you think you have no choice, look harder. There is always a choice. A third way, if not a fourth. Whether we have the strength to make those choices is another matter. Of which I am no less guilty than anyone else."
The advance uncorrected proof of The Betrayers refers to the novel's venue as “Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine” and the date as summer 2014, but in the real world Crimea was invaded and annexed by Russia in March 2014. In an afterward Bezmozgis acknowledges “Clearly setting my novel in the summer of 2014, as I intended, is no longer feasible. I will have to find another solution.” It will be interesting to see what that solution looks like in the published edition.
For a fuller discussion of the novel see my NYJB review, which concludes, "The Betrayers succeeds by combining thought provoking ethical dilemmas with dramatic tension in an engaging prose style and is enthusiastically recommended."
April 6, 2017
I wouldn’t be a very good revolutionary. I’ve always had trouble with moral absolutists — the sort of stiff-necked people who will never budge from their views even when the consequences for others around them will be dire.
The Betrayers is about such a man. Baruch Kotler, a Right-Wing minister in the Israeli cabinet and a hero among the refuseniks who stood up against the anti-Semitism of the USSR, has resigned when the coalition government in which he’s serving has voted to demolish and abandon certain Jewish settlements on Arab land. Kotler takes this step even knowing to a certainty that his enemies will go public with damaging information that could destroy his family.
In The Betrayers, David Bezmozgis follows Kotler and his beautiful young mistress through the Crimea, where they have fled following publication of photos revealing their affair. In Yalta, in a coincidence that is far-fetched beyond belief, Kotler confronts the man whose false accusation sent him to prison in Siberia for 13 years.
The Betrayers is a talky novel, with the principal characters — even the least educated among them — exchanging nuanced philosophical monologues that conjure up images of the stage: bad plays, not good ones. Though I didn’t enjoy reading this book, I did manage to stick with it to the end for the revealing picture it paints of Russia after the fall of Communism and of Israeli politics.
David Bezmozgis is an award-winning novelist, short story-writer, and filmmaker. He is Canadian but was born in Riga, Latvia. The Betrayers is his second novel.
The Betrayers is about such a man. Baruch Kotler, a Right-Wing minister in the Israeli cabinet and a hero among the refuseniks who stood up against the anti-Semitism of the USSR, has resigned when the coalition government in which he’s serving has voted to demolish and abandon certain Jewish settlements on Arab land. Kotler takes this step even knowing to a certainty that his enemies will go public with damaging information that could destroy his family.
In The Betrayers, David Bezmozgis follows Kotler and his beautiful young mistress through the Crimea, where they have fled following publication of photos revealing their affair. In Yalta, in a coincidence that is far-fetched beyond belief, Kotler confronts the man whose false accusation sent him to prison in Siberia for 13 years.
The Betrayers is a talky novel, with the principal characters — even the least educated among them — exchanging nuanced philosophical monologues that conjure up images of the stage: bad plays, not good ones. Though I didn’t enjoy reading this book, I did manage to stick with it to the end for the revealing picture it paints of Russia after the fall of Communism and of Israeli politics.
David Bezmozgis is an award-winning novelist, short story-writer, and filmmaker. He is Canadian but was born in Riga, Latvia. The Betrayers is his second novel.
October 8, 2014
Any review of The Betrayers should begin by noting that it can't help but be full of spoilers -- if you want a satisfying experience of having small mysteries slowly revealed, you shouldn't read any reviews before you pick up this book. At barely more than 200 sparse pages, there are no unnecessary words here and it really can't be discussed in general terms.
As we begin, Baruch Kotler -- a 60-year-old Zionist hero and Cabinet Member in Israel's Knesset -- and his decades younger mistress, Leora, have fled a scandal back home for a week of sun and relaxation in the Crimean resort town of Yalta. When their hotel reservation disappears, the pair decides to rent a room from a woman advertising one in her home, and in a twist of Fate/jest of God (the nature of which is much discussed in the book), the woman's husband turns out to be the KGB agent who had denounced Kotler forty years earlier, leading to his imprisonment in a Soviet Gulag for 13 years.
We learn that Kotler is a man of unwavering convictions: not only was he unwilling to cooperate with the Soviet system of denouncing fellow dissidents for easier treatment in prison in the past, but he is now unwilling to cooperate with a Mossad agent's attempts at blackmail -- preferring to hurt his family by allowing proof of his affair to become public rather than betray his principles as an elected official. Even when Kotler's son -- a conflicted young soldier in the Israeli army -- reaches out to him for advice, the old man isn't able to compromise his own convictions for his son's welfare. When we learn that the former KGB agent, Valodya Tankilevich, has spent the past forty years poor and wretched, and his wife begs Kotler to forgive her husband and allow him to fulfill his own dream of shedding worldwide disrepute and finally emigrating to Israel, Kotler isn't able to comply -- not because he can't forgive him (Kotler realises that his bitterness had vanished years ago), but because the world wouldn't understand and the big picture is much more important to Kotler than individual fates.
Yet even as Leora complains that Kotler is more saint than man, it's important to remember that the "betrayers" of the title is plural -- this man of unshakeable political beliefs is also the man who exposed his loyal and pious wife, Miriam, to the scandal of his affair and then disappeared; grainy pictures of him and his mistress in the departure area of the airport (that appear in the next morning's paper) the only clue as to his whereabouts. When Kotler was in the Gulag, Miriam -- who had been allowed to emigrate to Israel from the USSR -- took his case to the world press, lobbying for his release and ensuring his celebrity when he finally was. As a deeply religious woman, she is able to offer Kotler this solace from Ecclesiastics via email: For there is not a righteous man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
The Betrayers is an interesting morality play with strong and well-defined characters. As Kotler and Tankilevich finally have their confrontation, neither is swayed by the position of the other:
The real genius of this book is that it doesn't take sides -- these are simply people who have done their best with what Fate has doled out.
Taking a step back from the specifics, The Betrayers also captures a fascinating time -- that of the Soviet Jews, and especially the refusniks under Khrushchev, and their eventual dispersal from Yalta to Jerusalem to the U.S. and Canada. We see the fractious nature of the competing beliefs in the Knesset and are reminded that no political decisions in Israel are unanimous. It's also a strange quirk of fate that this book was released just before Putin's annexation of the Crimea: upon leaving Yalta, Kotler muses on how Stalin once proposed the Crimea as a Jewish homeland as he watches ethnic Tatars building settlements; establishing their own homeland (and I wonder what has become of these Tatars in Putin's wake?)
There is so much brought up in this slim volume -- personal vs public struggles; the nature of Fate; forgiveness and penitence; even the difference between Zionism and Judaism (because if there's one thing Kotler is not, it's religious) -- that its weight belies its size. An enjoyable and thought-provoking read; a worthy contender for the Giller Prize.
As we begin, Baruch Kotler -- a 60-year-old Zionist hero and Cabinet Member in Israel's Knesset -- and his decades younger mistress, Leora, have fled a scandal back home for a week of sun and relaxation in the Crimean resort town of Yalta. When their hotel reservation disappears, the pair decides to rent a room from a woman advertising one in her home, and in a twist of Fate/jest of God (the nature of which is much discussed in the book), the woman's husband turns out to be the KGB agent who had denounced Kotler forty years earlier, leading to his imprisonment in a Soviet Gulag for 13 years.
We learn that Kotler is a man of unwavering convictions: not only was he unwilling to cooperate with the Soviet system of denouncing fellow dissidents for easier treatment in prison in the past, but he is now unwilling to cooperate with a Mossad agent's attempts at blackmail -- preferring to hurt his family by allowing proof of his affair to become public rather than betray his principles as an elected official. Even when Kotler's son -- a conflicted young soldier in the Israeli army -- reaches out to him for advice, the old man isn't able to compromise his own convictions for his son's welfare. When we learn that the former KGB agent, Valodya Tankilevich, has spent the past forty years poor and wretched, and his wife begs Kotler to forgive her husband and allow him to fulfill his own dream of shedding worldwide disrepute and finally emigrating to Israel, Kotler isn't able to comply -- not because he can't forgive him (Kotler realises that his bitterness had vanished years ago), but because the world wouldn't understand and the big picture is much more important to Kotler than individual fates.
There are matters of principle where you cannot compromise. Under any circumstances. If I’d compromised, it would have been worse. Far worse for all of us. For our country and for our family, which is part of our country.
Yet even as Leora complains that Kotler is more saint than man, it's important to remember that the "betrayers" of the title is plural -- this man of unshakeable political beliefs is also the man who exposed his loyal and pious wife, Miriam, to the scandal of his affair and then disappeared; grainy pictures of him and his mistress in the departure area of the airport (that appear in the next morning's paper) the only clue as to his whereabouts. When Kotler was in the Gulag, Miriam -- who had been allowed to emigrate to Israel from the USSR -- took his case to the world press, lobbying for his release and ensuring his celebrity when he finally was. As a deeply religious woman, she is able to offer Kotler this solace from Ecclesiastics via email: For there is not a righteous man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
The Betrayers is an interesting morality play with strong and well-defined characters. As Kotler and Tankilevich finally have their confrontation, neither is swayed by the position of the other:
"Say what you will, but you benefited from this Gulag. You had thirteen dark years followed by how many bright ones? Without those thirteen years, where would you be? You say living a normal life. Am I living a normal life?"
"What led you to think I could be shorn of thirteen years of my life? That I should be separated from my wife? That my parents should not live to see me liberated? That they should have to meet death without their son by their side? There is no compensation for such losses. Not in this life. And no explanation but weakness."
The real genius of this book is that it doesn't take sides -- these are simply people who have done their best with what Fate has doled out.
I accept that he couldn't have acted differently any more than I could have acted differently. This is the primary insight I have gleaned from life: The moral component is no different from the physical component -- a man's soul, a man's conscience, is like the height or the shape of his nose.
Taking a step back from the specifics, The Betrayers also captures a fascinating time -- that of the Soviet Jews, and especially the refusniks under Khrushchev, and their eventual dispersal from Yalta to Jerusalem to the U.S. and Canada. We see the fractious nature of the competing beliefs in the Knesset and are reminded that no political decisions in Israel are unanimous. It's also a strange quirk of fate that this book was released just before Putin's annexation of the Crimea: upon leaving Yalta, Kotler muses on how Stalin once proposed the Crimea as a Jewish homeland as he watches ethnic Tatars building settlements; establishing their own homeland (and I wonder what has become of these Tatars in Putin's wake?)
Land! The land! What, Kotler wondered, would his old Tatar prison mate have made of this? The repatriation and autonomy of the Crimean Tatars had been his struggle. He had given his life over to it. Were he still living, he and Kotler could have had an interesting conversation. What dreams they had nurtured and what distortions now obtained. And it was all to do with land. A measure of earth under your feet that you could call your own. Was there a more primitive concept? But nobody lives in the ether. Man is a physical being who requires physical space. And his nature is a prejudicial nature of alike and unalike. That was the history of the world. How much earth can you claim with another's consent? How long can you hold it if you haven't consent? And is it possible to foster consent where none exists? Kotler didn't know the answers to the first two questions, but the essential question was the last, and the answer to that was not favorable.
There is so much brought up in this slim volume -- personal vs public struggles; the nature of Fate; forgiveness and penitence; even the difference between Zionism and Judaism (because if there's one thing Kotler is not, it's religious) -- that its weight belies its size. An enjoyable and thought-provoking read; a worthy contender for the Giller Prize.
July 20, 2015
Midpoint review originally posted at www.bookertease.blogspot.ca
This is a fairly small book - only 225 pages, so it didn’t take me very long to finish, however it’s also possible that I read it so quickly because I am not completely sure that I understood it - there are a lot of politics in this book! The book starts off with an elderly man and his quite-a-bit younger companion attempting to get a room in a Crimean Hotel. Baruch Kotler is a soviet Russian dissident and a disgraced Israeli politician on the lamb with his mistress Leora, one of his staffers. They are not able to get a room, so end up taking a room in the house of a Russian woman and her Jewish husband. There is much made of the fact that the woman’s husband is Jewish; Kotler taking it as a sign of something and his companion, Leora reluctantly and wearily giving in.
I enjoyed the story, even though I definitely did not following all of the politics. I tried doing a little research, but was not even completely sure what I was looking for. The story seems to revolve around the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as well as Russian Zionism. Kotler is a Jewish cabinet minister who has been publicly opposing the prime minister, and a Zionist hero who, years earlier, spent 13 years in jail for treason after being denounced by a KGB plant. His current predicament has come about as a result of the opposition of the current government – news of his affair has been splashed all over the papers, leading to his desertion of this wife, son and daughter.
The story gets interesting when the owner of the house that Kotler and Leora are staying at turns out to be the man who decades earlier betrayed him to the KGB. Vladimir Tankilevich is a sad, bitter old man for whom life has not turned out well. And now believes that Kotler has come to gloat about his success, while Kotler believes that he has arrived at Tankilevich’s house by divine providence.
While I found the story interesting, I really think I would have gotten more out of it if I knew more about Israeli politics or Russian Zionism. As it is, I don’t know much, so the political part of this story has really just been in the background for me. I do think it is a little cliché that the old man has run off with his beautiful young secretary, although Bezmozgis makes a comment on this as well – about all the old men running around with young women nowadays. The thing that I don’t understand is why Kotler has decided to run off with Leora in the first place. He doesn’t seem like the type of man to back away from a fight, which he says himself before the news ‘goes viral’. “… I will be as clear as I can. I spent thirteen years in Soviet jails and camps fighting for my right to come to Israel. If you or the people you represent think that I can be intimidated by this sort of KGB thuggery you are mistaken.” So why has he run away? I get that it needs to happen to further the story, but I needed a little more than that. The history is definitely interesting however, and I enjoyed learning about a culture that I have not been much exposed to.
I believe the old adage goes “don’t meet your hero, they’ll only disappoint”; this story turns that around to don’t meet your betrayer. As we all know, people are never what we think they are, and you never know what is going on on the inside.
This is a fairly small book - only 225 pages, so it didn’t take me very long to finish, however it’s also possible that I read it so quickly because I am not completely sure that I understood it - there are a lot of politics in this book! The book starts off with an elderly man and his quite-a-bit younger companion attempting to get a room in a Crimean Hotel. Baruch Kotler is a soviet Russian dissident and a disgraced Israeli politician on the lamb with his mistress Leora, one of his staffers. They are not able to get a room, so end up taking a room in the house of a Russian woman and her Jewish husband. There is much made of the fact that the woman’s husband is Jewish; Kotler taking it as a sign of something and his companion, Leora reluctantly and wearily giving in.
I enjoyed the story, even though I definitely did not following all of the politics. I tried doing a little research, but was not even completely sure what I was looking for. The story seems to revolve around the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as well as Russian Zionism. Kotler is a Jewish cabinet minister who has been publicly opposing the prime minister, and a Zionist hero who, years earlier, spent 13 years in jail for treason after being denounced by a KGB plant. His current predicament has come about as a result of the opposition of the current government – news of his affair has been splashed all over the papers, leading to his desertion of this wife, son and daughter.
The story gets interesting when the owner of the house that Kotler and Leora are staying at turns out to be the man who decades earlier betrayed him to the KGB. Vladimir Tankilevich is a sad, bitter old man for whom life has not turned out well. And now believes that Kotler has come to gloat about his success, while Kotler believes that he has arrived at Tankilevich’s house by divine providence.
While I found the story interesting, I really think I would have gotten more out of it if I knew more about Israeli politics or Russian Zionism. As it is, I don’t know much, so the political part of this story has really just been in the background for me. I do think it is a little cliché that the old man has run off with his beautiful young secretary, although Bezmozgis makes a comment on this as well – about all the old men running around with young women nowadays. The thing that I don’t understand is why Kotler has decided to run off with Leora in the first place. He doesn’t seem like the type of man to back away from a fight, which he says himself before the news ‘goes viral’. “… I will be as clear as I can. I spent thirteen years in Soviet jails and camps fighting for my right to come to Israel. If you or the people you represent think that I can be intimidated by this sort of KGB thuggery you are mistaken.” So why has he run away? I get that it needs to happen to further the story, but I needed a little more than that. The history is definitely interesting however, and I enjoyed learning about a culture that I have not been much exposed to.
I believe the old adage goes “don’t meet your hero, they’ll only disappoint”; this story turns that around to don’t meet your betrayer. As we all know, people are never what we think they are, and you never know what is going on on the inside.
November 6, 2014
What does trust and honour really mean? This very surprising little book covers one day in the life of Baruch Kotler. By the time we meet him he is sixty years old and a disgraced Israeli politician. But before his public disgrace, he was a much-admired and much-loved Jewish martyr. Baruch spent 13 years of his young life incarcerated in a brutish Russian prison. Baruch had been very recently married when he was arrested, and he and his young wife were emigrating to Israel when he was picked up by the Russian police. His wife went on ahead without him, but held out hope and did much campaigning to see Baruch freed. Without compromising his principles, and without pleading guilty to being a radical Jew, he managed to be freed and then he went to Israel to be with his wife and to raise his family. He becomes a hero to the Israeli people, and is a politician in the Israeli government, when he suddenly gives it all up to run away from Israel to Yalta in the Crimea with his young mistress. The book time frame starts when he and Leora arrive in Yalta, and then continues for the next 24 hours. In that short time Baruch is forced by a very strange coincidence, to face the person who had denounced him to the KGB 40 years before. He must learn to reconcile the choices he has made because of his incarceration. He must face the devastation that he has brought to his family, and he must learn to accept and live with the choices he has made, as well as to reconsider his position as to where he goes from here. A lot happens within these 24 hours and I think the most amazing thing is that David Bezmozgis says it all so clearly and so succinctly in what is actually very few well-chosen words. The book is only 200 pages long. Oh to be able to write like this! Mr. Bezmozgis' prose is spare, elegant, descriptive and concise. This book is a well-deserved 2014 Giller Prize Shortlisted novel.
October 10, 2014
I seem to be in a minority about this book. Bezmozglis spins a good yarn, just as he did in The Free World. He has heart and he has brains and a wistful Malamudian sense of humor. The story of a victim who travels hundreds of miles and just happens to rent a room from a man who betrayed him 30 or so years ago does strain belief, but I didn’t mind; I’m a sucker for coincidence. Nor was I bothered by the story’s easy predictability - we can’t all do trick endings. What I found much harder to swallow is dialogue like “you think that only he can rescue you from the bleak life that is inundating you like a flood”. This, by the way, comes from an allegedly uneducated Ukrainian farmer woman. You can find gems like this on every page with dialogue; I am just too lazy and corrupted by copypasting to type them up. As the verbal confrontation makes up for most of the drama and thus makes the book rely on dialogue heavily, this profusion of wood on the page is a flaw that gave me a bad toothache.
This did not seem to bother other readers, and I am not surprised: Americans expect foreigners to speak differently. If the phrase quoted above was uttered by a character named Jane Smith, an average reader would be aghast. But foreigners are different; they are expected to speak in perfect grammatical sentences, indistinguishable from narrative ones. It is still 19th century in Russia, and Constance Garnett (who single-handedly translated the entire Russian literary canon without adjusting one comma in her style) still rules supreme.
This did not seem to bother other readers, and I am not surprised: Americans expect foreigners to speak differently. If the phrase quoted above was uttered by a character named Jane Smith, an average reader would be aghast. But foreigners are different; they are expected to speak in perfect grammatical sentences, indistinguishable from narrative ones. It is still 19th century in Russia, and Constance Garnett (who single-handedly translated the entire Russian literary canon without adjusting one comma in her style) still rules supreme.
March 28, 2015
"When was the last time you tore through a work of literary fiction at the rate of a Tom Clancy thriller? Personally, when I discover I’m holding a smart novel that’s also a page turner, I get punchy. Not only have I spotted a unicorn; we are gamboling down the dale hand in hand. A novel of ideas and an engrossing story? It’s the umami experience: salty and sweet, yin and yang, the rocket scientist who is also a looker."
Boris Fishman in The New York Times
A underrated novel that surfs two massive waves at the same time: that of intrigue and that of politics. David Bezmozgis treads a little bit in Philip Roth territory here, with a main male character filled with irony, defiance and self-rightousness. A razor-sharp appraisal of Israeli politics and ambivalence, its current dilemmas and complex history as seen through the eyes of a man who both defends and questions the choices and trajectory of his nation.
A sharp-witted and intricate work of fiction.
Boris Fishman in The New York Times
A underrated novel that surfs two massive waves at the same time: that of intrigue and that of politics. David Bezmozgis treads a little bit in Philip Roth territory here, with a main male character filled with irony, defiance and self-rightousness. A razor-sharp appraisal of Israeli politics and ambivalence, its current dilemmas and complex history as seen through the eyes of a man who both defends and questions the choices and trajectory of his nation.
A sharp-witted and intricate work of fiction.
January 27, 2017
Courage,betrayal and forgiveness are all explored in this novel about. Russian Jewish refusnik who becomes a hero when liberated from the gulag and goes to live in Israel.
Of special interest are the author's remarks at the end of the paperback edition.
Of special interest are the author's remarks at the end of the paperback edition.
June 24, 2018
Shortish novel brimming with interesting ideas about fate, faith and fidelity. This was much more about contemporary Israeli politics than I had anticipated having read a collection of Bezmozgis's short stories a decade ago and nothing since. Neat, rather than breathtaking.
July 26, 2022
A great book on standing up for your beliefs and facing the past that comes back to haunt all of us. Although this book is only 225 pages, Mr. Bezmozgis creates a large cast of powerful characters who all grapple with what they have done in the past to create the life they have today. Well written, well formed, good read for sure..
November 7, 2014
David Bezmozgis saw his previous novel, "The Free World," nominated for the (2011) Giller Prize, and now this excellent new novel, "The Betrayers," has received a similar designation for the 2014 Giller Prize. This recognition underlines how well this author, born in Latvia and brought to Canada as a child, has come to write.
This year's 6 Giller nominees all convey a sense of social and political relevance that is unusual for English Canadian fiction. There are insights in the various novels into mental illness, the abuse of human rights, the devastations of war and terrorism, and the realities of poverty. This book, in particular, dissects the politics and associated personal betrayals of life in both the Soviet Union and Israel, particularly for those individuals who have been caught up in the shifts of Soviet Jews from the USSR to Israel.
This is a book worthy to win the 2014 Giller. Bezmogis brings alive the obscure corners of contemporary Yalta and recreates the compelling pressures facing Jews in the Soviet Union in its final years. The examination of betrayal in the novel is multifaceted and complex, presenting what for me is the most sophisticated and thoughtful set of themes in any of the nominated novels. The relationship between the main protagonist, Baruch Kotler, and his much younger lover, Leora, is also probed with an unsentimental authenticity that is compelling.
Perhaps there is less emotional intensity in this book than several of the other nominees. Perhaps the roots of the June-December love affair could have been probed more thoughtfully. But "The Betrayers" remains a deep and provocative novel that deals superbly with many of the realities of living at the heart of power, political conflict and personal emotions.
This year's 6 Giller nominees all convey a sense of social and political relevance that is unusual for English Canadian fiction. There are insights in the various novels into mental illness, the abuse of human rights, the devastations of war and terrorism, and the realities of poverty. This book, in particular, dissects the politics and associated personal betrayals of life in both the Soviet Union and Israel, particularly for those individuals who have been caught up in the shifts of Soviet Jews from the USSR to Israel.
This is a book worthy to win the 2014 Giller. Bezmogis brings alive the obscure corners of contemporary Yalta and recreates the compelling pressures facing Jews in the Soviet Union in its final years. The examination of betrayal in the novel is multifaceted and complex, presenting what for me is the most sophisticated and thoughtful set of themes in any of the nominated novels. The relationship between the main protagonist, Baruch Kotler, and his much younger lover, Leora, is also probed with an unsentimental authenticity that is compelling.
Perhaps there is less emotional intensity in this book than several of the other nominees. Perhaps the roots of the June-December love affair could have been probed more thoughtfully. But "The Betrayers" remains a deep and provocative novel that deals superbly with many of the realities of living at the heart of power, political conflict and personal emotions.
December 20, 2014
Why oh why do publishers do things like print books with no quotations? At least in this book they used the dash to indicate someone speaking, but still a lot of the time you don't know who is speaking. If there's an advantage to using weird punctuation, I wish someone would point it out.
So I'm frustrated with the lack of quotations, there's a lot of politics regarding Russia/Crimea...settlements in the West Bank, Zionism...I'm not the most well versed on these subjects, but I'm not clueless either. I get the big picture. There's a fair amount of Hebrew words and religious customs I'm unfamiliar with...but this is all on me. I don't expect all the books I read to be readily spoon-fed to middle aged, white American women. I even enjoyed my struggle with the book in some parts.
There are three main characters, none of which are likable. I'm tolerant of unlikable characters sometimes. But the two protagonists did not fall into this realm for me. There's a passage where the two men go on and on about whose fault their messed up lives are...each blaming the other for a moment in time that they let dictate the rest of their lives. One is a moral absolutist who isn't all that moral, the other guy...I don't know what he is. But at one point he's incredulous that the other man hasn't thanked him for putting him in the Gulag...if it weren't for his 13 year stint, he wouldn't be where he is today. I didn't know if it was supposed to be funny or not. The characters were a little over the top for me. I kept thinking "is he really that (selfish, stupid, uncaring etc...)" Also, the coincidence that Kotler just happened to run into his Gulag guy...pretty far fetched.
I wasn't feeling this book. But, I'm in the minority. So, happy reading.
So I'm frustrated with the lack of quotations, there's a lot of politics regarding Russia/Crimea...settlements in the West Bank, Zionism...I'm not the most well versed on these subjects, but I'm not clueless either. I get the big picture. There's a fair amount of Hebrew words and religious customs I'm unfamiliar with...but this is all on me. I don't expect all the books I read to be readily spoon-fed to middle aged, white American women. I even enjoyed my struggle with the book in some parts.
There are three main characters, none of which are likable. I'm tolerant of unlikable characters sometimes. But the two protagonists did not fall into this realm for me. There's a passage where the two men go on and on about whose fault their messed up lives are...each blaming the other for a moment in time that they let dictate the rest of their lives. One is a moral absolutist who isn't all that moral, the other guy...I don't know what he is. But at one point he's incredulous that the other man hasn't thanked him for putting him in the Gulag...if it weren't for his 13 year stint, he wouldn't be where he is today. I didn't know if it was supposed to be funny or not. The characters were a little over the top for me. I kept thinking "is he really that (selfish, stupid, uncaring etc...)" Also, the coincidence that Kotler just happened to run into his Gulag guy...pretty far fetched.
I wasn't feeling this book. But, I'm in the minority. So, happy reading.
May 27, 2017
This is an excellent book. I look forward to reading more of his work. It's a story what takes place in 24 hours. A former Soviet dissident and now a disgraced Israeli politician (do they really get THAT upset about a politician's infidelity in Israel?) is on the run with his mistress. They head for Yalta for a secret vacation. Unknowingly he is confronted by someone of great importance from his past. He and this person have to deal with their rediscovery of each other. The action of the book is simple but the richness of the author's descriptions of their pasts, their feelings and their thoughts makes this a compelling read. It all plays out against the backdrop of the problem of the Israel settlements in the West bank and how it involves everyone in Israel in different ways.
My only reservation is that both with the confrontation between the former friends and the reaction of the main character's wife to the entire situation, I felt the resolutions were a bit idealistic? fairy-tailish? But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It's not happy, it's not sad - it's just very human.
My only reservation is that both with the confrontation between the former friends and the reaction of the main character's wife to the entire situation, I felt the resolutions were a bit idealistic? fairy-tailish? But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It's not happy, it's not sad - it's just very human.
September 4, 2014
Book Review & Giveaway: David Bezmozgis is a multi-award-winning Canadian author and filmmaker who has taken to heart the advice given writers, i.e., to write what you know. For him, this means writing stories honoring his Eastern European Jewish roots. His latest novel, The Betrayers, is extremely timely because of the situation in the Ukraine and Crimea right now with Russia and because of escalating tensions between Israel and Palestine. Those situations caused him a few problems because The Betrayers is set in the present but the volatile realities kept outpacing his fiction. I’m sure he had several *head-desk* moments before publication.
I love novels like this one, which give me not just a glimpse at other cultures but delve deeply and honestly into the mindset of those cultures. I’m so happy the publisher has given us a copy of The Betrayers to use in a giveaway at http://popcornreads.com/?p=7674.
I love novels like this one, which give me not just a glimpse at other cultures but delve deeply and honestly into the mindset of those cultures. I’m so happy the publisher has given us a copy of The Betrayers to use in a giveaway at http://popcornreads.com/?p=7674.
October 23, 2014
(Canadian) Giller Prize Shortlist #2
Decent work. 'Moral thriller' (as someone describes it in the blurb) is a fair way of putting it. Refuseniks are a really interesting subject actually (and one I imagine Riga-born Bezmozgis is going to be well qualified to cover). The Yalta setting is pretty fertile too (I forgot about that trolleybus).
He also 'gets' Russia (in a way that A.D. Miller - who's on the blurb of the UK edition definitely didn't), meaning we're mostly spared the sentimental accordions-and-babushkas fare you'll get from many a Westerner (there's an accordion in it, but it makes a brief appearance).
Brave too to have made the protagonist a hoary Israeli right winger. I'm guessing this is vaguely based on Natan (Anatoli) Sharansky, who has always fascinated me - suffering dissident turned right wing crocodile.
All told, small and well formed, though probably too unfashionable a territory at the moment to go global. Kol haKavod, nevertheless.
Decent work. 'Moral thriller' (as someone describes it in the blurb) is a fair way of putting it. Refuseniks are a really interesting subject actually (and one I imagine Riga-born Bezmozgis is going to be well qualified to cover). The Yalta setting is pretty fertile too (I forgot about that trolleybus).
He also 'gets' Russia (in a way that A.D. Miller - who's on the blurb of the UK edition definitely didn't), meaning we're mostly spared the sentimental accordions-and-babushkas fare you'll get from many a Westerner (there's an accordion in it, but it makes a brief appearance).
Brave too to have made the protagonist a hoary Israeli right winger. I'm guessing this is vaguely based on Natan (Anatoli) Sharansky, who has always fascinated me - suffering dissident turned right wing crocodile.
All told, small and well formed, though probably too unfashionable a territory at the moment to go global. Kol haKavod, nevertheless.
July 15, 2014
I read this book in two sittings, but had I known from the start the sweep of the second half, I probably would have finished it in one. A well-paced plot and clean, sharp sentences guide you swiftly from the first word to the last, while immersing you in three-dimensional vistas, relationships, and dilemmas. Whether you are versed in the historical and contemporary geographical and political landscape or not, there is much intrigue and drama to bite into and enough context to situate you. As in the best novels, both the events and the words of The Betrayers will echo long after you close the book.
April 3, 2024
This would be a great book for a certain kind of book club. Hmmm....it's short and a quick read with good pacing. I was especially interested in the diverse characters different views on religion, morality, politics, and history - there's a lot to unpack!
June 2, 2019
An Israeli politician flees with his girlfriend to escape the public scandal from the liaison has caused. Arriving in the Crimea, in memory of an idyllic childhood holiday, he revisits the past. The author certainly has ambition but to my mind the story was too transparent a vehicle for the big questions. A more subtle set up would have resonated more.
January 22, 2016
Baruch Kotler and his young mistress, Leora, arrive in Yalta in Crimea, not so much for a vacation, but to flee the scandals that have begun to be exposed just as Kotler opposed the Israeli government’s plans to withdraw from the West Bank Settlements. From the minute they reach Yalta, not all is well. Having lost their hotel reservation, they return to the bus station where people compete for borders in their private houses. Kohler visited this town once during his childhood for a month so he has nostalgia for this place. This one vacation was followed by years of being a refusnik, then 13 years in the gulag after being betrayed by a fellow Zionist, then Pbhbt. to Israel where the woman he married just before his imprisonment, Miriam, has been living. Because of her work, Kotler had become a cause célèbre.
At the station they choose the home of a woman name Svetlana who she tells them, is married to a Jew. It turns out that Svetlana’s husband is the man who betrayed him all those years ago. He, Tankelivich, is living under an assumed name, no longer receives payment from the KGB, and for a small payment from the local heed, makes a three hour weekly bus trip to Simferopol to help make a minyan. Now that he’s reached 70, and there is no way to make a minyan, even with his presence, he would like to stop the weekly trip and continue to receive a small pension.
Upon his return home, Kotler gets a glimpse of him and realizes that Tankelivich is his old nemesis. The question remains, who suffered more? Kotler who served years in prison and came out a hero or Tankelivich who is penniless and would like to stop the weekly trips to Simferopol?
At the station they choose the home of a woman name Svetlana who she tells them, is married to a Jew. It turns out that Svetlana’s husband is the man who betrayed him all those years ago. He, Tankelivich, is living under an assumed name, no longer receives payment from the KGB, and for a small payment from the local heed, makes a three hour weekly bus trip to Simferopol to help make a minyan. Now that he’s reached 70, and there is no way to make a minyan, even with his presence, he would like to stop the weekly trip and continue to receive a small pension.
Upon his return home, Kotler gets a glimpse of him and realizes that Tankelivich is his old nemesis. The question remains, who suffered more? Kotler who served years in prison and came out a hero or Tankelivich who is penniless and would like to stop the weekly trips to Simferopol?
September 22, 2015
Loved this book. I will not repeat the plot, as so many did that before me. This novel is so well written, you don't find too many books that are written so well. Why did I take off a star? I found it somewhat difficult to get into it, but the second half totally drew me in. This book definitely makes you think. Although far fetched, it was important that Baruch and Tankilevich meet again, since that is a huge part of the story. It awed me, that although the novel covered only two days in the life of the characters, it was able to pull together not only the history of the protagonists, but the Soviet refusenik movement, Israel and the middle eastern conflicts, etc. It also makes you think about, morality, values and forgiveness. To me one of the highlight of the novel was Miriam's letter to her husband. On the negative side, I had a little trouble with how Kotler stood up for his principles regarding the West Bank settlements and his advice to his son.
Overall, great book.
Overall, great book.
January 31, 2015
I've been stuck on reviewing this book, basically because I just don't know what to say about it. So this will be a very, very short review. The premise was very interesting, a one-time Soviet refusenik who eventually emigrated to Israel and became a leading political figure, to then oppose Israeli policy and flee back to the Ukraine because of publicity about his scandalous affair with a young woman. The writing was excellent; the characters well-developed. I loved the historical slice contained within it. BUT... too many coincidences (he just HAPPENS to end up lodging at the home of the man who originally betrayed him?), and it just felt like a very long short story rather than a novel. Would I recommend it? not really? Would I say "don't read it"? not really... it was okay, but perhaps to a more literary-attuned mind, it would be better...
October 7, 2014
I think this story would have been a more interesting to me if I had a whole lot more knowledge of the history and struggles between the Israelis, Palestinians, Jewish people etc. etc. I think this book was well written, but was lost on me, for the most part, because of my ignorance
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