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שיעורים בפיתוח קול
קרע נקרע בין אח לאחות. פעם היו קרובים בלב ובנפש, ובשנים האחרונות השתררה ביניהם שתיקה. עכשיו מתמוטט האח ומיטלטל בין חיים למוות, ואחותו מוזעקת אל מיטת חוליו, שם היא מואשמת האשמה זדונית, כאילו מרוב אהבתה אל אחיה היא שהביאה עליו את אסונו. האומנם אהבה אותו “יותר מדי”, אהבה שאין עליה כפרה?
עשור אחרי ההצלחה הבינלאומית של גדר חיה והסערה שחולל סביבו, פונה דורית רביניאן בספרה הרביעי, הנועז מכל קודמיו, אל הגלעין המשפחתי העמוק ביותר ומתחקה אחרי חרדת החטא הטמונה בו: עד כמה מותר לאהוב בן משפחה ומאיזה רגע נהפכת האהבה לרגש אסור.
השאלה האמיצה הזאת תובעת תשובה פעמיים: פעם אחת בעלילתו של רומן בדוי שכתבה רביניאן וגנזה את פרסומו לפני שנים; ופעם אחרת בתולדות משפחתה האמיתית. שם וגם כאן טמון סוד, מעשה קיצוני שקשור באח קטן. נפתחת חקירה פנימית, מתעתעת, וככל שמעמיקים בה מתגלה כי אותה אשמה – אם אינה רק פרי דמיונה – כוונה אל בן משפחה אחר, קרוב אף יותר.
בעברית צלולה וסוחפת חוזרת רביניאן עם יצירה מפתיעה בתכניה ובמבנה המקורי שלה: “סיפור בתוך סיפור” שחושף את המציאות שמתחת לבדיה עם מה שרוחש במעמקיהן – רגש חתרני שאי אפשר עוד להתכחש אליו.
עשור אחרי ההצלחה הבינלאומית של גדר חיה והסערה שחולל סביבו, פונה דורית רביניאן בספרה הרביעי, הנועז מכל קודמיו, אל הגלעין המשפחתי העמוק ביותר ומתחקה אחרי חרדת החטא הטמונה בו: עד כמה מותר לאהוב בן משפחה ומאיזה רגע נהפכת האהבה לרגש אסור.
השאלה האמיצה הזאת תובעת תשובה פעמיים: פעם אחת בעלילתו של רומן בדוי שכתבה רביניאן וגנזה את פרסומו לפני שנים; ופעם אחרת בתולדות משפחתה האמיתית. שם וגם כאן טמון סוד, מעשה קיצוני שקשור באח קטן. נפתחת חקירה פנימית, מתעתעת, וככל שמעמיקים בה מתגלה כי אותה אשמה – אם אינה רק פרי דמיונה – כוונה אל בן משפחה אחר, קרוב אף יותר.
בעברית צלולה וסוחפת חוזרת רביניאן עם יצירה מפתיעה בתכניה ובמבנה המקורי שלה: “סיפור בתוך סיפור” שחושף את המציאות שמתחת לבדיה עם מה שרוחש במעמקיהן – רגש חתרני שאי אפשר עוד להתכחש אליו.
- GenresFamily
184 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 2025
4 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
Dorit Rabinyan
9 books128 followersDorit Rabinyan (Hebrew: דורית רביניאן) is an Israeli writer and screenwriter.
She was born in Kfar Saba to an Iranian Jewish family. She has published three novels, two of which have been widely translated. She has also published a poetry collection and an illustrated children's book. She also writes for television.
She was a close friend of Palestinian artist Hasan Hourani, and wrote a eulogy for him in The Guardian after his death in 2003.
Her 2014 novel Gader Haya (initially known as Borderlife in English, later published as All the Rivers), which tells a love story between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, has become the center of controversy. The novel was well-received and won the Bernstein Prize. In 2015, a committee of teachers requested Borderlife be added to the recommended curriculum for Hebrew high school literature classes. A committee in the Israeli Ministry of Education found the book inappropriate and declined to add it, on the grounds, according to The Economist, that it promotes intermarriage and assimilation. Dalia Fenig, the leading committee member, argued that the book "could do more harm than good" at this time of heightened tensions, though she noted the book was not banned and could be added next year. The decision led to protests from high school teachers and principals and opposition politician Isaac Herzog. Sales of the book have surged in the aftermath
She was born in Kfar Saba to an Iranian Jewish family. She has published three novels, two of which have been widely translated. She has also published a poetry collection and an illustrated children's book. She also writes for television.
She was a close friend of Palestinian artist Hasan Hourani, and wrote a eulogy for him in The Guardian after his death in 2003.
Her 2014 novel Gader Haya (initially known as Borderlife in English, later published as All the Rivers), which tells a love story between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, has become the center of controversy. The novel was well-received and won the Bernstein Prize. In 2015, a committee of teachers requested Borderlife be added to the recommended curriculum for Hebrew high school literature classes. A committee in the Israeli Ministry of Education found the book inappropriate and declined to add it, on the grounds, according to The Economist, that it promotes intermarriage and assimilation. Dalia Fenig, the leading committee member, argued that the book "could do more harm than good" at this time of heightened tensions, though she noted the book was not banned and could be added next year. The decision led to protests from high school teachers and principals and opposition politician Isaac Herzog. Sales of the book have surged in the aftermath
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 16, 2025
I have included a spoiler alert but it’s not like this book has a plot that can be spoiled.
Dorit Rabinyan is a gifted writer when it comes to describing her family and her personal experience. She has problems figuring out what to write about and how to structure a book. Considered formally, this book is simply a mess.
The first third or so is a partial summary of a 360 page draft of a novel that she wrote and then abandoned, actually destroying the manuscript and all electronic versions. The second and third sections (or maybe the two parts of the second section, whatever) are a confession/memoir of her life with her family. Part one is her early childhood, part 2 later childhood and adulthood, focusing on her father.
The abandoned novel tells the story of an Israeli woman (the heroine) studying theatre (and taking voice lessons, don’t forget the book title) in New York when she hears that her younger brother in Israel has had a severe heart attack and is in hospital in critical condition. She rushes back to Israel to be with him and her family. The visit goes on for weeks, at least. The reader learns that she and the brother had been unusually close as children extending into adulthood. But, the brother had withdrawn almost completely from their relationship after meeting his eventual wife and becoming religious. The wife has an ultra-orthodox aunt who has theorized - and told the heroine - that the reason for the brother’s illness is that he and the heroine had had sex as children; therefore they were married under Jewish law and needed a divorce. The heroine is, naturally, offended by the aunt and her suggestion but has this nagging suspicion that maybe she and her brother had done something improper as children. End of summary.
So why abandon a novel with what appears to be an intriguing plot? The author gives one reason initially and a second emerges during the course of the confessional part of the book. (Of course, if this were an actual confession, the author could have summarized the abandoned novel in a couple of pages, at most. Why make the summary such a large part of the book? Beats me.). The reason is that she feels guilt. Why? Because when she was three, her parents had a baby boy who was born with severe (not described) health issues. As we learn in Part 2, when the baby was born, the parents left little Dorit with her grandparents while they attended to their sick baby. Feeling abandoned, Dorit prayed for the baby to die, which he did. Somehow, this story, leads Dorit to start writing about her relationship with her parents, especially her father. This part of the book is the best reading because, as in her previous books, she is writing about her own family and life and her own feelings. Her father worked hard, but was very doting and affectionate to her and her four siblings born after the one who perished in infancy. Unfortunately, he died young, age 61, though he lived long enough to see Dorit have success as an author. The night before he died, Dorit had a dream about him which was sort of incestuous. The only reason I can think of why she describes this dream in such detail is that it underpins her second reason for abandoning the novel, that is, that she feels guilty about it and, therefore, cant write a novel that deals with the possibility of incest.
Neither of these guilt feelings seems like a good reason for abandoning the novel. Novelists routinely put themes and characters from their lives into their stories. Is the author really saying that she write about any topic that evokes memories that involve guilt?
I suspect that the real reason she abandoned the novel is that she doubted whether it worked, whether the characters she had created had authenticity. Her previous books (there is one I haven’t read) have all involved her family history or her personal story (All the Rivers). I can understand if she felt that way. From reading the summary, the plot feels contrived, though not so contrived that it couldn’t work if the characters were drawn properly to support it. I don’t know how her editor felt about it but I think it’s too bad that she abandoned it.
As someone who has invested the time to read four of her books (that are all very personal) I feel entitled to offer my two cents as to what is going on here. Rabinyan is very aware of discrimination by the Ashkenazim against the Mizrachim in Israel. She must also be aware of the burden she carries as the designated (by Ashkenazim, it seems to me) role of THE female Mizrachi author. I think that she is really having a problem figuring out how to fulfill that role. The abandoned book is her attempt at a conventional novel. It didn’t work. This book is the result. I wish she had followed through with the novel and kept the experiences she describes in Parts 2 and 3 for a better confession/memoir. The book’s title: Voice Lessons (literally translated it would be “lessons in developing a voice”) could be taken as what the book describes, that is, the author developing her own literary voice, but this is only true in the sense that it is true of ANY book. (As I mentioned, the heroine in part one is taking voice lessons to help her prepare for her role in production of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”. This tidbit is superfluous to the plot of the novel and seems to be there just to provide a little more justification for the book title.)
It takes guts to abandon a book and return a six figure advance. I wish she had the guts to complete the book, deal with the fallout, and get better as a novelist. Or decide to abandon the form after seeing how her first novel goes. If she keeps going like this, she will not really develop her voice any further.
Dorit Rabinyan is a gifted writer when it comes to describing her family and her personal experience. She has problems figuring out what to write about and how to structure a book. Considered formally, this book is simply a mess.
The first third or so is a partial summary of a 360 page draft of a novel that she wrote and then abandoned, actually destroying the manuscript and all electronic versions. The second and third sections (or maybe the two parts of the second section, whatever) are a confession/memoir of her life with her family. Part one is her early childhood, part 2 later childhood and adulthood, focusing on her father.
The abandoned novel tells the story of an Israeli woman (the heroine) studying theatre (and taking voice lessons, don’t forget the book title) in New York when she hears that her younger brother in Israel has had a severe heart attack and is in hospital in critical condition. She rushes back to Israel to be with him and her family. The visit goes on for weeks, at least. The reader learns that she and the brother had been unusually close as children extending into adulthood. But, the brother had withdrawn almost completely from their relationship after meeting his eventual wife and becoming religious. The wife has an ultra-orthodox aunt who has theorized - and told the heroine - that the reason for the brother’s illness is that he and the heroine had had sex as children; therefore they were married under Jewish law and needed a divorce. The heroine is, naturally, offended by the aunt and her suggestion but has this nagging suspicion that maybe she and her brother had done something improper as children. End of summary.
So why abandon a novel with what appears to be an intriguing plot? The author gives one reason initially and a second emerges during the course of the confessional part of the book. (Of course, if this were an actual confession, the author could have summarized the abandoned novel in a couple of pages, at most. Why make the summary such a large part of the book? Beats me.). The reason is that she feels guilt. Why? Because when she was three, her parents had a baby boy who was born with severe (not described) health issues. As we learn in Part 2, when the baby was born, the parents left little Dorit with her grandparents while they attended to their sick baby. Feeling abandoned, Dorit prayed for the baby to die, which he did. Somehow, this story, leads Dorit to start writing about her relationship with her parents, especially her father. This part of the book is the best reading because, as in her previous books, she is writing about her own family and life and her own feelings. Her father worked hard, but was very doting and affectionate to her and her four siblings born after the one who perished in infancy. Unfortunately, he died young, age 61, though he lived long enough to see Dorit have success as an author. The night before he died, Dorit had a dream about him which was sort of incestuous. The only reason I can think of why she describes this dream in such detail is that it underpins her second reason for abandoning the novel, that is, that she feels guilty about it and, therefore, cant write a novel that deals with the possibility of incest.
Neither of these guilt feelings seems like a good reason for abandoning the novel. Novelists routinely put themes and characters from their lives into their stories. Is the author really saying that she write about any topic that evokes memories that involve guilt?
I suspect that the real reason she abandoned the novel is that she doubted whether it worked, whether the characters she had created had authenticity. Her previous books (there is one I haven’t read) have all involved her family history or her personal story (All the Rivers). I can understand if she felt that way. From reading the summary, the plot feels contrived, though not so contrived that it couldn’t work if the characters were drawn properly to support it. I don’t know how her editor felt about it but I think it’s too bad that she abandoned it.
As someone who has invested the time to read four of her books (that are all very personal) I feel entitled to offer my two cents as to what is going on here. Rabinyan is very aware of discrimination by the Ashkenazim against the Mizrachim in Israel. She must also be aware of the burden she carries as the designated (by Ashkenazim, it seems to me) role of THE female Mizrachi author. I think that she is really having a problem figuring out how to fulfill that role. The abandoned book is her attempt at a conventional novel. It didn’t work. This book is the result. I wish she had followed through with the novel and kept the experiences she describes in Parts 2 and 3 for a better confession/memoir. The book’s title: Voice Lessons (literally translated it would be “lessons in developing a voice”) could be taken as what the book describes, that is, the author developing her own literary voice, but this is only true in the sense that it is true of ANY book. (As I mentioned, the heroine in part one is taking voice lessons to help her prepare for her role in production of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”. This tidbit is superfluous to the plot of the novel and seems to be there just to provide a little more justification for the book title.)
It takes guts to abandon a book and return a six figure advance. I wish she had the guts to complete the book, deal with the fallout, and get better as a novelist. Or decide to abandon the form after seeing how her first novel goes. If she keeps going like this, she will not really develop her voice any further.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 16, 2025
I read this pretentious and unconvincing novel by the overrated Dorit Rabinyan only because it was chosen by a book club I am in. If it gets translated into English, don't bother reading it. Ditto if you can read Hebrew.
It's not clear how much of the book is autobiography, pretty much all of it except the unfinishable novel she starts off with, I would guess. The narrator is so self-centered that her tribute to her late father is only about how she felt about him. Look at me writing!
It's not clear how much of the book is autobiography, pretty much all of it except the unfinishable novel she starts off with, I would guess. The narrator is so self-centered that her tribute to her late father is only about how she felt about him. Look at me writing!
March 24, 2025
The summery made me wonder, you think it's a normal novel about a family with problems until you read the book. You read about not only the story that is the main idea, but also about the writing journey, another character from the outside telling us the base, explaining to us through short stories what it is in this novel.
It was unique!
It was unique!
September 14, 2025
מאוד נהניתי מסגנון הכתיבה ומהעיסוק במשפחה, גבולות, ויחסים. רביניאן נוגעת ביד עדינה בטאבו של יחסים שיש בהן צעד או שניים מרחק ממגע מיני אסור בתוך המשפחה וכל מה
שכרוך בזה- תהיות, ספקות, אשמה וחרטה.
המבנה הצורני של הספר מאוד שונה (ואולי קצת מעצבן אפילו) והז׳אנר של הautofiction מרגיש לי קצת שחוק כבר. אבל בכל זאת חשבתי שהספר קולח, כייפי ומעורר מחשבה.
הלוואי שרביניאן תתנסה בכתיבת ספר שאיננו אוטופיקשן ותמשיך לכתוב בעברית המענגת, מרעננת ומשחקית שלה.
שכרוך בזה- תהיות, ספקות, אשמה וחרטה.
המבנה הצורני של הספר מאוד שונה (ואולי קצת מעצבן אפילו) והז׳אנר של הautofiction מרגיש לי קצת שחוק כבר. אבל בכל זאת חשבתי שהספר קולח, כייפי ומעורר מחשבה.
הלוואי שרביניאן תתנסה בכתיבת ספר שאיננו אוטופיקשן ותמשיך לכתוב בעברית המענגת, מרעננת ומשחקית שלה.
April 24, 2025
3.5 a very open part memoir , part recycled unpublished novel of a novelist who is a wizard of words.
Round up,
Round up,
June 18, 2025
מוזר. קשה לי לתאר אותו אבל הוא כן סוחף.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews