Bliss

by Ronit Matalon, Jessica Cohen (Translator)

Set in Tel Aviv and Paris, a powerful story of love, friendship, regret, and war, as current as today's headlines
Ronit Matalon's fiction has been praised as "haunting," "inventive," "refreshingly daring." Now in a graceful, illuminating second novel, she tells a provocative story of two loves, two partings, two worlds, two women: Ofra and Sarah.

When Ofra is called from Tel Aviv to France to attend the funeral of her beloved cousin Michel, she escapes a life lived vicariously through Sarah, her oldest friend, a photographer and political activist. In Paris, Ofra enters the embrace of her French family and the intimate world of domestic life, while Sarah, in Tel Aviv, drifts even farther from her husband, Udi. Drawn to a Palestinian nationalist, she takes on the fight for a girl from Gaza who has been injured by an Israeli bullet and needs medical treatment that can only be had inside Israel. As Sarah adopts the cause with near- destructive zeal and pledges herself to the suffering of others, her own child goes untended, with dreadful consequences for all.

Against a backdrop of national conflict, Bliss confronts the terrible dilemma of choosing between one's desires and one's beliefs, between grand ideological commitment and the more mundane claims of family. With vivid, penetrating prose, Matalon has delivered a large and resonant work that is as artful as it is affecting.

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Ronit Matalon, the author of The One Facing Us and Bliss, among other books, was one of Israel’s foremost writers. Her work was been translated into six languages and honored with the prestigious Bernstein Award; the French publication of The Sound of Our Steps won the Prix Alberto-Benveniste for 2013. A journalist and critic, Matalon taught comparative literature and creative writing at Haifa University and at the Sam Spiegel Film School in Jerusalem.

Reviews

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes it’s good to ignore Goodreads, as in this case, where the book received only two reviews, each one star. This is a beautifully written and translated novel that is primarily about the first-person narrator’s friendship with another woman her age, its high points and its low. But it’s the furthest thing from a buddy story. The relationship is odd, but odd in the way lots of long-term relationships are: lopsided, perverse, necessary, annoying. Also annoying sometimes is the way Matalon broke the chronology up into bits and pieces. But what bits and pieces! The prose style, the thoughts provoked, and the set pieces are wonderful.

I only wish I had had more time so that I could have read the book straight through. This practically plotless novel isn't for everyone, but it's very special and I highly recommend it.

P.S. The real title of this novel is Sarah, Sarah, the name of the narrator's friend, repeated for emphasis and frustration. Don't look for bliss here, except the bliss of reading a special book.

[Sasha · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't finish this book, got to the middle of it, and it's just boring and dragging! Not recommended!