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אקווריום
תארו לכם עולם אחר. הוא נע במקביל לזה שלכם כמו כדורים תואמים המייצרים בסיבובם צורת שמינייה. אבל יש לו זמן אחר. קשב אחר. שומעים בו דברים אחרים, למאכלים יש טעמים מודגשים יותר. נסו לעמוד שם על שתי רגליים ולאכול תות שדה, סוכרייה על מקל, טוסט גבינה. אבל לא תוכלו.
לילי ודורי אקרמן הן אחיות הספונות בעולם האגדי של ילדותן. בבית הכפרי שבו הן גדלות החירשות היא טבע ראשון, והן משקיפות על השומעים כעל דגים בתוך אקווריום. לילי ודורי, בלתי נפרדות, חיות בתוך גן עדן של גרוטאות מתכת. סביבן, תחת כנפיו של אביהן, נאספים פגועים ובעלי מום, מחכים לזמן מלכותם. אז באה הפרידה כמו סכין: דורי נאלצת לעבור לפנימייה ולילי נותרת מאחור. החיים מתפרצים פנימה והדממה יורדת למחתרת, שולחת מכתבים ריקים מתחת לפיתויים קורצים של מילים וגוף.
אקווריום הוא רומן מרהיב ומהפנט, המתחקה ביד– אמן אחר הפקעות האפלות והמקסימות של הילדות
שצומחות בחשאי אל בגרותנו; הוא מספר על הבתים הקוראים לנו לשוב אחרי שדימינו לעזוב אותם; על
בריתות שנדרשים חיים שלמים כדי להפר אותן ועל אהבה.
לילי ודורי אקרמן הן אחיות הספונות בעולם האגדי של ילדותן. בבית הכפרי שבו הן גדלות החירשות היא טבע ראשון, והן משקיפות על השומעים כעל דגים בתוך אקווריום. לילי ודורי, בלתי נפרדות, חיות בתוך גן עדן של גרוטאות מתכת. סביבן, תחת כנפיו של אביהן, נאספים פגועים ובעלי מום, מחכים לזמן מלכותם. אז באה הפרידה כמו סכין: דורי נאלצת לעבור לפנימייה ולילי נותרת מאחור. החיים מתפרצים פנימה והדממה יורדת למחתרת, שולחת מכתבים ריקים מתחת לפיתויים קורצים של מילים וגוף.
אקווריום הוא רומן מרהיב ומהפנט, המתחקה ביד– אמן אחר הפקעות האפלות והמקסימות של הילדות
שצומחות בחשאי אל בגרותנו; הוא מספר על הבתים הקוראים לנו לשוב אחרי שדימינו לעזוב אותם; על
בריתות שנדרשים חיים שלמים כדי להפר אותן ועל אהבה.
241 pages, Paperback
First published April 13, 2021
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3375 people want to read
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December 5, 2020tbh the low rating was scary until i realized this only has like 3 reviews lol
January 13, 2021
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
𝐈𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝.
I happened to read Aquarium while my hearing was slowly being restored, for the most part. Strange how books find their way to us in life with themes we can relate to. It truly is a fascinating coming of age story, written with a dash of the peculiar that I always look for in a novel. It begins with deaf sisters Lili and Dori Ackerman, two “disabled girls” who together complete a whole. Girls others see as defective, but they are not. They are not what they appear to be, they have their own secrets, even from each other. Sisters who talk in shadows on the walls with their hands. The sisters live in a parallel world that their father Alex and beautiful mother Anna (both deaf as well) have secured for their daughters. Theirs is a world that listens and sees differently from the rest, that scoffs at outside influence, that would only bring ruin and destruction with their ideas of what makes a person acceptable, that abhors any deviation of nature that doesn’t support their own ideal. Lili and Dori are the same shared story until they are divided by betrayal and the ‘civilized world’. The sisters begin as one but this charmed, wild childhood ends in division and from that point on both Dori and Lili no longer have each other to unearth meaning about the world outside or within them. Lili was always the ‘fact keeper’ and Dori the one who read the facts, the follower, how is she to separate fact from fiction without Lili’s guidance, her truth? It is a heartbreaking divide and it changes everything.
As the summary says, Alex collects and sells scrap metal, the girls basically supervise themselves, mother Anna is dedicated to the life she and Alex have chosen and ignore anything that doesn’t fall in line to their way of living. If Alex is a prophet, he has a purpose that neglects to account for his girls. There is a line about Alex’s brothers (the girl’s uncles) that stood out to me, “the other two were just along for the ride”, the same could be said of anyone in Alex’s orbit.
The writing is gorgeous, this is another read that had me highlighting passages like mad. Aquarium is a journey into our very identity and who are outside the sphere of our family. It is about the demands of our origins too, how we chose to fit in and if we are even given a choice to buck conventional attitudes, what it costs to do so. I wonder about the title too, it may be me reaching but fish in aquarium live in a universe of their own, they are also constantly observed though by those on the outside. There is a lot happening in this novel. Are the parents suspect? Is what they have chosen wrong? What happens if a shared story has holes in it? It’s hard to delve deeply into the thoughts this unique tale brought to my mind without giving away everything that occurs. That Alex and Anna have formed their own little community, shunning the hearing world and it’s ways, ‘the Ackerman family existed like weeds by the main road’ isn’t a problem in and of itself until their way of life spilled unto their neighbors. It is when the social worker arrives that, despite Lili and Dori’s parents preparations to appear ‘normal’, the house of cards collapses.
Yaara Shehori states this novel isn’t meant to represent the diverse deaf community. Though it’s fictional it is provocative. As I have mentioned, I had issues with my hearing recently, as I am watching my father losing his own, which makes me think really hard about how so called able-bodied people demand others fit into their world. Much as she isn’t speaking for said community, my little bout of hearing difficulty isn’t any sort of insight into people born deaf. Like anything else in life, we don’t really think about any of these things until we are faced with similar circumstances. It sounds funny coming from someone who raised an autistic son, but that doesn’t mean I have a clue about someone born deaf that wants to shun so called ‘cures’ or the hearing society anymore than I am an expert on what having autism feels like, only my son can answer that. Which, I must add, doesn’t speak for each individual’s experience with autism either. How we experience the world is unique, diverse and certainly this fictional tale asserts that truth. There truly are many worlds within our own. I think the wisest characters in the story aren’t Alex and Anna, but their beautiful daughters. I read Aquarium months ago and it has stayed on my mind since then. I was engrossed from the start and I loved the ending.
Yes, read it!
Publication Date: April 13, 2021
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
𝐈𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝.
I happened to read Aquarium while my hearing was slowly being restored, for the most part. Strange how books find their way to us in life with themes we can relate to. It truly is a fascinating coming of age story, written with a dash of the peculiar that I always look for in a novel. It begins with deaf sisters Lili and Dori Ackerman, two “disabled girls” who together complete a whole. Girls others see as defective, but they are not. They are not what they appear to be, they have their own secrets, even from each other. Sisters who talk in shadows on the walls with their hands. The sisters live in a parallel world that their father Alex and beautiful mother Anna (both deaf as well) have secured for their daughters. Theirs is a world that listens and sees differently from the rest, that scoffs at outside influence, that would only bring ruin and destruction with their ideas of what makes a person acceptable, that abhors any deviation of nature that doesn’t support their own ideal. Lili and Dori are the same shared story until they are divided by betrayal and the ‘civilized world’. The sisters begin as one but this charmed, wild childhood ends in division and from that point on both Dori and Lili no longer have each other to unearth meaning about the world outside or within them. Lili was always the ‘fact keeper’ and Dori the one who read the facts, the follower, how is she to separate fact from fiction without Lili’s guidance, her truth? It is a heartbreaking divide and it changes everything.
As the summary says, Alex collects and sells scrap metal, the girls basically supervise themselves, mother Anna is dedicated to the life she and Alex have chosen and ignore anything that doesn’t fall in line to their way of living. If Alex is a prophet, he has a purpose that neglects to account for his girls. There is a line about Alex’s brothers (the girl’s uncles) that stood out to me, “the other two were just along for the ride”, the same could be said of anyone in Alex’s orbit.
The writing is gorgeous, this is another read that had me highlighting passages like mad. Aquarium is a journey into our very identity and who are outside the sphere of our family. It is about the demands of our origins too, how we chose to fit in and if we are even given a choice to buck conventional attitudes, what it costs to do so. I wonder about the title too, it may be me reaching but fish in aquarium live in a universe of their own, they are also constantly observed though by those on the outside. There is a lot happening in this novel. Are the parents suspect? Is what they have chosen wrong? What happens if a shared story has holes in it? It’s hard to delve deeply into the thoughts this unique tale brought to my mind without giving away everything that occurs. That Alex and Anna have formed their own little community, shunning the hearing world and it’s ways, ‘the Ackerman family existed like weeds by the main road’ isn’t a problem in and of itself until their way of life spilled unto their neighbors. It is when the social worker arrives that, despite Lili and Dori’s parents preparations to appear ‘normal’, the house of cards collapses.
Yaara Shehori states this novel isn’t meant to represent the diverse deaf community. Though it’s fictional it is provocative. As I have mentioned, I had issues with my hearing recently, as I am watching my father losing his own, which makes me think really hard about how so called able-bodied people demand others fit into their world. Much as she isn’t speaking for said community, my little bout of hearing difficulty isn’t any sort of insight into people born deaf. Like anything else in life, we don’t really think about any of these things until we are faced with similar circumstances. It sounds funny coming from someone who raised an autistic son, but that doesn’t mean I have a clue about someone born deaf that wants to shun so called ‘cures’ or the hearing society anymore than I am an expert on what having autism feels like, only my son can answer that. Which, I must add, doesn’t speak for each individual’s experience with autism either. How we experience the world is unique, diverse and certainly this fictional tale asserts that truth. There truly are many worlds within our own. I think the wisest characters in the story aren’t Alex and Anna, but their beautiful daughters. I read Aquarium months ago and it has stayed on my mind since then. I was engrossed from the start and I loved the ending.
Yes, read it!
Publication Date: April 13, 2021
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
December 19, 2022
Deaf reader reviewing books with deaf characters. This book is listed on my ranked list of books with deaf characters.
Aquarium is a stream of consciousness novel, but even for all that the writing is convoluted and confusing at multiple points throughout the story. The author's writing is very flowery, metaphorical, and abstract. Even more confusing to me is that the hearing author writes the hearing character in 3rd POV and the deaf character in 1st POV. Shouldn't it be the opposite? Shehori also acknowledges the help of an ISL interpreter and deaf association members, but it’s not clear any deaf individuals provided any help/feedback on this novel. Otherwise, much of the blatant ableism probably wouldn't have made it into the final manuscript.
The story is told by two sisters, daughters of deaf parents. The big plot twist--spoiler alert--is that the younger daughter is hearing, not deaf. But of course they all sign and live together in an apartment, surrounded by hearing people.
Neither of the girls is sent to school, for some reason, even though there are schools for the deaf in Israel. A possible answer is that they do not want their children to be subjected to the abusive oralist practices at such schools for the deaf: one deaf villager tells of how sign language wasn’t allowed when she was a girl, and they tied her hands behind her back, etc.
Moreover, the parents are aware that Dori can hear, and many many many letters from school officials that the parents ignore. There is never an explanation for why they didn't inform the school they had decided to homeschool their daughters, unless it's cultural knowledge I'm missing (e.g., Israel doesn't allow homeschooling or something).
As far as the sensory orientations and experiences/culture of the deaf characters go, it's fairly accurate. Things like feeling vibrations, noticing flashing lights, being unintentionally loud, and lipreading are good to integrate into the story. Shehori also shows different ways of being deaf: signing, using assistive hearing technology (voluntarily and involuntarily), speaking, etc.
One big problem is that Shehori mythologizes/metaphorizes deaf sense-making. Evil winds blow knowledge into the ears, essentially, rather than their just being able to see what’s going on around them or their parents actually telling them things. This is an inspoporn narrative. You might be more familiar with its close cousin, the blind character who can make sense of [super]natural phenomena that sighted people cannot.
Another issue throughout the novel is that it’s not clear who is self-identifying as this or being perceived as that, who is thinking what about themselves or someone else, who is spreading rumors and who is telling the truth, etc. For example:
“Only on the apple tree were they okay: two daughters of the forest. Two imps. Deaf. Half retarded. Illiterate. Leave them alone.”
Um? "Okay" meaning what, free? Then "half r-slur" meaning that one or both have intellectual disabilities? It seems these are the rumors by the neighbors of the apartment complex, but this is never made clear, as it comes several paragraphs after the neighbors were mentioned and the author had already moved on to discussing the girls' routines.
As far as the deaf rep goes, the number one biggest problem is inconsistency in identity/voice. Propaganda and ideologies about deafness are thrown in at random throughout the book, and the author is apparently confused about assistive hearing technology, because very little of what she writes makes sense.
It seems that Lili, the older sister, is profoundly deaf from the beginning, but when she gets hearing aids (and then cochlear implants) she considers herself to be hearing, even though Lili thinks hearing is "painful." If one could just remember that aids and implants are not cures, and that virtually no one who uses them label themselves as "hearing," this big mess would have been straightened out! But no, the author's intention is to grapple with identity by metaphorizing hearingness and deafness--which I'll touch on later.
Lili can apparently hear everything with aids, even insects in the nearby field while she is inside the house. I'm not even sure it's possible for hearing people to hear insects outside the house in a field beyond the yard. Further, it’s not at all clear why someone who can hear insects with aids would even qualify for cochlear implants in the first place. Then in the US Lili identifies as deaf again, but not without this quote: “Who would want a deaf psychologist? Maybe because I was no longer deaf, not entirely, but instead living in the eternal in-between position of someone who went through a modification to please you, the hearing…I can hear. I’ve been hearing for some time.”
Lili and Dori's mother, who was late-deafened/hard of hearing, opts for cochlear implantation and separates from her "deaf power" husband. The author does not meaningfully address this choice, except in the context that Lili and her mother finally have a conversation for once because they can apparently finally understand each other.
In the beginning of the novel we are introduced to Uriel, a hard of hearing boy who wears hearing aids and looks miserable every day as he trudges to school, where Lili and Dori don’t go. He disappears from the narrative until 11th grade, when Uriel transfers to Lili's school. He and Lili speak, occasionally sim-com. At one point, Uriel mentions he got cochlear implants, and Lili is appalled. She tells him he’s not normal, he’s a robot. (This stems from anti-tech propaganda that was prominent in the early, experimental years of cochlear implantation.)
In all cases of characters who get implanted, there is no mention of the years of oralist training required to use aids/implants. The confusing representation of how the tech works, who uses them and why, very clearly marks the author as a hearing person.
Now, let's discuss Dori, the hearing daughter.
She was raised in a deaf household and not allowed to really socialize with hearing people, so of course she identifies as deaf and has deaf mannerisms, like many Codas (children of deaf adults) do.
Somehow, school officials get the idea that Dori is autistic. It is never made clear why they wouldn't assume she is deaf. A social worker does a whole case study on her and everything, and is widely discredited when it's discovered that Dori is not neurodivergent or disabled. It's never made clear how he even came to get in touch with this family and get permission to study Dori for his thesis. Anyway, school officials decide to come over and observe Dori, which is the point they realize she's a hearing child being "cut off" from the world.
After this visit the family moves away, but social worker keeps coming. This move doesn't stop the government from kidnapping Dori to a boarding school, where it’s decided her intellectual capacity was stunted by a signed language that rendered her mute. They treat her like an infant (helping feed and dress her) until they realize the helplessness is rebellion (as Dori wants to go home). It's not clear why Dori wouldn't have been sent to one of her hearing uncles to be raised/schooled.
Dori's family never visits, and in fact, Lili insists that Dori is dead. The rationale behind this is never explained. It's not like Dori betrayed them or anything. What gives?
Meanwhile, Lili is forced to wear hearing aids and go to school. She almost never speaks. She pretends to be a deaf-mute and sits and smiles even though she can hear people whispering and gossiping around her. People find her mystical and she becomes super popular. This is weird, for a variety of reasons. The most prominent being that children are horrible and generally aren't going to fawn over someone who never communicates to them (which I know from firsthand experience!).
After graduation, Dori decides to pretend to be deaf and become a deaf peddler--selling sign language cards to people trying to enjoy their coffees at the cafes around town. She eventually teams up with a deaf man named Dima. They rely on Dori's hearing to know when it’s time to leave the area.
Lastly, the reason Shehori can't keep hearing and deaf identities straight: she wants to show the fluidity of identity. Dori struggles with identity, still thinks of herself as deaf, whereas now Lili considers herself hearing post-surgery. And blah blah blah. But Shehori could have done that while being respectful and accurate to the deaf experience and culture, which she wasn't.
Aquarium is a stream of consciousness novel, but even for all that the writing is convoluted and confusing at multiple points throughout the story. The author's writing is very flowery, metaphorical, and abstract. Even more confusing to me is that the hearing author writes the hearing character in 3rd POV and the deaf character in 1st POV. Shouldn't it be the opposite? Shehori also acknowledges the help of an ISL interpreter and deaf association members, but it’s not clear any deaf individuals provided any help/feedback on this novel. Otherwise, much of the blatant ableism probably wouldn't have made it into the final manuscript.
The story is told by two sisters, daughters of deaf parents. The big plot twist--spoiler alert--is that the younger daughter is hearing, not deaf. But of course they all sign and live together in an apartment, surrounded by hearing people.
Neither of the girls is sent to school, for some reason, even though there are schools for the deaf in Israel. A possible answer is that they do not want their children to be subjected to the abusive oralist practices at such schools for the deaf: one deaf villager tells of how sign language wasn’t allowed when she was a girl, and they tied her hands behind her back, etc.
Moreover, the parents are aware that Dori can hear, and many many many letters from school officials that the parents ignore. There is never an explanation for why they didn't inform the school they had decided to homeschool their daughters, unless it's cultural knowledge I'm missing (e.g., Israel doesn't allow homeschooling or something).
As far as the sensory orientations and experiences/culture of the deaf characters go, it's fairly accurate. Things like feeling vibrations, noticing flashing lights, being unintentionally loud, and lipreading are good to integrate into the story. Shehori also shows different ways of being deaf: signing, using assistive hearing technology (voluntarily and involuntarily), speaking, etc.
One big problem is that Shehori mythologizes/metaphorizes deaf sense-making. Evil winds blow knowledge into the ears, essentially, rather than their just being able to see what’s going on around them or their parents actually telling them things. This is an inspoporn narrative. You might be more familiar with its close cousin, the blind character who can make sense of [super]natural phenomena that sighted people cannot.
Another issue throughout the novel is that it’s not clear who is self-identifying as this or being perceived as that, who is thinking what about themselves or someone else, who is spreading rumors and who is telling the truth, etc. For example:
“Only on the apple tree were they okay: two daughters of the forest. Two imps. Deaf. Half retarded. Illiterate. Leave them alone.”
Um? "Okay" meaning what, free? Then "half r-slur" meaning that one or both have intellectual disabilities? It seems these are the rumors by the neighbors of the apartment complex, but this is never made clear, as it comes several paragraphs after the neighbors were mentioned and the author had already moved on to discussing the girls' routines.
As far as the deaf rep goes, the number one biggest problem is inconsistency in identity/voice. Propaganda and ideologies about deafness are thrown in at random throughout the book, and the author is apparently confused about assistive hearing technology, because very little of what she writes makes sense.
It seems that Lili, the older sister, is profoundly deaf from the beginning, but when she gets hearing aids (and then cochlear implants) she considers herself to be hearing, even though Lili thinks hearing is "painful." If one could just remember that aids and implants are not cures, and that virtually no one who uses them label themselves as "hearing," this big mess would have been straightened out! But no, the author's intention is to grapple with identity by metaphorizing hearingness and deafness--which I'll touch on later.
Lili can apparently hear everything with aids, even insects in the nearby field while she is inside the house. I'm not even sure it's possible for hearing people to hear insects outside the house in a field beyond the yard. Further, it’s not at all clear why someone who can hear insects with aids would even qualify for cochlear implants in the first place. Then in the US Lili identifies as deaf again, but not without this quote: “Who would want a deaf psychologist? Maybe because I was no longer deaf, not entirely, but instead living in the eternal in-between position of someone who went through a modification to please you, the hearing…I can hear. I’ve been hearing for some time.”
Lili and Dori's mother, who was late-deafened/hard of hearing, opts for cochlear implantation and separates from her "deaf power" husband. The author does not meaningfully address this choice, except in the context that Lili and her mother finally have a conversation for once because they can apparently finally understand each other.
In the beginning of the novel we are introduced to Uriel, a hard of hearing boy who wears hearing aids and looks miserable every day as he trudges to school, where Lili and Dori don’t go. He disappears from the narrative until 11th grade, when Uriel transfers to Lili's school. He and Lili speak, occasionally sim-com. At one point, Uriel mentions he got cochlear implants, and Lili is appalled. She tells him he’s not normal, he’s a robot. (This stems from anti-tech propaganda that was prominent in the early, experimental years of cochlear implantation.)
In all cases of characters who get implanted, there is no mention of the years of oralist training required to use aids/implants. The confusing representation of how the tech works, who uses them and why, very clearly marks the author as a hearing person.
Now, let's discuss Dori, the hearing daughter.
She was raised in a deaf household and not allowed to really socialize with hearing people, so of course she identifies as deaf and has deaf mannerisms, like many Codas (children of deaf adults) do.
Somehow, school officials get the idea that Dori is autistic. It is never made clear why they wouldn't assume she is deaf. A social worker does a whole case study on her and everything, and is widely discredited when it's discovered that Dori is not neurodivergent or disabled. It's never made clear how he even came to get in touch with this family and get permission to study Dori for his thesis. Anyway, school officials decide to come over and observe Dori, which is the point they realize she's a hearing child being "cut off" from the world.
After this visit the family moves away, but social worker keeps coming. This move doesn't stop the government from kidnapping Dori to a boarding school, where it’s decided her intellectual capacity was stunted by a signed language that rendered her mute. They treat her like an infant (helping feed and dress her) until they realize the helplessness is rebellion (as Dori wants to go home). It's not clear why Dori wouldn't have been sent to one of her hearing uncles to be raised/schooled.
Dori's family never visits, and in fact, Lili insists that Dori is dead. The rationale behind this is never explained. It's not like Dori betrayed them or anything. What gives?
Meanwhile, Lili is forced to wear hearing aids and go to school. She almost never speaks. She pretends to be a deaf-mute and sits and smiles even though she can hear people whispering and gossiping around her. People find her mystical and she becomes super popular. This is weird, for a variety of reasons. The most prominent being that children are horrible and generally aren't going to fawn over someone who never communicates to them (which I know from firsthand experience!).
After graduation, Dori decides to pretend to be deaf and become a deaf peddler--selling sign language cards to people trying to enjoy their coffees at the cafes around town. She eventually teams up with a deaf man named Dima. They rely on Dori's hearing to know when it’s time to leave the area.
Lastly, the reason Shehori can't keep hearing and deaf identities straight: she wants to show the fluidity of identity. Dori struggles with identity, still thinks of herself as deaf, whereas now Lili considers herself hearing post-surgery. And blah blah blah. But Shehori could have done that while being respectful and accurate to the deaf experience and culture, which she wasn't.
October 27, 2018
הכתיבה של יערה שחורי טובה מאוד טכנית אבל ברמה הרגשית אני לא מצליחה להתחבר לדמויות שלה. לא להרגיש אמפטיה. לא להרגיש שמחה. לא להרגיש צער. פשוט לא להרגיש כלום. וזה כבר ספר שני שלה שאני קוראת ופשוט כלום. לא נהניתי מהקריאה.
הסיפור, הוא סיפורה של משפחה הסובלת מלקות שמיעה ובמיוחד הקשר הסמיביוטי בין האחיות לילי ודורי. קשר שימשיך להשפיע על חייהן גם לאחר שהן יקרעו אחת מהשניה באופן פתאומי ואכזרי.
הספר מחולק ל- 4 חטיבות: בחטיבה הראשונה סיפור ילדותן של לילי ודורי. סיפור התבודדות בעולם משלהן בשל הלקות של השמיעה ובשל אכזריות הילדים שמסביב שאינם מקבלים את השונה. בחטיבה השניה מתוארים חייה של לילי לאחר הקריעה מדורי ובחטיבה השלישית חייה של דורי. בחלק האחרון מתוארת השיבה של דורי לבית הוריה.
היו פרקים טובים בספר שהצליחו לדבר אלי והצלחתי להרגיש משהו ביחס לדמויות, אבל איכשהו הם התמוססו ונבלעו בין הפרקים האחרים שלא דיברו אלי. בסופו של יום, זו כנראה אני שלא מסוגלת להתחבר לספרים של שחורי.
הסיפור, הוא סיפורה של משפחה הסובלת מלקות שמיעה ובמיוחד הקשר הסמיביוטי בין האחיות לילי ודורי. קשר שימשיך להשפיע על חייהן גם לאחר שהן יקרעו אחת מהשניה באופן פתאומי ואכזרי.
הספר מחולק ל- 4 חטיבות: בחטיבה הראשונה סיפור ילדותן של לילי ודורי. סיפור התבודדות בעולם משלהן בשל הלקות של השמיעה ובשל אכזריות הילדים שמסביב שאינם מקבלים את השונה. בחטיבה השניה מתוארים חייה של לילי לאחר הקריעה מדורי ובחטיבה השלישית חייה של דורי. בחלק האחרון מתוארת השיבה של דורי לבית הוריה.
היו פרקים טובים בספר שהצליחו לדבר אלי והצלחתי להרגיש משהו ביחס לדמויות, אבל איכשהו הם התמוססו ונבלעו בין הפרקים האחרים שלא דיברו אלי. בסופו של יום, זו כנראה אני שלא מסוגלת להתחבר לספרים של שחורי.
March 10, 2023
DNF… y’all I am not a quitter and I had to give up on this one… I have 60 pages left and still can’t do it.
December 10, 2020
Aquarium is one of those rare books in which every line is poetry. Reading it was like reading something very personal, a secret that only I get to discover. Can't believe I won't get to follow Dori and Lili anymore, for me they are very much alive. Yaara Shehori is a wizard of words. Powerful and virtuously written!
March 25, 2021
TL;DR: Aquarium is an enigmatic coming-of-age story written in poetic prose and full of confusing, surprising, and unsettling relationships. My rating: 3 of 5 stars.
CW: ableism, child abuse/neglect, cults, toxic family relationships & estrangement
I wanted to love Aquarium. For one, it’s about sisters, and I LOVE a sister story. Two, I read very little literature featuring characters with disabilities, and despite the fact that the author herself is hearing, she appears to have done thorough research in deaf communities. Three, I’m striving to read more literature in translation (this story was originally written in Hebrew).
All in all, I think Aquarium’s plot and narration were too enigmatic and its prose too poetic for my personal tastes. The sisters--Lili and Dori--were not reliable narrators, which becomes especially clear by the end of the book when secondary characters are introduced as chapter narrators (after the majority of the book is limited to Lili and Dori’s perspectives). Early on, their unreliability was because they were young children. Dori was understandably confused when she (alone, without her sister) was removed from her childhood home, placed in a state institution, and fretted over by researchers, psychologists, and social workers. Later on in the book, their unreliability stems from the fact that as adults both women seem pretty stunted in their ability to relate interpersonally to others. This is perhaps unsurprising since they were raised in a maybe-cult (never outright confirmed). Their parents moved them as young girls onto a remote rural compound where their intense authoritative father amassed a following of apostles to his dogmatic creed that the hearing world was bad and to be rejected in all forms, including using assistive technology such as hearing aids and cochlear implants.
On top of the narration, the prose is very poetic, which was beautiful, but also frustrating for a reader like myself who’s partial to more direct writing.
I also had some feelings about the supporting male characters in the lives of Lili and Dori. In particular, Dori’s young adult romantic-ish partner, Anton, gave me some weird vibes. He listens with rapt, almost fetishistic, attention to Dori’s stories about her confusing and traumatic childhood, which she seems to dole out in snippets to prolong his romantic interest in her. When Dori leaves the custody of the state, she takes up panhandling in coffee shops, seemingly as a coping mechanism for reconciling her childhood with her identity as a hearing person. Anton is fascinated by this habit and gets voyeuristic enjoyment from accompanying her to watch. When Dori shows him letters she’s received from Lili, many unopened, he reads them and develops a somewhat obsessive parasocial relationship with her, the sister he’s never met. This book is full of relationships and characters that are interesting because they are confusing, or surprising, or unsettling.
I did really, really enjoy the descriptions of sign language and the characters’ code switching between their language and lip-reading and speaking.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for giving me advance access to this book in exchange for an honest review.
CW: ableism, child abuse/neglect, cults, toxic family relationships & estrangement
I wanted to love Aquarium. For one, it’s about sisters, and I LOVE a sister story. Two, I read very little literature featuring characters with disabilities, and despite the fact that the author herself is hearing, she appears to have done thorough research in deaf communities. Three, I’m striving to read more literature in translation (this story was originally written in Hebrew).
All in all, I think Aquarium’s plot and narration were too enigmatic and its prose too poetic for my personal tastes. The sisters--Lili and Dori--were not reliable narrators, which becomes especially clear by the end of the book when secondary characters are introduced as chapter narrators (after the majority of the book is limited to Lili and Dori’s perspectives). Early on, their unreliability was because they were young children. Dori was understandably confused when she (alone, without her sister) was removed from her childhood home, placed in a state institution, and fretted over by researchers, psychologists, and social workers. Later on in the book, their unreliability stems from the fact that as adults both women seem pretty stunted in their ability to relate interpersonally to others. This is perhaps unsurprising since they were raised in a maybe-cult (never outright confirmed). Their parents moved them as young girls onto a remote rural compound where their intense authoritative father amassed a following of apostles to his dogmatic creed that the hearing world was bad and to be rejected in all forms, including using assistive technology such as hearing aids and cochlear implants.
On top of the narration, the prose is very poetic, which was beautiful, but also frustrating for a reader like myself who’s partial to more direct writing.
I also had some feelings about the supporting male characters in the lives of Lili and Dori. In particular, Dori’s young adult romantic-ish partner, Anton, gave me some weird vibes. He listens with rapt, almost fetishistic, attention to Dori’s stories about her confusing and traumatic childhood, which she seems to dole out in snippets to prolong his romantic interest in her. When Dori leaves the custody of the state, she takes up panhandling in coffee shops, seemingly as a coping mechanism for reconciling her childhood with her identity as a hearing person. Anton is fascinated by this habit and gets voyeuristic enjoyment from accompanying her to watch. When Dori shows him letters she’s received from Lili, many unopened, he reads them and develops a somewhat obsessive parasocial relationship with her, the sister he’s never met. This book is full of relationships and characters that are interesting because they are confusing, or surprising, or unsettling.
I did really, really enjoy the descriptions of sign language and the characters’ code switching between their language and lip-reading and speaking.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for giving me advance access to this book in exchange for an honest review.
April 13, 2021
~ Thank you NetGalley and Aquarium’s publisher for a gifted copy of this book ~
Stars: 3.5
Worth the hype?: This author and translator deserves hype, the writing itself was special
Reading Pace: Medium
Reading Ease: Hard
It’s important to remember that Aquarium is an English translation of an originally Hebrew text. And I do think that parts of this book were lost in translation.
I loved the sisters, Lili and Dori. I loved the writing, the author (and translator) has a poetic way of stringing words together. I liked the story and the overall idea of Aquarium, however, I found it extremely difficult to follow in parts. In Part 3 and 4, the plot line jumps, skips, and goes backward without warning. Have a question about what happened or what is happening? Wait a few pages, or a few dozen pages, or perhaps until the end. But get to the end.
The end of this book is worth every page that comes before it. The end blew me away. Surprised me. Shocked me. Made me pause, go back, and reread the ending.
Is this a difficult read? Absolutely.
Is it a good story? Also, absolutely.
But it’s an uphill (sometimes sideways, sometimes sliding back down) trek from the first page to the last.
Stars: 3.5
Worth the hype?: This author and translator deserves hype, the writing itself was special
Reading Pace: Medium
Reading Ease: Hard
It’s important to remember that Aquarium is an English translation of an originally Hebrew text. And I do think that parts of this book were lost in translation.
I loved the sisters, Lili and Dori. I loved the writing, the author (and translator) has a poetic way of stringing words together. I liked the story and the overall idea of Aquarium, however, I found it extremely difficult to follow in parts. In Part 3 and 4, the plot line jumps, skips, and goes backward without warning. Have a question about what happened or what is happening? Wait a few pages, or a few dozen pages, or perhaps until the end. But get to the end.
The end of this book is worth every page that comes before it. The end blew me away. Surprised me. Shocked me. Made me pause, go back, and reread the ending.
Is this a difficult read? Absolutely.
Is it a good story? Also, absolutely.
But it’s an uphill (sometimes sideways, sometimes sliding back down) trek from the first page to the last.
July 25, 2021
I was expecting much better from this one. The original version (this was translated from Hebrew) has won awards and been highly praised. However, I just did not connect with it at all.
The premise was really good and there were parts of the story that I think gave the structure some excellent bones, but the execution was just not there for me. The writing was choppy and sometimes made absolutely no sense. The word usage was often a bit awkward and sentence structures did not feel right.
The organization of the plot caused me a lot of problems and I think kept me from bonding with any of the characters. Things moved so slowly that I just couldn't connect or be bothered to care. I wanted this to be a lot more than I was given. The outline version would still draw my interest now that I know how the book goes, the writing just didn't flesh the story out in a way that worked for me. I think it had promise, but just did not get there. Once again, maybe if I had been able to read it in the original language my experience would have been different.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
The premise was really good and there were parts of the story that I think gave the structure some excellent bones, but the execution was just not there for me. The writing was choppy and sometimes made absolutely no sense. The word usage was often a bit awkward and sentence structures did not feel right.
The organization of the plot caused me a lot of problems and I think kept me from bonding with any of the characters. Things moved so slowly that I just couldn't connect or be bothered to care. I wanted this to be a lot more than I was given. The outline version would still draw my interest now that I know how the book goes, the writing just didn't flesh the story out in a way that worked for me. I think it had promise, but just did not get there. Once again, maybe if I had been able to read it in the original language my experience would have been different.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
December 8, 2022
I was genuinely so confused throughout the entire book. I’m not sure if it was lost in translation or if reading it at a busy coffee shop made it that much harder to understand. While reading I struggled to create images of the characters in my head and the timeline wasn’t very clear. I think my least favorite part of it all was having no idea of where the storyline was going and still having no clue where it ended up. I rated it a generous 2 stars, but it was almost a 1 star rating for me.
March 30, 2021
Thank you to the author, Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I loved the premise of this story, but I had a terrible time with this book. I found the writing style too meandering, convoluted and enigmatic - much of the time I was guessing at what the author was trying to say, and I kept having to go back and reread to have even a slight chance of understanding the narrative. Reaching the end was more of a relief at being done with it, than anything else.
I loved the premise of this story, but I had a terrible time with this book. I found the writing style too meandering, convoluted and enigmatic - much of the time I was guessing at what the author was trying to say, and I kept having to go back and reread to have even a slight chance of understanding the narrative. Reaching the end was more of a relief at being done with it, than anything else.
August 1, 2023
I will admit that it took me way too long to finish reading this, but only because I kept having to re-read chunks of text!
The passage of time in the novel felt totally incomprehensible to me, and while there were moments of lucidity in the exploration of the girls' shared pain and memories, the addition of constant shifts in perspective from first to third person left me very confused. I simply could not comprehend any real sense of scale (emotional, physical, human...) the entire time I was reading...
The passage of time in the novel felt totally incomprehensible to me, and while there were moments of lucidity in the exploration of the girls' shared pain and memories, the addition of constant shifts in perspective from first to third person left me very confused. I simply could not comprehend any real sense of scale (emotional, physical, human...) the entire time I was reading...
September 4, 2016
הספר התחיל חזק מאד, בתיאורים מרגשים ופשוט יפים. הדמויות של דורי ולילי הילדות נצבעו כמו שיר פיוטי וכך גם הבית העצוב שבו הן חיות. נראה שמהרגע שהן נקרעות אחת מהשניה הסיפור מאבד כיוון. חלק ממנו הוא כמובן זה שהן לא מוצאות את עצמן, אבל לי זו בעיקר עבר כמריחה. חבל, התאהבתי בספר בתחילה, וממש התאמצתי להגיע לסופו. כך שהחצי הראשון מקבל 4 כוכבים והחצי השני 2, במומצע יצא שלוש...
September 27, 2022
This was a book club book that someone obviously really liked. I honestly just couldn't get into it. It was a weird story if a story at all. To me, it had no real plot to me. It was a translation from Hebrew and the book won awards, but I just found it (to be kind) esoteric.
May 3, 2021
After all, the two of them knew so little about what happened outside of them, they caught specks of dust and thought, here's a star, here's the whole world.
Sisters Lili and Dori live largely sequestered lives. Born deaf to deaf parents, Anna and Alex Ackerman, their father decides against assimilating his daughters into the hearing community, and the family moves to the county. Mostly left to their own devices (besides school lessons from their mother), the girls are on their own, engaging in storytelling, writing, and mischief. Until one day, abrupt change comes and Lili and Dori's lives diverge.
Yaara Shehori has a way with words- I thought the fanciful imagery (most notable in the beginning of the story) conveyed the girls' distorted vision of the world, as well as where they stood in society, as seen from inside their "aquarium."
In Dori's eyes, the other children were a cluster, like a bunch of grapes. Everyone grew on the same stalk, close together and quite similar, waiting to ripen and explode from too much juicy sweetness.
As they spend more time apart from each other and their family home, the colorful, descriptive language is exchanged for more sobering metaphor, though the color is never completely gone. I really enjoyed the author's careful consideration of observation, from the girls' worldview to descriptions of bodies, faces and expressions, and, particularly, the deft movement (or stillness) of hands.
Dori, who saw four hands that couldn't find a proper task. Uncle Noah interlaced his fingers and then released them. Ari's hands lay dead on his knees.
Now where I had some issue was with the plot. I can't pinpoint exactly when (perhaps the latter half), but I felt the author's hand meandered a few too many times, and my concentration would follow. I was never bored, but found my eyes straying from the page more than once.
_____________________
I can't speak for the deaf representation in Aquarium, but I thought there was sensitivity in the way Shehori portrayed her characters. Furthermore, I appreciated the range of expressive and beautiful language and imagery, and found this a quite clever and poignant debut.
3.25 stars
September 23, 2020
Thank you NetGalley and Farrah, Straus and Giroux for the ARC copy of this book and giving me the opportunity to review it.
Sisters Lili and Dori Ackerman are deaf. Their parents—beautiful, despondent Anna; fearsome and admired Alex—are deaf too. Alex, a scrap-metal collector and sometime prophet, opposes any attempts to integrate with the world of the hearing; to escape its destructive influence, the girls are educated at home. Deafness is no disability, their father says, but an alternative way of life, preferable by far to that of the strident, hypocritical hearing.
Lili and Dori grow up semi-feral, living in a world they have created together. Lili writes down everything that happens, just the facts. And Dori, the reader, follows her. On the block where the girls spend their childhood, the family is united against a hostile and alien world. They watch the hearing like they would fish in an aquarium.
But when the outside world intrudes, the cracks that begin to form will span the rest of their lives. Separated from the family that ingrained in them a sense of uniqueness and alienation, Lili and Dori must relearn how to live, and how to tell their own stories.
“You can read whatever you want but I only write the truth,” she signed. “Nothing but the truth.”
The subject of this novel grabbed my attention and it quickly went on my to be read list. The writing in the book itself is intricately beautiful. It is not a fast paced tale, but rather one that coaxes your interest with a delicate weaving a character development and plot. It is at times hard to follow and the flashbacks make it difficult to always understand where the reader is in the timeline of the story. It is a translated story and I wonder if some of the punch got lost in the translation except that the writing itself is a beautiful example of the written word. I give the book a solid three stars.
Sisters Lili and Dori Ackerman are deaf. Their parents—beautiful, despondent Anna; fearsome and admired Alex—are deaf too. Alex, a scrap-metal collector and sometime prophet, opposes any attempts to integrate with the world of the hearing; to escape its destructive influence, the girls are educated at home. Deafness is no disability, their father says, but an alternative way of life, preferable by far to that of the strident, hypocritical hearing.
Lili and Dori grow up semi-feral, living in a world they have created together. Lili writes down everything that happens, just the facts. And Dori, the reader, follows her. On the block where the girls spend their childhood, the family is united against a hostile and alien world. They watch the hearing like they would fish in an aquarium.
But when the outside world intrudes, the cracks that begin to form will span the rest of their lives. Separated from the family that ingrained in them a sense of uniqueness and alienation, Lili and Dori must relearn how to live, and how to tell their own stories.
“You can read whatever you want but I only write the truth,” she signed. “Nothing but the truth.”
The subject of this novel grabbed my attention and it quickly went on my to be read list. The writing in the book itself is intricately beautiful. It is not a fast paced tale, but rather one that coaxes your interest with a delicate weaving a character development and plot. It is at times hard to follow and the flashbacks make it difficult to always understand where the reader is in the timeline of the story. It is a translated story and I wonder if some of the punch got lost in the translation except that the writing itself is a beautiful example of the written word. I give the book a solid three stars.
December 9, 2020
This unique novel tells the story of two sisters in a world that communicate differently than them. The story follows Lili and Dori Ackerman, who were born in a family that the basic state of it is deafness. Their personal journeys of life are portrayed in this beautifully written novel. For me, the main revelation of this book is that in addition to their stories and the story of sisterhood, this book gives us the opportunity to listen differently. The words, the thoughts, signals a different way of hearing and understanding.
The characters are the opposite of banal, and each one suggests another take on the notion of language and communication: whether it is writing, special gift for handwriting and what it symbolizes, or being a person that people follow and listen to, and so forth.
Sisters relationships is a theme that relates to classical literature, especially literature written by women authors as Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott, who portrayed sisterhood but also sisters as varied and diverse options, undermining the Romantic notion of “The Artist” and “The Individual” as a sole (often, male) perspective. The book explores the relationship of sisters that were separated from the rest of the world, from the world that hears, while their family has a special way of living – not hearing. The changes in their relationship as they grow up, with the “invasion” of the hearing world, reflect their different paths of growing up and of communicating, different ways of touching the “water”, getting to know the Aquarium.
Wonderful and highly recommended.
The characters are the opposite of banal, and each one suggests another take on the notion of language and communication: whether it is writing, special gift for handwriting and what it symbolizes, or being a person that people follow and listen to, and so forth.
Sisters relationships is a theme that relates to classical literature, especially literature written by women authors as Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott, who portrayed sisterhood but also sisters as varied and diverse options, undermining the Romantic notion of “The Artist” and “The Individual” as a sole (often, male) perspective. The book explores the relationship of sisters that were separated from the rest of the world, from the world that hears, while their family has a special way of living – not hearing. The changes in their relationship as they grow up, with the “invasion” of the hearing world, reflect their different paths of growing up and of communicating, different ways of touching the “water”, getting to know the Aquarium.
Wonderful and highly recommended.
July 22, 2022
This was a most unusual coming-of-age story. Lili and Dori Ackerman are two deaf daughters of deaf parents. The girls, also referred to as Big One and Little One, respectively, are closely watched, while at the same time kept at a long arm's distance by their demanding father and beautiful but perpetually sad mother, who are mistrustful of anyone of the not-deaf world.
But the girls can only be "protected" from the outside world for so long. Not long after the family relocates to a small village social services intrude and shatters the sisters' relationship, separating them for over a decade. The latter two-thirds of the book sees Lili and Dori struggle to navigate a world that they are ill-equipped for, both physically and socially.
The language is often poetic and the metaphors (of which there are many) are frequently wonderful and vivid. I lean to three rather than four stars because I sometimes found certain relationships hard to keep straight, and the story often jumps around in time to the point where it's sometimes difficult to keep track of how time is progressing. Overall, however, this was a mostly enjoyable read.
* I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
But the girls can only be "protected" from the outside world for so long. Not long after the family relocates to a small village social services intrude and shatters the sisters' relationship, separating them for over a decade. The latter two-thirds of the book sees Lili and Dori struggle to navigate a world that they are ill-equipped for, both physically and socially.
The language is often poetic and the metaphors (of which there are many) are frequently wonderful and vivid. I lean to three rather than four stars because I sometimes found certain relationships hard to keep straight, and the story often jumps around in time to the point where it's sometimes difficult to keep track of how time is progressing. Overall, however, this was a mostly enjoyable read.
* I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
August 15, 2021
I really really wanted to like this book. I feel bad rating it so low because I think plenty of people will love it. But for me it was just ok. I think the writing style is so very beautiful. It reads like lyrical poetry. But that became really tedious for me as I just like to read in a more direct way. The story line is very interesting but I got lost in the writing style.
"No one remembers childhood as it was, bad and hard and strewn with teeth poking up out of the ground. You forget that childhood is a time with more monsters than heroes. It really seems to you that it was pleasant: the colors were strong, the smells sweet. Adventures waited around every corner, and oh, how many corners there were! You saw frogs and toads, hedgehogs and cats, and all this even if you grew up in the city, in an apartment block near a puddle that dried up in summer and teemed with life in winter."
"One can understand the world even without the help of ears."
"No one remembers childhood as it was, bad and hard and strewn with teeth poking up out of the ground. You forget that childhood is a time with more monsters than heroes. It really seems to you that it was pleasant: the colors were strong, the smells sweet. Adventures waited around every corner, and oh, how many corners there were! You saw frogs and toads, hedgehogs and cats, and all this even if you grew up in the city, in an apartment block near a puddle that dried up in summer and teemed with life in winter."
"One can understand the world even without the help of ears."
September 7, 2020
“Girls know things. Even the deaf ones. Vibrations pass through the earth. Winds blow.”
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Aquarium by Yaara Shehori, translated by Todd Hasak-Lowy!
Aquarium is the story of sisters Lili and Dori Ackerman, who are raised in almost cult-like seclusion by their parents. The Ackerman family are all deaf, and when their family is forced apart Lili and Dori begin to encounter the hearing world that they’d before only watched, like fish in an aquarium.
Aquarium is not a particularly easy read. The writing is beautiful and complicated, at times more poetic than narrative. I really, really enjoyed the first three quarters of the book, but felt like it fizzled out for the conclusion. The pacing is also a bit weird, with some chapters being only a page or two and others taking a good hour or two to get through. Overall, Aquarium gets 3 stars from me!
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Aquarium by Yaara Shehori, translated by Todd Hasak-Lowy!
Aquarium is the story of sisters Lili and Dori Ackerman, who are raised in almost cult-like seclusion by their parents. The Ackerman family are all deaf, and when their family is forced apart Lili and Dori begin to encounter the hearing world that they’d before only watched, like fish in an aquarium.
Aquarium is not a particularly easy read. The writing is beautiful and complicated, at times more poetic than narrative. I really, really enjoyed the first three quarters of the book, but felt like it fizzled out for the conclusion. The pacing is also a bit weird, with some chapters being only a page or two and others taking a good hour or two to get through. Overall, Aquarium gets 3 stars from me!
April 28, 2021
Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. This wonderful novel is like a modern fable. Two daughters, Lili and Dori, are deaf and raised by their deaf parents in a world of their own making. The kids are homeschooled and avoid the world of the hearing. Lili obsessively writes and Dori lives in her shadow. Their father collects and sells scrap metal and their beautiful mother has wild mood swings and mostly cares for her elaborate gardens. But the outside world has been circling the family for years and the day finally comes when the family is divided and long held secrets make it almost impossible to live the life they’ve created. Mostly told from Dori’s point of view, the story is really about the two sisters and the lifelong bond they have, even when separated by an ocean. This book is a great and caring world that’s fun to get lost in.
July 31, 2022
This is hard book to start and then keep going. I wanted to quit after thirty pages, but I forged ahead, all the while getting more interested and absorbed into the world of the two sisters. The book is not much of a story but more of a biography of a pair of sisters raised in the most troubling house. Since, well, it is fiction, Shehori allows wonderful little sketches of the girls and the women they become to suffuse the book with both heartwarming and heartrending insights into the fate of the misfits in our society.
Deafness is a significant facet of the novel, and its revelations throughout may have been the most interesting to me. I can't speak from any personal experience with deafness, but I would think that someone who has had to live without hearing would find this an interesting read. Perhaps some other reviewers will address this better than I can.
Deafness is a significant facet of the novel, and its revelations throughout may have been the most interesting to me. I can't speak from any personal experience with deafness, but I would think that someone who has had to live without hearing would find this an interesting read. Perhaps some other reviewers will address this better than I can.
September 11, 2024
Translated from the Hebrew, and written by Yaara Shehori, acclaimed Israeli novelist and poet, this is the story of two sisters who are deaf, along with both of their parents who are deaf, too, and oppose any attempt to integrate with the hearing world. The girls are educated at home, but as they live in a universe of their own creation, the girls grow up in such isolation that they are nearly semi-feral. However when the hearing world intrudes in their lives, and a devastating secret is revealed, there will be serious consequences spanning the rest of the sisters’ lives. This debut work of storytelling and storyhearing is unique in how the reader is asked to reassess our assumptions of family vs community, and ultimately how we relate to and communicate with one another.
March 8, 2021
Beautiful writing that really veered off my path of interest far too many times. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I can tell you this: I really wanted to love the book based on the synopsis and the author's (and translator's) delicate manipulation of the written word. Ultimately, this just didn't work for me. I will happily read anything else I can get my hands on by Shehori or, for that matter, translator Hasak-Lowy.
I was so fortunate to be offered an ARC by NetGalley and Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, and am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to read this book. I hope you give this book a try.
I was so fortunate to be offered an ARC by NetGalley and Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, and am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to read this book. I hope you give this book a try.
April 22, 2021
Parents and children: that can be a volatile mix, whether it’s due to differing politics or different views on the correct way to live. For example, in David Laskin’s “What Sammy Knew” (Penguin Books), the political clash between Sam Stein and his father causes a rift that echoes through the lives of many. Yaara Shehori’s “Aquarium” (Farrar, Straus and Grioux) shows how sisters Lili and Dori Ackerman’s lives are forever affected by one parental choice.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...
September 20, 2023
2.75 ☆
I'm glad I read this book, and I find myself thinking about it more than some other books that I've "loved". Its prose is quite lovely (a bit abstract) and the last page made the rest of the story resonate much more for me, but ultimately it was a very slow read for me and a bit hard to get through at times. I am not a member of the Deaf community and I hesitate to make any comments regarding the accuracy of its depiction in that regard. However, from the alternate side, being a member of the hearing community it was nice to read a novel that had a protagonist who was non hearing. :)
I'm glad I read this book, and I find myself thinking about it more than some other books that I've "loved". Its prose is quite lovely (a bit abstract) and the last page made the rest of the story resonate much more for me, but ultimately it was a very slow read for me and a bit hard to get through at times. I am not a member of the Deaf community and I hesitate to make any comments regarding the accuracy of its depiction in that regard. However, from the alternate side, being a member of the hearing community it was nice to read a novel that had a protagonist who was non hearing. :)
May 11, 2021
I actually really loved the prose and the way this was written. It's wonderful writing. But every person in this book is utterly insufferable. I enjoyed very few pages of the book overall because of this and struggled to put together any well meaning thoughts about the experience.
Because like I said the writing itself is wonderful, the structure of the sentences, the choice of words, the little patterns that come out of the writing.
But the stroy and people in this story I couldn't stand.
Two stars because I liked Dima and Anna.
Because like I said the writing itself is wonderful, the structure of the sentences, the choice of words, the little patterns that come out of the writing.
But the stroy and people in this story I couldn't stand.
Two stars because I liked Dima and Anna.
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October 11, 2021you know how there are people that, on the surface, seem so interesting that you're certain you will love them once you get to know them?
this book felt like that to me. unfortunately, it fell short of tugging me at the heartstrings. the writing is so beautiful, but it was too metaphorical for me to understand what exactly was going on in the book. the chapters were also really lengthy in my opinion. I wanted so badly to be enamoured, head over heels in love with this book, but maybe it would have been better off as a bunch of short proses instead.
this book felt like that to me. unfortunately, it fell short of tugging me at the heartstrings. the writing is so beautiful, but it was too metaphorical for me to understand what exactly was going on in the book. the chapters were also really lengthy in my opinion. I wanted so badly to be enamoured, head over heels in love with this book, but maybe it would have been better off as a bunch of short proses instead.
April 22, 2022
Two deaf girls raised by deaf parents. They move to try to get away from "the system" but it still catches up with them. One of the sisters ends up in a boarding school. Should have been much more interesting than it was. I literally fell asleep while reading it (more than once) and ended up skimming it. Writing was stilted (maybe because it is a translation?) but also feels like lots of reflection and not much plot. Will not keep a teens interest.
April 24, 2022
Literary fiction too often misses the mark in balancing prose with pacing, and I would certainly count this book as an example of that. Perhaps an issue with the translation, or perhaps a disconnect between my taste and a book that others would find very good. All I can say is that I had a difficult time forcing myself to be engaged with this story, even though I found the concept interesting. Not the worst book ever, but not one I would recommend.
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