This is How We Talk: A Novel of Tel-Aviv

by Julian Furman

While life in Tel-Aviv, Israel's famed party town, is punctuated by hedonism and bitter regret, two young Israelis, Lia and Yonatan, are struggling to save their relationship for the sake of their child. Around them, the city is constantly evolving and expanding upwards, full to bursting with Jews and Arabs, rich and poor, refugees and addicts. As Lia's and Yonatan's lives spiral out of control, and with war never far away, Tel-Aviv convulses in uncertainty and social unrest.

'This is How We Talk' tells of the lives and loves of Tel-Aviv's young generation with a searing honesty; their relationships with each other and their home in a country at war with its neighbours, and with itself.

Genres: Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

Published May 11, 2017

Reviews

[Jennifer S. Alderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Is How We Talk is a novel I frankly did not enjoy, yet found quite compelling. The writing is stylish and self-assured, as the review on the cover promises. The reader is taken to the seedy and modern world that is Tel Aviv and presented with insights into the history of Israel from a Jewish perspective.

The story follows one family, two adults in particular – Lia and Yonatan – a couple with a young child on the verge of breaking up. The author switches between chapters describing the present and those recounting past incidents which shaped each character’s life and current, desperate situation.

The story is told in three parts: first through the eyes of Yonatan, then Lia and finally a side character named Nadav. We learn their histories and how events in their lives shaped the adults they have become.

The first hundred pages, dedicated to husband Yonatan, portray him as a horrible human being. He’s not used to being responsible for anyone, let alone himself. When he’s thrust into the role of father, he has difficulty finding his way. After a fight with his wife and too many sleepless nights thanks to their infant son, he takes off and goes on an all-night drinking and drugs binge through the seedier parts of Tel Aviv. He screws a stranger in a toilet, watches a gang rape, gets beaten to a pulp by a group of bar goers he offends in his drugged up state, and allows a female acquaintance to get (presumably) beaten to death by a coked-up childhood friend because he’s too out of it to intervene. Afterwards, he goes home, uses baby wipes to clean up and crawls into bed with his wife, as if nothing has happened.

Yonatan’s night and the way it is interspersed with flashbacks to several turning points in his life, reminded me so much of Alex Garland’s The Tesseract qua style and subject matter. (Admittedly, my least favorite novel by this brilliant author.)

The second part, dedicated to his wife Lia, shows us a broken and confused woman wandering through life, instead of living it. Through her story we learn more about the complex political history of Israel and the occupied territories, peace movements, elections, suicide bombers, Arab-Jewish tensions and local views on homosexuality. Her life is a series of failures, culminating in an early dismissal from required army duty, which brings shame to her family and creates a festering wound in their relationship they are unable to heal.

It was hard for me to like any of these characters. The author’s choice to intersperse the present day with turning points from the past is not unusual. Yet he only shows us the tragedies, humiliations and stupid decisions which lead to the characters insecurities. None of the characters are really ever shown in a positive light and that makes it difficult to root for them. These are damaged people, unable to accept or cope with the challenges life throws at them. It also makes it difficult for the reader to understand why these two people are trying to make it work; neither is capable of taking care of themselves, let alone a child.

Tel Aviv itself is intimately described, yet not in the way a travel agent would write about it. The city is portrayed as a cold, depressing, disturbed, cruel and social deranged mix of the ultra-rich and extremely poor living side by side. There is little to love, but in order to enjoy this novel and the ending, the author asks you to do just that.

Or does he?

On a side note, I know several lovely Israeli citizens living here in Amsterdam. As well-adjusted as they seem, complaints about life in Sin City (and Europe in general) often seep into the conversation. When I ask why they don’t go back to Israel, the response is always the same, “It’s safe here.”

The conversations we’ve had mirror those on page 207 in this book. Several characters are talking about where they would move to, if they could afford it:

‘I just want to emigrate. There’s no future here.’
‘Where would you go?’ says the man next to her.
‘I’d go to Germany. Berlin.’
‘Really? After everything that happened there? […]
‘Somewhere else. A place with wars then, not wars now.’

After reading this book, I finally understand what my acquaintances mean. Constantly surrounded by war and terror, always wondering when life will be normal again; that messes with your psyche in ways most of us can only imagine.

This novel stayed with me long after I finished it. It challenged many of the assumptions I had
about Israel and does create empathy for the extraordinarily convoluted political and religious situations encountered by simply living there. I doubt reading this book will make you want to visit the country, but you may understand it better.

I reviewed this novel for TripFiction. It also appears on their blog.
3 out of 5 stars – content
4 out of 5 stars - location
3.5 overall (rounding up to 4 stars)

[Dora Okeyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something about the flow of this book that grows on you, sometimes crawling beneath your skin, sometimes rising to the surface and when you least expect it, you find yourself on the final page, a jigsaw puzzle.

The story opens up with Yonatan and he's in turmoil, but he takes you through Tel-Aviv, like both a stranger and a native. He immerses you in the nightlife and then catapults you into the constant panic, fear and tragedy that's war. Then you meet Lia, and together with Yonatan they have a son called Ben, a young source of life whom they love immensely, for though their marriage is falling apart, he's the only good thing to have come out of it.

The characters were like clay to me. They each have their flaws, hopes and disappointments and each struggles to make sense of it all at a time that's uncertain.

This book took me days to finish because I found myself becoming each character and delving into their past and present lives hanging on a thread so thin I nearly lost my sense of balance. I'm grateful to Netgalley, because I got a free copy in exchange for an honest review and I really do wonder what would have happened if Yonatan and Lia had no child, or what if Yonatan was not interested in Photography but in Music, what kind of angle would the story have taken?

[Amirah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is was an exhausting read. I loved the insight into life in Tel Aviv and found the cast of characters interesting if not likable, but the writing was dense and overly descriptive and really took away from my experience of the novel. Furman writes a little like a someone who has read a lot of great writing and knows what great writing looks like, but falls short of replicating it himself. Too often he tells (in great detail) instead of showing or suggesting and as a reader, I felt a little patronised. The book's structure is similarly try-hard, with chapters alternating between past and present AND sections told from various characters' perspectives. Overall, I wanted to like this but was ultimately disappointed. It had real potential and was insightful, but could do with a good edit.

NB: I received an ARC of this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 2 out of 5]

"His life is easy, familiar, and cheap; a limitless procession of short-lease friendships and overnight girlfriends, bars full of drinks and drugs and ethical elasticity. He eats noodles from the street vendors and baits the go-go girls in the bars for sport. There is no need to pay with his constant stream of companions behinam".

Tel Aviv is Israel's cultural capital. The cities young population means a wide array of cultural offerings.... Music, Dance, Theater, Film, Art Museums, Fusion Cuisine, Bars, and Clubs. It's the most modern city in Israel. It's 'the' place where young people go party....ranked as a top ten city for nightlife.

Politics in Tel Aviv is seen through a different prism..... youthful, sometimes apathetic, tolerant and secular.
The Bubble, locals call it: a city separate from Israel but indivisibly entwined with it as well.
Many of the young Israelis living in Tel Aviv find it increasingly difficult to secure stable employment and affordable housing while the prices of basic goods keep rising. There is also a growing Israeli disillusionment over the prospects for a peace agreement with the Palestinians and the wider Arab world promising more Jewish settlements on occupied territories.

Between the culture of Modern Tel Aviv and the countries current political situation, a young Jewish couple named Yonatan and Lia are having difficulties with their marriage. Hopefully it can be saved. They have a small child.

I was looking forward to reading this book. But the dialogue wasn't inspiring to me. I never felt any genuine warmth with this story, and wasn't emotionally connected to the characters. It felt like there was too much going on. I didn't know who I was suppose to most care for.

This novel was just a little bland. It doesn't stand out for me.

Love the cover design!

Thank You Freight Books, Netgalley, and Julian Furman. I appreciate being allowed to read an early copy. I apologize that I wasn't 'feeling' this story! It kills me to give this low review.

[Emi Yoshida · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will definitely look for more to read by Julian Furman, he is clearly a talented author, with an intriguing family background. This is a fractured story about toxic love, that centers upon estranged narrating partners Yonatan and Lia and their failing marriage; but also involves her siblings Sharon and Michael, their significant others, and everybody's hidden secrets. The sliding back and forth between present and past events has become a common literary technique, but here I felt it obscured the initial cause of Yonatan and Lia's marital discord. After all, they seem so perfectly suited to each other, both professing such devotion to their baby while unable to prevent themselves from indulging in wildly irresponsible behavior that leads them both into a bloody vortex of chaos, not to mention wallowing in squalid filth, like literally on the floor, in public restrooms.

Furman beautifully portrays Tel Aviv as an exciting city wracked by racial tension, adolescent rebellion, and political upheaval; but then also it seems to be the smallest city ever, as when Lia (who is supposed to be sitting shiva for her dead brother at her parents' house) somehow happens to happen upon her husband and their baby son in a random plaza. Even more coincidentally, they are also joined at this precise moment in this particular square by Milli, the very character Yonatan's wronged so profoundly that his world's been entirely upended!

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is nothing attractive about the Tel Aviv portrayed in Furman’s compelling and atmospheric novel. Life there is bleak, fractured and often dangerous and violent. Set against this background, it is no surprise that the characters featured in the book also live lives that are fractured and troubled. Yonatan and Lia’s marriage is breaking down and Yonatan himself seems to be going completely off the rails. There is political and social unrest all around, and Jews and Arabs, rich and poor, live uncomfortably side by side. The turmoil of the city reflects the turmoil in the country and the whole of the Middle East and there seems to be little light at the end of the tunnel. This is an uncomfortable book to read and none of the characters are in any way admirable or even likeable, but it’s an absorbing and engaging novel, well-written, well-paced and one that leaves a deep impression.

[Ilana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recent books set in Tel Aviv - or Israel - aimed at a foreign audience, do have some common ingredients nowadays: post-Army depressed youngsters, eventually who spent an indefinite sejour in India or, more recently Thailand; Yitzak Rabin; leftist mindset; start-ups; the protests against the prices of housing couple of years back; secular background; the hedonistic night life in Tel Aviv. If there is space left, add a couple of expensive sky scrapers where one single apartment is the price of a lavish mansion in the priciest LA neighbourhood. A couple of observations about the rift between the Jews of Oriental origin and those of European origin. Sometimes, the kibbutz life is also present somehow, but this element is missing from This is How We Talk, the debut novel by Julian Furman.
It is rightly described as 'a novel of Tel-Aviv' because it has sometimes more to do with the city mood than with its normal people. In the words of Yonatan, the first character introduced in the novel: 'Tel Aviv is a hive of activity, but he senses all the excitement is occuring above his head. Giant cranes swing lazily through the day and night, towers growing, teasing of bountiful heavens just beyond his reach'.
Relationships do need context, and when the political and social context pervades the everyday life, it is almost impossible to ignore them. Especially when this context is foreign or assumed exotic to the reader, it might be so catching that in fact takes over the literary layer.
Four young people: Yonatan, Lia, Nadav and Sharon are telling their stories. At the beginning of the story, Yonatan and Lia are together. Nadav and Sharon - Lia's sister - come late and relatively for the blink of the eye into the story. The have struggles, are confused and want to escape themselves, their family secrets and the weight of the country. They succeed on short term - as Nadav and Sharon - but fail on the long term - Yonatan and Lia. The story of Yonatan, which opens the novel, can easily stand alone as a short story and it has speed and a balanced back and forth exchange down the memory lane. For the following stories, the sparkle is fading and I ended up asking myself if there is really any real connection between the characters, besides the fact that they are together under the same book cover. They can be foreigners meeting accidentaly on a hot day at the beach or in a club, and meeting each other again only because it is a small city.
Each character has the common features of being just your 'average Tel Avivian' next door, take it or not. Each story has a good flow and dynamic. There is a potential both in the story and in the writing. Maybe it is just me, expecting a bit more from 'a novel about Tel Aviv'.
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

[miss.mesmerized mesmerized · Rating 4 out of 5]

An evening in Tel Aviv, Yonatan finds himself outside his home without money and no idea where to go. He thinks deep into the city’s nightlife, with alcohol, women and drugs. How could he end here in the streets between party-goers and protesters? He once had a plan, for the time after his gap year after the IDF, a career as a photographer, a loving wife and a son. But also Lia, his wife, has to find her place and has to cope not only with the demons of her past, but also with the picture she had of her brother. Just like her sister Sharon who tries to forget and not confront all the negative events that happen in her life by filling her day with work.

I struggled a bit with the novel at first. The narrative structure which always alternates between the present and different points in the past was not very easy to sort out at first. However, this gave it a lot more dynamics and made it actually livelier. I found Yonatan’s and Lia’s story quite interesting, especially having two opposite characters approaching the same point of culmination. I can see what the other two characters contributed to the story, but I could have done without them.

What I appreciated most was the fact how Julian Fuhrman caught the atmosphere of Israel. On the one hand, the carefree and light-hearted nightlife in which you can indulge and forget. On the other hand, being threatened by war and confronted with actual bombings is also a part of their life. Likewise, the question if, as an Israeli, you can befriend an Arab – to which extend do political implications limit your personal sphere? The necessary and mandatory service in the army and the need to flee from this time after having completed the IDF – a constant crucial test of the love for your country. The protesters and their fight for affordable housing and food, it was reported worldwide about this movement and Fuhrman thus integrated very mundane aspects in the novel which rendered the characters and the plot authentic. In the centre, of course, the basic conflict between Lia and Yonatan. How can you love joyfully in those circumstances and make you love last?

A novel which traps the attitude towards life of a whole generation.