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Cut Throat Dog
International intrigue, murderous politics, and psychological suspense combine in a stylish literary thriller
An enigmatic Israeli who calls himself Shakespeare – because he’s got a way with words – finds himself jolted on a sidewalk in Is that who I think it is , he wonders, or am I crazy?
Who he thinks it is, is one of the world’s premier terrorists. Someone who murdered his partner. Someone he blames for the fog of despair that’s overcome him. And most shockingly, someone Shakespeare’s mysterious associates in Tel Aviv tell him had been killed in the desert.
So is Shakespeare cracking up, or cracking the case of a lifetime?
In the hands of esteemed Israeli author Joshua Sobol, the wicked riddle becomes a masterful work that transcends It’s a sumptuously written literary novel and a taut spy thriller. It’s a moving recollection of a purposeful youth and a graphic account of the hunt for terrorists. It’s the story of a mid-life crisis and the endless crisis of the Middle East. It’s a work of wild and whimsical word-play and fast-paced, deadly gun-play.
It is, in short, the English-language debut of a mesmerizing writer at the top of his form.
An enigmatic Israeli who calls himself Shakespeare – because he’s got a way with words – finds himself jolted on a sidewalk in Is that who I think it is , he wonders, or am I crazy?
Who he thinks it is, is one of the world’s premier terrorists. Someone who murdered his partner. Someone he blames for the fog of despair that’s overcome him. And most shockingly, someone Shakespeare’s mysterious associates in Tel Aviv tell him had been killed in the desert.
So is Shakespeare cracking up, or cracking the case of a lifetime?
In the hands of esteemed Israeli author Joshua Sobol, the wicked riddle becomes a masterful work that transcends It’s a sumptuously written literary novel and a taut spy thriller. It’s a moving recollection of a purposeful youth and a graphic account of the hunt for terrorists. It’s the story of a mid-life crisis and the endless crisis of the Middle East. It’s a work of wild and whimsical word-play and fast-paced, deadly gun-play.
It is, in short, the English-language debut of a mesmerizing writer at the top of his form.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 9, 2011
A literary thriller that forgot to thrill. Stylisticly, it was a facinating look at an Israeli spy who's been constructing false identities for so long he's losing track of which is actually his own. He's also a man so haunted by his past that he's adrift in time, literally falling into flashbacks that are more immediate to him than his current assignment. Unfortunately, the author fails to bring any sense of tension or stakes to the preceedings. Monologues, stories, and philisophical musings go on for pages and pages. We never feel as through we are building towards anything. This was a hard one to get through as I kept putting it down again and again. I finally just moved on to a much much better book.
December 28, 2024
I typically do not review anything online - this is out of character for me. But I owe it to potential readers of this book to warn them of the huge disappointment once they open its cover.
This book took forever to go absolutely nowhere. Nuanced dialogue that was incredibly hard to digest on paper that resulted in absolutely no impact on the story? Check. Painstaking detail creating story arcs for each character - of whom the reader finds absolutely nothing interesting? Check. Continuous and unneeded fluctuation of flashback to current state? Check.
When I closed the last page, I was bewildered as to how this book made it past an editing team, much less a publishing house. This had to be a mistake.
One of the most ineffective, confusing, and contrived books I’ve ever read.
Don’t do it.
This book took forever to go absolutely nowhere. Nuanced dialogue that was incredibly hard to digest on paper that resulted in absolutely no impact on the story? Check. Painstaking detail creating story arcs for each character - of whom the reader finds absolutely nothing interesting? Check. Continuous and unneeded fluctuation of flashback to current state? Check.
When I closed the last page, I was bewildered as to how this book made it past an editing team, much less a publishing house. This had to be a mistake.
One of the most ineffective, confusing, and contrived books I’ve ever read.
Don’t do it.
May 1, 2011
This book is okay and sometimes really good. There are lots of disorienting elements, but one of the major problems that makes it even harder to follow are the occasional spelling errors. I reread things like three or four tomes to make sure that I was not just misreading things and that it was an error. One occurrence I recall was "he" where it should have been "the." This can be really distracting in a book where the world is perpetually turned upside down.
Having just read THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD and watching a lot of Bond movies as well as reading more Israeli fiction lately, this was an interesting culmination for me. I look forward to Sobol's other works being translated. The names changing and such was a lot of fun and sometimes confusing. There was a bit in the middle where the book did start to lose me, but the last ~50 pages are very straightforward and worth the effort to get through this book (which is actually 270 pages not 190).
Having just read THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD and watching a lot of Bond movies as well as reading more Israeli fiction lately, this was an interesting culmination for me. I look forward to Sobol's other works being translated. The names changing and such was a lot of fun and sometimes confusing. There was a bit in the middle where the book did start to lose me, but the last ~50 pages are very straightforward and worth the effort to get through this book (which is actually 270 pages not 190).
April 5, 2011
More literary depth than I had expected. As I don't normally read much in the spy/thriller genre I made an exception for this Israeli author and was pleasantly surprised.
There are definitely flaws: the dialogue is extremely uneven, the actual plot veers towards the cartoonish, the pacing is a bit of a pain, and the denouement is a mixed bag. But the protagonist's emotional depth is turbulent enough to carry the novel, and there are sections where the author does an amazing job of presenting complicated ideas about justice and revenge as well as friendship and love.
All in all a satisfying work, even if not the masterpiece some reviewers claim it to be.
There are definitely flaws: the dialogue is extremely uneven, the actual plot veers towards the cartoonish, the pacing is a bit of a pain, and the denouement is a mixed bag. But the protagonist's emotional depth is turbulent enough to carry the novel, and there are sections where the author does an amazing job of presenting complicated ideas about justice and revenge as well as friendship and love.
All in all a satisfying work, even if not the masterpiece some reviewers claim it to be.
February 20, 2017
I found this book to be almost unreadable - in fact, I gave more time to it than I thought it deserved, because I really wanted it would gel into something coherent... but I finally gave up after 90 pages. It's not that I have an objection to experimental fiction, meta-fiction, or stream-of-consciousness if there seems to be a central story or discernible purpose for the work...but I lost patience with this one: reality, dreams, time-frame, character reference, plot arcs - were constantly shifting, but without a center. It all seemed like a poorly-edited and extremely self-conscious sophomore writing project.
August 22, 2015
this book can be confusing, with fluid changes of location, timeline, and even character names. it follows a retired israeli assassination squad member as he re-discovers some purpose to his life through one final act of violence. in the untangling of his story we learn of his own personal traumas and the traumas of a young israel, beset by violence and grief.
this book is challenging in style and in content. the swirl of the story is enough to keep the reader uncertain, but the violence is inescapably real.
this book is challenging in style and in content. the swirl of the story is enough to keep the reader uncertain, but the violence is inescapably real.
July 30, 2011
This book is all over the place. Like when Netflix calls a movie "Edgy/Romantic/Steamy" this book is like all the attributes, every single one.
Like
Romantic
Gritty
Strong Women
Understated
Cerebral
Crime
(maybe not understated)
(PS that was just a random set that I copied!)
Like
Romantic
Gritty
Strong Women
Understated
Cerebral
Crime
(maybe not understated)
(PS that was just a random set that I copied!)
August 15, 2013
Schizophrenic tale of international terror and terrorists with inexplicable character and plot development. Possibly a literary experiment gone wrong but with an occasional or accidental insight. Feh!
February 28, 2011
This novel was ok. It was creative in its navigation of different types of PTSD and how two souls can bond through fantasy and illusion. Hard to get through at times, though.
December 28, 2013
Started strange. Got stranger. Gave up @ 32nd page. It seems like many stories in one. The problem is none makes sense.
July 4, 2017
En grymt konstig bok som jag känner att jag måste läsa igen för att se om jag verkligen hängde med.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews