Ten Thousand Lovers, by Edeet Ravel (2003)
Ten Thousand Lovers is a very disturbing book. I can’t help but wonder, however, if it is autobiographical. Both the author and the protagonist, Lily, were born on radical kibbutzim, then moved to Canada while still quite young. Both returned to Israel to attend college. Both studied linguistics.
Most of the novel takes place in the late 1970s, with a few flashbacks, which take place in the early 2000s. Lily returned to Israel to attend college. She lives a “typical” life of a spoiled child experimenting with sex. One day while hitchhiking from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, a handsome young man picks her up. Within hours, they are in bed together.
Over the next few weeks, Lily becomes infatuated with her lover, Ami, and they spend all their free time together. Ami seems to have it all. He makes a good loving, has an expensive car, and can take Lily to places she couldn’t afford as a college student. The catch is that Ami had a dark secret: he is an army interrogator.
Lily is both horrified and intrigued by Ami’s line of work. She questions him about the people he interrogates, but he can tell her little. Ami, however, does what he can do to prevent violent interrogations. He does not use violence when interrogating, but he often sees others abuse the Palestinian prisoners. Although he says he likes his work, Lily can see the internal conflict within Ami after a particularly brutal day.
Ami’s close friend, Ibrahim, is an Arab. Ami’s work does not interfere with their friendship.
Within months after Ami and Lily get together, Lily finds herself pregnant. Before the baby is born, Lily and Ami marry. Marriage in Israel in 1977 were religious marriages, thus they were married in a five minute “ceremony” in a rabbi’s hallway.
In present day, Lily reminisces of her life in Israel as she watches her daughter, now a young woman begin her life.
One of the most fascinating aspect of this book was the author’s intertwining the deeper meaning of Hebrew words into the texture of the novel. The evolution of Hebrew, from its ancient Biblical roots, to a language spoken in the modern world, and the way the meanings of words have been manipulated for political and ideological ends is fascinating.
Still, the violence and treatment of the IDF depicted in this novel was very disturbing.
The Thousand Lovers is the first in a trilogy recounting the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the effects of war on ordinary people living in the Land of Israel. The other two books in the series are Look for Me and A Wall of Light.
Read: February 24, 2010.
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