Books Set in Asia: Israel

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy, by Nathan Thrall (2023)

Nathan Thrall is a Jewish-American journalist based in Jerusalem.  This book describes a bus accident in which a bus-load of young Palestinian kindergarteners were killed or severely injured.  The accident occurred at or near a check point between Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The accident occurred during a strong rain storm.  The bus was driven by an inexperienced driver and the bus itself was old and in very bad condition.  The bus had been involved in several prior accidents.  The author, however, opts to use very inflammatory language in describing the accident and portrays the Israelis as the evil villains who bear the bulk of the responsibility for the accident.  Because the accident occurred at a check point in Area C, response vehicles were slow to arrive.  The author blames the Israelis for this slow response.

It was a tragic accident, but there were many other factors contributing to the accident.

Read: August 29, 2024

Books Set in Asia: Israel

The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, by Sarit Yishai-Levi (2013; English Version 2016)

The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem follows several generations of the women in the Ermosa family from the beginning of the 1900s, through the birth of the State of Israel, to the 1970s.  The Ermosas were Sephardic Jews who had lived in Jerusalem since they were expelled from Spain during the Inquisition.  The novel is sprinkled with Ladino words and phrases.

Gabriela is the some-times narrator of the novel as she comes of age and tries to understand her very dysfunctional family.  Her grandmother Rosa tells her that the Ermosa women are cursed to be married to men who don’t love them.  Rosa had been an orphan when she suddenly finds herself married to well-to-do Gabriel.  For a brief moment, she believes her life has changed, but then finds herself in a loveless marriage, arranged by her mother-in-law to keep her son from his true love.

Gabriela’s mother, Luna, was the eldest daughter of Gabriel and Rosa.  Luna, deemed the most beautiful woman in Jerusalem, is a spoiled, self-centered woman.  Family life circles around Luna’s moods.  Luna married David, who had a secret past.  She thought he was her knight in shining armor, only be faced with the daily grind of married life.  When her daughter, Gabriela, is born, she feels no bond with her child.  Gabriela bonds with her loving father, aunts and grandmother, but feels no special love for her mother.

The family dramas are played out against the drama of the events leading up to the creation of the State of Israel, including the tensions between the Sephardim and Ashkenazim.  We learn much about the stories and lives of Rosa and Luna.  The novel seems to take an abrupt turn, however, when the focus is on the adult Gabriela, and her story is told quickly on only a few pages.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will look for others by this Israeli author.

5 Stars

Read:  February 7, 2018