David Grossman, the well-known Israeli writer, has a new book coming out this September, namely To the End of the Land (pre-order at that link). The basic plotline is of a mother who sets out on a wander through the Galilee, with a former lover, to avoid any news of her son's possible death on the front in Lebanon.
Has any book received better blurbs? Nicole Krauss blurbs that Grossman "may be the most gifted writer I've ever read"; Paul Auster compares the book to Madame Bovary or Anna Karenina.
Here is a discussion of whether the blurbs for the book are overwrought. Yet it has received amazing reviews in Israel. It has won a German book prize. It was strongly recommended to me in two German bookstores, by sales clerks. Grossman himself seems to realize how good the book is.
Here is an interview with Grossman.
I am on p.100 of about 700 pp., and while the book develops slowly, I am not ready to reject the extreme claims made on its behalf. I am sad when it comes time to put it down. Have any of you read it? Heard credible accounts of its quality?
I haven’t read the new book yet, but Grossman’s See, Under Love is among the best works of fiction I have ever read.
Let’s see. Given that at 10:00 a.m. you were on p. 100, that means you had 600 pages left. It’s now 2 hours later. So I can safely conclude, given your reading speed, that you’ve finished the book. So there’s no point in giving comments.
Tyler, I’m sure Grossman’s new novel is great fiction. But for some great non-fiction, read this
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2010/07/iroquois-nation.html
and we have yet to know the end.
Reading a book *in German*! Wow! How many languages does Tyler know / read in?
“Reading a book *in German*! Wow! How many languages does Tyler know / read in?”
Several, probably. But, reading isn’t the problem, understanding is.
I second the motion of Tyler telling us of his language skills.
The near-orgasmic reactions to this book remind me of an old joke:
What’s long and brown and smells like Miss Piggy’s butt?
Kermit’s finger.
Flattus Maximus wins the price for the most insightful analysis of the economics of book blurbs.
P.S.: I am not acquainted, nor do I share a publisher, with Flattus Maximus.
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