A. B. YEHOSHUA (1936-2022) was born in Jerusalem to a Sephardi family. Drawing comparisons to William Faulkner and described by Saul Bellow as "one of Israel's world-class writers", Yehoshua, an ardent humanist and titan of storytelling, distinguished himself from contemporaries with his diverse exploration of Israeli identity. His work, which has been translated into twenty-eight languages, includes two National Jewish Book Award winners (Five Seasons and Mr. Mani) and has received countless honors worldwide, including the International Booker Prize shortlist and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Woman in Jerusalem).
Israeli novelist Yehoshua, whose Mr. Mani (LJ 2/15/93) won several literary prizes, has written an interesting character study of young Israeli doctor Benjamin Rubin. Ambitious and self-centered, he unwillingly helps a couple bring their seriously ill daughter home from India. His life becomes inextricably tied to theirs when he becomes deeply infatuated with the mother, which threatens to affect his career and his whole life. A fascination with India's philosophy permeates the story and contrasts directly with the realistic medical details. While the characterization of hospital politics is well done, Benjy's openness about his affair does not ring true, and his treatment of his wife, Michaela, is nothing less than shabby. Excellent on setting but less believable on the relationships, this should still be a popular choice for public libraries.‘Ann Irvine, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Md.
The irrational, untamable power of love becomes almost palpable in Israeli novelist Yehoshua's intense novel of forbidden passion, obsession and spiritual yearning. Its introspective, ironic narrator, Benjamin Rubin (Benjy), an internist in surgery at a Tel Aviv hospital, is asked by the hospital director, Dr. Lazar, to accompany him to a remote town in India where Lazar's college-dropout daughter, Einat, is suffering from acute hepatitis and urgently needs medical care. Benjy, 29, falls madly in love‘not with Einat, whose life he saves, but with Dori, Lazar's matronly, spoiled, ordinary, 50-ish wife, whom he beds once. When she rejects his passion as impossible and silly, Benjy hastily marries hippie-like, kibbutz-raised Michaela, who espouses Hindu religious concepts and works with the "sidewalk doctors" of Calcutta. They have a daughter, Shivi, but, despite their sexual rapport and mutual affection, theirs is not a marriage of love. When Lazar requires open-heart surgery, Benjy, who takes part in the operation, must ask himself whether he truly wants to save the man or whether he wishes Lazar dead so that he can pursue his impossible love for Dori. At times, Benjy's minute self-analysis is wearying, and it's tempting to dismiss his problems as a passing Oedipal fixation. Mostly, however, Yehoshua (Mr. Mani) mingles fascinating medical detail with the story of one man seeking to open his own heart to life's possibilities, including pain. Author tour. (May)
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