A Pigeon and an Olive Branch

books:

	• A Pigeon and a Boy: A Novel Meir Shalev Schocken, 2007 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Opnieuw een meesterwerk

In deze nieuwe roman weeft de Israëlische schrijver Meir Shalev vernuftig een aantal verhalen in elkaar. Van Jaïr Mendelson, een toeristengids die vogelaars rondleidt, zijn vrouw Liora, oude geliefde Tirtsa Fried, maar vooral dat van zijn ouders. Het leven van duivenmelkers loopt als rode draad door het boek. Wat postduiven en mensen bindt, het weer terugwillen naar huis, 'Dag huis' zeggen brengt Shalev schitterend bij elkaar. De in de onafhankelijkheidsoorlog van 1948 gestorven duivenmelker 'de baby' geeft met een laatste lossing letterlijk zijn leven door, zodat Jaïr geboren kan worden. Uiteraard meesterlijk in elkaar gezet, evenals de tragikomische lotgevallen van de doktoren en aannemers in de families, waarbij het geluk telkens letterlijk een handje geholpen wordt. Des te tragischer zijn dan de laatste pagina's van het boek, waarin alle spanning en slotakkoorden als het ware vervliegen en deze bijzondere geschiedenis teruggeplaatst wordt in de tijd, wat achteloos omgezien wordt. Opnieuw een meesterwerk van Shalev!

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Mystery Surprise

As it turns out "A Pigeon and a Boy" by Meir Shalev is both a novel and a mystery -- one that I partially, but never completely figured out.

"A Pigeon and a Boy" is set in Israel from the 1930s to the present and deals with the lives of two gnerations -- those who were young men and women during the '30s and their children who were born after the 1948 war of Independence.

For me, the book started out as a slow read, which, under other circumstances, would have caused me to drop it. However, I was reading it for a new book club so I kept plugging. By the end of the 4th chapter, I was hooked. I had figured out the relationships between some of the characters and became immersed in their lives and what was happening to them.

The translation from the original Hebrew is good i.e., the language flows easily. The author, Meir Shalev, uses lots of detailed descriptions of both the natural and human-built physical environment and to describe the characters. This enabled me to easily enter the world of the novel.

The mystery surprises that I could never have imagined come at the end of the book and were worth waiting for. I was sorry it ended.

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A Pigeon and an Olive Branch

When I first spotted the book on the shelves at one of the local bookstores, I stared at it for 2-minutes. It wasn't the glossy jacket that stood out, nor was it a particularly catchy title that made me want to buy the book. It was the author's name: Meir Shalev.

An Israeli author's book being sold here? I could tell the author is an Israeli from the name. I picked the book out of curiosity and treated it as a window into a forbidden culture.

I gave the book 5 stars not because I think it is extraordinarily imaginative or extremely engaging, but simply because I found it very human. It is certainly original. I could easily describe Shalev as the Amin Maalouf of Israel, but I wish to remain politically correct.

The story is set at modern day Israel, but stretches back to a time shortly before the Nakbah (or what is referred to by the author as Israel's War of Independence). Yair is an out-of-place, ugly-duckling-member of his family that consists of a biological mother; an adoptive father; and an unscrupulous younger half-brother, who is everything Yair isn't.

Yair's almost miraculous birth, and the story revolving around it, as well as the relationship he had with his mother and her influence on him - is what the story is mainly about. What the story tells us, metaphorically, is that carrier pigeons deliver much more than coded messages in tiny capsules. They carry hope; love; perseverence; dedication and a lot more. The messages they deliver are sagas of all kinds. Pigeons are the hidden warriors; the love messengers; and the deliverers of the gift of life - a life like that of Yair's.

I was delighted to have discovered this Israeli author. It felt like humanity triumphed over imposed cultural censorship and isolation. We may very well be political enemies (or made to feel as such), but the culture of arts and narratives transcends geographical borders and checkpoints. Something for our cultures to celebrate.

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Book-A Pigeon and a Boy

The book was quite different to read- one had to go back into the book several times to keep issues straight. But, ending was fabulous and the last 75 pages I couldn't put it down.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

From the internationally acclaimed Israeli writer Meir Shalev comes a mesmerizing novel of two love stories, separated by half a century but connected by one enchanting act of devotion.

During the 1948 War of Independence--a time when pigeons are still used to deliver battlefield messages--a gifted young pigeon handler is mortally wounded. In the moments before his death, he dispatches one last pigeon. The bird is carrying his extraordinary gift to the girl he has loved since adolescence. Intertwined with this story is the contemporary tale of Yair Mendelsohn, who has his own legacy from the 1948 war. Yair is a tour guide specializing in bird-watching trips who, in middle age, falls in love again with a childhood girlfriend. His growing passion for her, along with a gift from his mother on her deathbed, becomes the key to a life he thought no longer possible.

Unforgettable in both its particulars and its sweep, A Pigeon and A Boy is a tale of lovers then and now--of how deeply we love, of what home is, and why we, like pigeons trained to fly in one direction only, must eventually return to it. In a voice that is at once playful, wise, and altogether beguiling, Meir Shalev tells a story as universal as war and as intimate as a winged declaration of love.

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