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Gaza Blues: Different Stories
 
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Gaza Blues: Different Stories (Paperback)

by Samir El-Youssef (Author), Etgar Keret (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 140 pages
  • Publisher: David Paul (27 May 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0954054245
  • ISBN-13: 978-0954054243
  • Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 12.2 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 141,244 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #11 in  Books > Fiction > Short Stories > World > Jewish
    #37 in  Books > Fiction > World > Jewish

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Product Description

Exiled Writers Ink
Gaza Blues reveals the extent of new forms of narrative emerging from Israeli and Palestinian writers of a new generation

Al Hayat
Erudite and sharp-eyed

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, Troubling & Witty, 26 May 2004
I didn't expect to laugh out loud so often in a book set in the troubled world of Israeli/Palestinian relations, but this is sharp, clever and funny writing at its finest.

I heard the authors on the BBC World Service and found their book as a result and I am so glad I did.

It will certainly change your perspective on real Israelis and real Arabs. It gives me hope.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Timely, brilliant, funny., 3 Aug 2006
Just as Hezbollah and Israel are bombing each other to pieces, I decided to look for a book relating to the conflict. A friend recommended this and I'm really glad I picked it up. It is a collaboration of short stories by two brilliant writers - one Israeli, the other a Palestinian born in Lebanon. They show that it's possible through humour and satire to humanise the terrible conflicts in their region. Their fiction made me aware of the dreams and the nightmares of their peoples. I found it thought-provoking, warm and moving.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not the Best Pairing, 9 Jan 2006
By A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
The collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian writers is an attempt to provide some kind of example of creative peaceful coexistence without the identity politics than tends to run through a lot of Palestinian and Israeli literature. The two met at a literary conference, hit it off, kept in touch, and in response to the latest round of violence in 2002 decided to try and make some kind of unified statement. The result is a rather uneven volume, half of which is comprised of 15 of Keret's off-kilter microstories, which segue unevenly into El-Youssef's meandering and less satisfying novella.

Ever since I read Keret's excellent U.S. debut, The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories, four years ago, I've been waiting for more. I was finally able to get a hold of this via an interlibrary loan and was a little let down to see that almost half of Keret's stories had also been in The Bus Driver... Fortunately, those I hadn't read were just as good as those I had. He's a very entertaining writer who reminds me partially of Jonathan Lethem, who writes about surreal characters in much the same way, and partially of some of the Scots writers from the '90s who wrote tons of captivating 2-4 page stories. Just to give you a taste, one of my favorite involves a bored housewife supergluing herself to the ceiling.

El-Youssef's story about a hapless druggie Palestinian refugee in '80s Lebanon shows the mark of truth (El-Youssef was born in and grew up in such camps) and satire. Like all Palestinians, the protagonist is trying to escape his squalid existence in the camps, but he keeps getting derailed by his own weakness -- for drugs, for women, for tall tales. There are always grand plans and schemes that come to nothing. So, despite the avowedly apolitical and anti-identity politics aim of the book, it's hard not to believe that El-Youssef isn't making a very striking critique of his countrymen.

Having lived in the region (including Lebanon and Israel), I applaud the book's aim of trying to forge connections and empathy between people who could certainly use it. As for literary merit, Keret's work is worth reading by anyone with a taste for distinctive short fiction while El-Youssef's tale is rather tepid and paced rather too slow in comparison.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars funny, sharp, biting satire
This book is a rare treat. A collection of brilliant bite-size surreal short stories by Israeli Etgar Keret and a longer story, a comic novella set in a refugee camp by Samir El... Read more
Published on 24 Aug 2005 by rafiqfarsa

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