- Paperback: 512 pages
- Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (May 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0156004844
- ISBN-13: 978-0156004848
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13.5 x 3.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,006,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
From the opening lines of this first person narrative, the reader is propelled into the mind of Dr Benjamin Rubin, an ambitious internist. But when he is unexpectedly selected to accompany the hospital director and his wife to India to retrieve their ailing daughter, his experience there awakens an erotic passion in him.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
About the Author
Born in Jerusalem in 1936, the author lives in Haifa where he teaches Comparative Literature at the university. Apart from his novels, he writes and speaks frequently on the on-going struggle to find a permanent peace with Israel's Arab neighbours
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
A.B.Yehoshua is one of the leading writers in Israel. 'Open Heart' tells the story of a young medical student in Israel who accompanies a senior colleague and his wife on a rescue mission to India. The trip marks the beginning of a complex emotional journey that will profoundly change his life, on a personal and professional level.
The opening section of the book provides a captivating and sensual description of contemporary India from the perspective of a young Israeli. However, from the point that the central character returns to Israel and embarks on a clandestine relationship with his patient's mother (the wife of his colleague), the plot becomes more mundane. His obsession with this Mrs. Robinson-type figure was hard to fathom and by the end of the book, I had lost interest in the outcome.
The opening section of the book provides a captivating and sensual description of contemporary India from the perspective of a young Israeli. However, from the point that the central character returns to Israel and embarks on a clandestine relationship with his patient's mother (the wife of his colleague), the plot becomes more mundane. His obsession with this Mrs. Robinson-type figure was hard to fathom and by the end of the book, I had lost interest in the outcome.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
11 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A richly rewarding read
16 Jan 2004
Format:Paperback
With this novel, Yehoshua again returns to exploring the themes of Love and Identity, this time in a more intimate setting. The impossible, almost grotesque love of a young doctor (Benjy) to the middle-aged mother of his patient is described in detailed realism, yet the story is imbued with a sense of mysticism and mystery. Identities and feelings are exchanged and mixed through blood transfusions, and Love invades one's being as if from an external source. Yehoshua captures the profound mystery permeating "regular" people and situations. The many faces of Love, as well as its imitations, limitations and glaring absences are examined without flinching. Benjy is torn between desolate loneliness and identity-devouring symbiosis; the alternative path of co-existence with autonomy (offered by the independent Michaela) seems to him somehow incompatible with Love.
The Hebrew title of this novel is "The Return from India"; passages infused with Eastern spirituality and the transmigration of souls contrast with minute, surgically-precise medical descriptions and all-too-earthly human ambitions and professional rivalries. The narrative unfolds slowly, luxuriously, allowing the reader to become completely immersed in Yehoshua's world. A wonderful, richly rewarding book.
The Hebrew title of this novel is "The Return from India"; passages infused with Eastern spirituality and the transmigration of souls contrast with minute, surgically-precise medical descriptions and all-too-earthly human ambitions and professional rivalries. The narrative unfolds slowly, luxuriously, allowing the reader to become completely immersed in Yehoshua's world. A wonderful, richly rewarding book.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Disappointing, but worth reading
30 April 2000
Format:Paperback
I read Open Heart after having taken a course with AB Yehoshua and after having read Mr. Mani, A Late Divorce, and The Lover, and found it the least satisfactory of these four novels. (I would give the other 3 five stars.) I found the narrator annoying and his relationship with the fifty year old woman unconvincing. I think Yehoshua is brilliant at depicting all kinds of people except middle aged women, and I don't think he really understood how a woman would react under such circumstances. However, I loved the descriptions of India, and thought the prose style in general made the book worth reading.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
A 5-star story with a lazy shrug at the end
4 May 1999
Format:Paperback
I sank into Open Heart with delight, having just finished Journey to the End of the Millenium, a wonderful book. Yehoshua's humor and sophistication won me over in both books. He knows people. And the translations were excellent. Still, the final pages of Open Heart were a big disappointment: it was as though he'd had to rush off and couldn't be bothered to finish what he'd started.
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