Six generations of the Sephardi Mani family are chronicled in this profound and passionate Mediterranean epic, which moves backwards from the 1980s to the mid-nineteenth century. The story comprises of five conversations, each centering on the fate of a different member of the Mani family, and in each the responses of one person are absent. Mr. Mani is surprisingly humorous, full of extraordinary historical perspectives, and deeply wise and compassionate. It is an imaginative tour-de-force.
Mr Mani
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Mr Mani New Statesman and Society) -- New Statesman and Society
A.B. Yehoshua has created a historical and psychological universe - nearly biblical in the range and penetration of its enchanting "begats" - with an amazingly real Jerusalem at its centre. -- Cynthia Ozick
For this is more than just a tale of one eccentric family; it has the relentlessness of the Old Testament, the contentiousness of Job. The Manis not only pass down their sense of guilt, the source of their quixotic and often tragic fate, they ask in each generation what it means to be a Jew: are we not all from the same seed, are we not all "Jews forgetful of being Jews"? -- Wendy Brandmark, The Independent
It is extraordinarily skilful to have captured the Jewish mixture of suffering and revival, despair and messianic hope, without in any way spelling out such heavy themes. -- David Pryce-Jones, The Financial Times
Yehoshua is a marvellous story teller but also a profoundly political writer, always arguing for uncertain humanism rather than zealous nationalism in a country where everyone lives on the front line. -- Nicci Gerrard, The Observer
Yehoshua's minutely researched novel ramifies out from the city to record the rich and wretched elements that have gone into the founding and continuation of the nation whose centre it has once again become. -- Peter Kemp, The Sunday Times
A.B. Yehoshua has created a historical and psychological universe - nearly biblical in the range and penetration of its enchanting "begats" - with an amazingly real Jerusalem at its centre. -- Cynthia Ozick
For this is more than just a tale of one eccentric family; it has the relentlessness of the Old Testament, the contentiousness of Job. The Manis not only pass down their sense of guilt, the source of their quixotic and often tragic fate, they ask in each generation what it means to be a Jew: are we not all from the same seed, are we not all "Jews forgetful of being Jews"? -- Wendy Brandmark, The Independent
It is extraordinarily skilful to have captured the Jewish mixture of suffering and revival, despair and messianic hope, without in any way spelling out such heavy themes. -- David Pryce-Jones, The Financial Times
Yehoshua is a marvellous story teller but also a profoundly political writer, always arguing for uncertain humanism rather than zealous nationalism in a country where everyone lives on the front line. -- Nicci Gerrard, The Observer
Yehoshua's minutely researched novel ramifies out from the city to record the rich and wretched elements that have gone into the founding and continuation of the nation whose centre it has once again become. -- Peter Kemp, The Sunday Times
About the Author
A. B. Yehoshua is one of Israel's pre-eminent novelists. He has been awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for his lifetime's creative contribution to Israel, the National Jewish Book Award in the US, the Jewish Quarterly- Wingate Prize in the UK and was shortlisted in 2005 for the first Man Booker International Prize.
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4.3 out of 5 stars
13 reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
6 stars
19 Nov 2004
By Adam Gordon
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I stopped to write a review only because I saw that all five stars were not fully checked. One can like or not like the content of the book, but as a exposition of writing craft it is - bar none - the best book in the world. (Allright, I'll be circumspect, maybe one of the best). It will blow you away and change the way you think about the novel as a literary form. A genius at his best, no less.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book.
10 Nov 1999
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Told from the perspective of the people who encounter the Mani family throughout the generations this book is amazing. WHile it takes a few pages to get used to the fact that the Mani men will not be speaking for themselves, once that is accepted this book moves along making you think and feel for these people that you only encounter through the perspective of strangers. What's even better is that you see a character in one generation from one perspective and then in the next chapter the character is considerably younger and there is some one else's perspective. So the father about to commit suicide and who is the mission of the first narrator becomes a child Jew that is an inconvenience to the Nazi character with a conscience of the second chapter. Where most experimental literature is only experimental, this book shows that storytelling and style don't need to be mutually exclusive.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
How did a Mere Human Write this Masterpiece?
27 Dec 2000
By Joy Hope Schneider
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I concur with other readers that "Mr. Mani" stands in a class of its own. The book, which spans centuries, manages to do so while remaining riveting and vivid. That I remember it years after re-reading it, that I am now trying to write my own novel allows me to now see how truly masterful this book is. If you don't write you may not realize how much had to go into the leaping stories, the profundity of character and the great subject this author took on and completed. Maybe a few on this earth are as blessed with the gift of creation, but they are very few indeed.
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4.3 out of 5 stars
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