Maror

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A sprawling epic set across four decades, and an audacious account of the underbelly of nation-building... Spectacular... Fascinating... Astonishing... Maror is a masterpiece of the sacred and the profane... Tidhar has achieved a literary triumph You must speak Hebrew now, Ruth wanted to telll them. You speak the old language of exile, when you must learn the new tongue of rebirth. But her heart wasn’t in it, not then, and she did not know where these women would end up and how their lives would be, only that they would not be easy”. Maybe. They seem to me more honest, in their way. Maror by Lavie Tidhar review – violence and corruption in Israel’s underbelly Maror by Lavie Tidhar is a beautifully written and engaging novela that tells the story of a man searching for his true identity. The novella is structured as a series of interconnected vignettes that chronicle the protagonist's journey of self-discovery. Each vignette is a piece of a puzzle that gradually comes together to reveal the protagonist's traumatic past and the events that shaped his life.

The Violent Century, Hodder & Stoughton, 2013 (UK) / Tachyon Publications, 2019 (US). Review in the Guardian Ruth was, it becomes clear, an idealist, who travelled to Palestine to be part of the founding of her nation. And if that founding requires sacrifice, or casualties, whether Ruth's comrades, the kibbutz's Arab neighbours, or British soldiers, well. Ruth is later joined by her sister Shosh, who survived the Holocaust: for Shosh, Trashim - and Israel - are less a yearned for destination than a necessary (and perhaps temporary) refuge. This tension between those who belong - or want to belong - and those who want more, is a recurring theme, one that also runs through the kibbutz's generations of children. It's a sad theme, and time and again people are lost - they die, they vanish, they just leave. There's a stripping away across the generations with the communal life of the kibbutz repelling some and the hard-won community itself mutating into something its founders might not recognise. I've been a fan of the author for quite some time, and read several of his novels. The first thing that stands out with Maror is that it's unlike anything else he's ever written. Of course his energetic style, vividness of descriptions, and vivacious characters are all there, but this time - there is no speculative component. The book is a retelling of Israel's nationbuilding through the lens of its criminal underbelly, taking inspiration from multiple real-life events that occurred in Israel between 1970 and 2001 (roughly). The amount of research that has gone into this book is truly impressive - the author brings to life (albeit hypothetically) pivotal historical events and the characters that shaped them, with the fictional character Cohen involved in each story. You don't really know if Cohen is a villain or a saint, and in some ways he represents to id of the Israeli nation (perhaps?). The painstaking detail the author pays to the music of each period is also deeply impressive, as it provides a red thread of the emotional torrent in each period (from nationalistic fervour to individualistic hedonism).One of the boldest, most visionary writers I've ever read creates both a vivid political exploration and a riveting crime epic. It's like the Jewish Godfather!' Silvia Moreno-Garcia Venus in Bloom. Japan: Hal-Con, 2019. Guest of honour collection published to coincide with Hal-Con 2019, collecting several SF short stories, in dual English and Japanese. Illustrated by Masato Hisa. Each chapter flits around in time zones and locations, from Lebanon to Mexico and Colombia, not always chronologically. In Charlie Kaufman's Antkind (2020), protagonist B. Rosenberger Rosenberg is portrayed as a former fan of Tidhar (along with Isaac Asimov and Harlan Ellison) turned against him. ""Yes," she screams, "Tidhar! You loved Tidhar!"" ... "I try to call after her, but I cannot. I cannot be a man who countenances Tidhar." [57]

Tidhar's writing style is poetic and evocative, making for a captivating and immersive reading experience. The novella's plot is intriguing and thought-provoking, with twists and turns that keep the reader engaged until the very end.

Reviews

Science fiction and fantasy writer Lavie Tidhar turns to the very real history of Israel in his latest novel, Maror. This is not the first time Tidhar has used Israel as a setting for his work. But his award-winning Central Station is set around a Tel Aviv spaceport, and the multiversal Unholy Land imagines a state of Israel established in Uganda. Maror, by contrast, is based squarely on real events between 1976 and 2003. There are no speculative fiction bells and whistles here. Instead there is a peeling away of any veneer of respectability from the state’s founders and a glimpse of the underbelly of Israeli history. A lengthy book, in which Tidhar seems to enjoy the opportunity to swoop and circle his themes, it's a study of modern Israel, dramatised and explored using the lives of a varied bunch of characters. If you've read Tidhar's By Force Alone and The Hood, described as the "anti-Matter of Britain", which deconstruct the heroic myths of, especially, England, you might see some similarities in Maror although the latter is strictly realist - no magic, and cops rather than warriors (though drugs do feature here as in those books. There are also some allusions to Tidhar's SF - for example, I spotted a reference to the cover of his Central Station short story collection).