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“To call Keret apolitical
would be to miss a seminal moment in the history of Jewish literature. Indeed,
it would be like pigeonholing Isaac Bashevis Singer—at whose knee Keret seems
to have learned the art of magic realism, only to use it with more discipline
than his master…Keret is a cynic who can’t manage to shake off his hopefulness—the
most reliable kind of narrator there is. His true ancestor may not be Singer
but Woody Allen, who, in his earlier years, summoned the gods of fantasy to
help argue his most famous philosophical insights. And Keret is exhibiting Annie Hall—era talent here, churning out
gem after gem.”
— Washington Post Book World
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“These stories exude
a force and zing that some readers will find life-changing.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
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“Keret writes with
alternating Singeresque magical realism and Kafkaesque absurdity.”
— Publishers Weekly
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“This collection of
short stories brims with invention…Etgar Keret is a great short story writer
whose work is all the greater because it’s funny…[He] most becomes himself in
comedy shorts, telling tales of the absurd and the surreal…To complain about
Keret being Keret is like complaining about Chekhov being Chekhov.”
— Guardian (London)
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“A brilliant writer…Completely
unlike any writer I know. The voice of the next generation.”
— Salman Rushdie
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“His pieces elicit
comparison to sources as diverse as Franz Kafka, Kurt Vonnegut and Woody Allen…[Keret
is] a writer who is often very funny and inventive, and occasionally profound.”
— Kirkus Reviews
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“Keret’s greatest
book yet—the most funny, dark, and poignant. It’s tempting to say these stories
are his most Kafkaesque, but in fact they are his most Keretesque.”
— Jonathan Safran Foer
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“Etgar Keret’s
stories are funny, with tons of feeling, driving towards destinations you never
see coming. They’re written in the most unpretentious, chatty voice possible,
but they’re also weirdly poetic. They stick in your gut. You think about them
for days.”
— Ira Glass, host and producer of This American Life
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“Strangeness abounds.
Keret fits so much psychological and social complexity and metaphysical mystery
into these quick, wry, jolting, funny, off-handedly fabulist miniatures,
they’re like literary magic tricks: no matter how closely you read, you can’t
figure out how he does it.”
— Booklist
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“I feel that the best thing that can happen to a writer is for someone to interpret your text. It is a great experience, listening to your words.
— Etgar Keret
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An all-star roster of narrators masterfully performs the audio edition of Keret's latest collection, which mixes humor, emotion, absurdity, morality, and humility…the result is a truly inspired series of performances and an utterly entertaining audiobook. Listening quickly becomes a compulsion.
— Publishers Weekly
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Examples of the talented narrators include Josh Charles, who has a deep, round tone and a gentle manner that perfectly complements the author's words, and Adam Thirlwell's British accent, which supports a strong, robust reading about lying. It's an excellent audio and literary experience.
— AudioFile Magazine
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Keret's greatest book yet--the most funny, dark, and poignant. It's tempting to say these stories are his most Kafkaesque, but in fact they are his most Keretesque.
— Jonathan Safran Foer
-
Etgar Keret's stories are funny, with tons of feeling, driving towards destinations you never see coming. They're written in the most unpretentious, chatty voice possible, but they're also weirdly poetic. They stick in your gut. You think about them for days.
— Ira Glass, host and producer of This American Life
-
Strangeness abounds. Keret fits so much psychological and social complexity and metaphysical mystery into these quick, wry, jolting, funny, off-handedly fabulist miniatures, they're like literary magic tricks: no matter how closely you read, you can't figure out how he does it.
— Donna Seaman, Booklist (March 15)
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His pieces elicit comparison to sources as diverse as Franz Kafka, Kurt Vonnegut and Woody Allen . . . [Keret is] a writer who is often very funny and inventive, and occasionally profound.
— Kirkus Reviews (March 15)
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Israeli author Keret writes sometimes appealingly wacky, sometimes darkly absurdist stories that translate well to America . . . Sophisticated readers should check this out.
— Library Journal, pre-pub alert
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In this slim volume of flash fiction and short stories, Israeli author/filmmaker Keret (The Nimrod Flipout; the film Jellyfish) writes with alternating Singeresque magical realism and Kafkaesque absurdity.
— Publishers Weekly
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This collection of short stories brims with invention . . . Etgar Keret is a great short story writer whose work is all the greater because it's funny . . . [He] most becomes himself in comedy shorts, telling tales of the absurd and the surreal . . . As one of the 20th century's great comic writers--and one of Keret's true precursors--might have said, so it goes . . . To complain about Keret being Keret is like complaining about Chekhov being Chekhov.
— Ian Sansom, The Guardian
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A brilliant writer . . . completely unlike any writer I know. The voice of the next generation.
— Salman Rushdie
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Keret can do more with six . . .paragraphs than most writers can with 600 pages.
— Kyle Smith, People