kroz sedam godina odrastanja svog sina, etgar keret dijeli crtice iz svog života i prisjeća se vedrih i ne tako vedrih događaja iz svog života, sve u duhu židovskog mentaliteta koji već sam po sebi, uz duhovitog storytellera, nosi svojevrstan šarm. bez potrebe da bude dopadljiv ili kompleksan, ovo jednostavno štivo više doživljavaš u duhu slušanja priča, nego kao zahtjevnu literaturu. koncipirano kroz 36 kratkih priča od kojih su neke vrlo uspješne, a neke onako, meh... u početku pomalo kvrgavo, kako stranice odmiču, keret postaje umješniji i slobodniji. zgodno, toplo, ljudski.

A book of richly written, alive, moving, insightful, and funny essays by Israeli writer Etgar Keret. I've never read Keret before, so this little book was a wonderful discovery. I've never been to Israel and Keret's anecdotes are in stunning contrast to my two-dimensional impressions from news reports. This is a sometimes profoundly moving collection of pieces about real life, real people, and the precious mundane. Thank you, my Goodreads friends who posted about The Seven Good Years. You have expanded my reading and therefore my life. I'm so grateful.

What a delight to read this memoir in one sitting. This book has taught me that memoir does not need to be a thick one. I enjoyed almost all the articles in the book, with each article telling a different story, which makes it easier to read. The seven years starts with the birth of the author's son and ends with the pass of his dad. The feelings are so real and overwhelming, which made me sometimes cry and sometimes laugh. The story how his parents met and how he and his wife met impresses me the most. It is such a sweet story. The wisdom and truth lie in all the articles!

აი ეს არის ის ინტელექტუალური და სევდიანი შავი იუმორი, რომელის გამოც, ჯერ თავს გრძნობ იქ შინაურად და მერე სულ გვიყვარს ისრაელი და იქაური იდეალისტი ხალხი..

I used to read essay collections for facts, details, or wit. And if I stumbled across the occasional bit of truth or wisdom, so much the better. Now this could be my bias towoard Etgar Keret (#2 on my I'll Read Anything They Write List), but this collection is brimming with both. Okay, maybe more of the former than the latter... but I think even Keret would say that.

Remove the surrealist and speculative elements from Keret's writing and you're still left with his sense of the absurd, with keen observations of (by way of projections onto) other characters, and not surprisingly, his friend Uzi who, just like in the stories, offers advice such as...

What you need isn't a bunch of lies from a PhD in clinical psych. You need a real solution: a nest egg in a foreign bank account. Everybody's doing it.

Not every essay reached me; there were a couple that left me scratching my head. But I'm used to that experience reading Keret's short stories, so I'm okay with it.