Quick read with some deep cuts (especially for anyone who's lived in Israel).

An amazing book, a brilliant sense of humor and a good performance, but above all a special human being. Etgar, do you want to come over for coffee one day?

It's awkward cause I am used to read Keret's quirky surreal unimaginable short stories from his other books, but I must say that I really like this one too. It's a lovely real story of Keret's life, his memoir and journey. I appreciate that he includes the story of his little narrow skinniest house in Warsaw, I love that house by the way.

It's still funny and witty, in a way. Keret's writing always give me wonder-- how he could attach me on keep reading it, it's fun and weird, still. I could get a fragment of how it was living in Israel, he tells about it a lot.

Great book, really!

I have no idea when or why I added this book to my Goodreads to-read list but I'm glad I did. I downloaded it from the library because I was in the mood for a memoir but really this is more a collection of essays. He's a funny guy, this Keret. I need to go actually read his novels now. What I liked the most about this book was the fact that he is Israeli and the essays are all about his daily life there. I realized once I started reading just how little I know of the average Israeli citizen's life.

The story that stood out to me the most, and actually made me somewhat weepy, was when he & his wife played pastrami sandwich with their 6 year old son. How do you play that, you may be wondering. If you are driving along the highway and a bomb siren goes off then you pull over to the side of the road, get out of your car, and lie face down on the ground a little bit away from your car. Keret's 6 year old son was nervous and was refusing to lie down. Keret had the genius idea to smile and ask if instead he wanted to play a fun game called pastrami sandwich. He and his wife are the pieces of bread and the little boy is the pastrami. His wife lies down, then his son on top of her, and finally Keret on top of them both, bracing himself with his arms so her doesn't crush them. His son isn't scared anymore and instead later asks if they can play the game again later. Oh man!! What a parent save! I was so impressed he thought of doing this. Protecting his little boy without scaring him. It also made me so grateful that I live in a country where it is not common knowledge of how to react when a bomb siren goes off.

OK, that story makes the book sound like a bummer but it's not. he has a lot of funny bits. It's a short book, less than 200 pages, so go check it out if you are looking for a book that you can just read 5 or so pages at a time and get a complete story.

Interesting little book, quick quick read. I liked it for all of the Israeli/Yiddush euphemisms, family dynamics, humor and sarcasm.

Will definitely read more from this author.

Meh.

Lo amo! Amo su humor y su sensibilidad.

What a charming little book! When I picked this up for the Reading Rush, I didn’t realise it was a memoir so knew nothing about Etgar Keret, but I found that I adore his writing style. It was a very witty and funny book with dark undertones from the atmosphere and constant threat of war and bombings, and overall a great little read.

I really fell in love with all of the characters, including his wife with all her wonderful personality traits, his father who we only meet briefly before he passes away, and even the various taxi drivers we meet throughout. Keret really has a great way of making you love every character he introduces and seeing each of their quirks.

The book was told through a series of short chapters, which I loved and meant I raced through it, within bigger sections for each year of his son’s life up to age 7. It was great to see him growing up and how soon his personality started to shine through.

I don’t have a huge amount to say on this, but I did really love it, and it even opened my eyes to the conflict happening at that time which I had never heard about from a perspective such as this of the person experiencing it themselves, even if not directly. It was also interesting to me to see how his son, even just at 3 years old, was already being discussed in the context of war, a really terrifying thought.

Overall, I really would recommend anyone give this a go as a short little book which explodes with charisma. Wonderfully written.

For the reading rush, this book fitted a number of prompts: book the colour of my birthstone, book that starts with “the”, book that takes place on a different continent than where you live, book completely outside of your house (slightly cheated as this isn’t really possible at the moment so I read it all in the same place, as I’ve seen to be a common prompt in a number of other readathons)