Scan barcode
behemota's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
A masterpiece of creative non-fiction. Short, minimalistic, sparkling with wit and humor, deeply human and authentic, moving, heart-wretchingly real, and an absolute joy to read… Made me sob and laugh at loud. As a Polish Jew living in Tel Aviv, I might be a very partial reader but I really think every one will relate to it in some way or another. Despite its simplicity, it was a deep, cathartic read for me, and it even made me realize a few things about myself, my identity and roots, and the place I call my home.
nehirsch's review against another edition
5.0
What an amazing read. This is Keret's best book yet. The tone of each essay kept me turning the pages, being both entertained and moved. He writes with a keen eye toward both the physical world and our emotions in reaction to the things that happen to this. And, the stories were so relatable. He's willing to say the crazy things we think, about both the ridiculous and the mundane experiences we have. This book really spoke to me. Best book I've read in a long while.
in2reading's review against another edition
4.0
I really appreciated these glimpses into the author's life, one with such different experiences than mine. He is insightful, self-aware and funny. This is his first memoir, and I hope he writes more.
liseplease's review against another edition
4.0
Really great. My laughter was quite disruptive when I listened to the audiobook at work.
scribepub's review against another edition
One of the most important writers alive — enchantingly witty.
Clive James
A brilliant writer … The voice of the next generation.
Salman Rushdie
Etgar Keret is #1 writer in Israel and #2 in my heart (after my dachshund Felix).
Gary Shteyngart
Being a father, having a feather — Etgar Keret is the man in the middle and he captures the job just brilliantly.
Roddy Doyle
At once funny and profound, The Seven Good Years is a gem. Etgar Keret approaches memoir the way he does fiction — from surprising angles, with a sly wit, and bracing frankness. Read him, and the world will never look the same again.
Claire Messud, Author of The Emperor’s Children
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, This American Life
Etgar’s stories are a reminder of that rude intangible that often goes unspoken in creative writing workshops: a great work of art is often just residual evidence of a great human soul … I am very happy that Etgar and his work are in the world, making things better.
George Saunders
When I first read Etgar’s stories, I wondered what was wrong with him — had his mother smoked crack while pregnant? Was he dropped on his head as an infant? — until I met him, and grew to know him, and realised his problem was much worse than I had ever imagined: he is a terribly caring human being in a terribly uncaring universe. Basically, he’s fucked.
Shalom Auslander
I don’t know how Etgar Keret does it, but he can turn anything into a brilliant story. The Seven Good Years is full of them, and they happen to be true, and full of love, kindness, wisdom, humor and stuff I long for as a reader but cannot quite name. Keret’s writing is soul-healing.
Aleksandar Hemon
Spare, wry … Without overplaying any single aspect of a complicated life in complicated times in a complicated place, Keret’s lovely memoir retains its essential human warmth, demonstrating that with memoirs, less can often be more.
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
Funny, dark, and poignant.
Jonathan Safran Foer
One of my favorite Israeli writers.
John Green
[The Seven Good Years] is full of humor, frequent self-deprecation, and of course incisive allusions to the geopolitical situation in the Middle East … like a self-portrait drawn in short sketches from a variety of perspectives: on the one hand very rich, and on the other hand quite entertaining.
Eka Kurniawan, Author of Beauty is a Wound
[A] master storyteller, creating deep, tragic, funny, painful tales.
Los Angeles Times
If Kafka has the power to smash through the frozen sea of our souls, Keret perhaps can infiltrate our gray matter, adding synapses where none existed before.
San Fransisco Chronicle
Keret possesses an imagination not easily slotted into conventional literary categories. His … short stories might be described as Kafkaesque parables, magic-realist knock-knock jokes or sad kernels of cracked cosmic wisdom.
A.O. Scott, The New York Times
[Keret’s writing] testifies to the power of the surreal, the concise and the fantastic … oblique, breezy, seriocomic fantasies that defy encapsulation, categorization and even summary.
The Washington Post
Hilarious, brilliant, poignant, magically economical in its language, marvelously generous in its approach to the world, this book is like its author: genius.
Ayelet Waldman
Keret calls it a memoir but it’s really a TARDIS — a time machine that does two kinds of magic at once. First, it takes us back through seven years of Keret’s history, showing us the world (its beauty, madness, and inescapable strangeness) through his sharp and sympathetic observations. It’s not an overtly political book, but one defined by violence, bookended by life and death … Seven years later the Middle East is still a mess. There are still attacks and there are still tears, but so, too, is there still Keret and his wife and Lev. Time goes. Babies are born and old men die and all we can hope for is to gather some beautiful, small stories to make sense of where we’ve come from and where we’re going.
Jason Sheehan, NPR
The first thing I asked myself after I reluctantly put this book down was why haven’t I read anything else by this author? You had me at Chapter One, Mr Keret … There is no question that readers will laugh along with Keret’s stories but his book also offers an opportunity to understand the terrible strain that some of our fellow humans are under in countries where war is ongoing … Do yourself a favour and have a read of The Seven Good Years, you won’t be disappointed.
Salty Popcorn, Five Stars
Profoundly moving … falls somewhere between Kafka and Seinfeld.
An Amazon Best Book of the Year
Clive James
A brilliant writer … The voice of the next generation.
Salman Rushdie
Etgar Keret is #1 writer in Israel and #2 in my heart (after my dachshund Felix).
Gary Shteyngart
Being a father, having a feather — Etgar Keret is the man in the middle and he captures the job just brilliantly.
Roddy Doyle
At once funny and profound, The Seven Good Years is a gem. Etgar Keret approaches memoir the way he does fiction — from surprising angles, with a sly wit, and bracing frankness. Read him, and the world will never look the same again.
Claire Messud, Author of The Emperor’s Children
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, This American Life
Etgar’s stories are a reminder of that rude intangible that often goes unspoken in creative writing workshops: a great work of art is often just residual evidence of a great human soul … I am very happy that Etgar and his work are in the world, making things better.
George Saunders
When I first read Etgar’s stories, I wondered what was wrong with him — had his mother smoked crack while pregnant? Was he dropped on his head as an infant? — until I met him, and grew to know him, and realised his problem was much worse than I had ever imagined: he is a terribly caring human being in a terribly uncaring universe. Basically, he’s fucked.
Shalom Auslander
I don’t know how Etgar Keret does it, but he can turn anything into a brilliant story. The Seven Good Years is full of them, and they happen to be true, and full of love, kindness, wisdom, humor and stuff I long for as a reader but cannot quite name. Keret’s writing is soul-healing.
Aleksandar Hemon
Spare, wry … Without overplaying any single aspect of a complicated life in complicated times in a complicated place, Keret’s lovely memoir retains its essential human warmth, demonstrating that with memoirs, less can often be more.
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
Funny, dark, and poignant.
Jonathan Safran Foer
One of my favorite Israeli writers.
John Green
[The Seven Good Years] is full of humor, frequent self-deprecation, and of course incisive allusions to the geopolitical situation in the Middle East … like a self-portrait drawn in short sketches from a variety of perspectives: on the one hand very rich, and on the other hand quite entertaining.
Eka Kurniawan, Author of Beauty is a Wound
[A] master storyteller, creating deep, tragic, funny, painful tales.
Los Angeles Times
If Kafka has the power to smash through the frozen sea of our souls, Keret perhaps can infiltrate our gray matter, adding synapses where none existed before.
San Fransisco Chronicle
Keret possesses an imagination not easily slotted into conventional literary categories. His … short stories might be described as Kafkaesque parables, magic-realist knock-knock jokes or sad kernels of cracked cosmic wisdom.
A.O. Scott, The New York Times
[Keret’s writing] testifies to the power of the surreal, the concise and the fantastic … oblique, breezy, seriocomic fantasies that defy encapsulation, categorization and even summary.
The Washington Post
Hilarious, brilliant, poignant, magically economical in its language, marvelously generous in its approach to the world, this book is like its author: genius.
Ayelet Waldman
Keret calls it a memoir but it’s really a TARDIS — a time machine that does two kinds of magic at once. First, it takes us back through seven years of Keret’s history, showing us the world (its beauty, madness, and inescapable strangeness) through his sharp and sympathetic observations. It’s not an overtly political book, but one defined by violence, bookended by life and death … Seven years later the Middle East is still a mess. There are still attacks and there are still tears, but so, too, is there still Keret and his wife and Lev. Time goes. Babies are born and old men die and all we can hope for is to gather some beautiful, small stories to make sense of where we’ve come from and where we’re going.
Jason Sheehan, NPR
The first thing I asked myself after I reluctantly put this book down was why haven’t I read anything else by this author? You had me at Chapter One, Mr Keret … There is no question that readers will laugh along with Keret’s stories but his book also offers an opportunity to understand the terrible strain that some of our fellow humans are under in countries where war is ongoing … Do yourself a favour and have a read of The Seven Good Years, you won’t be disappointed.
Salty Popcorn, Five Stars
Profoundly moving … falls somewhere between Kafka and Seinfeld.
An Amazon Best Book of the Year