Gilad Atzmon

The blurb on the back of the book states that it's supposed to be "darkly funny." Well, it's dark, but I can't say I found it very funny. Atzmon's protagonist spends most of the "novel" being miserable with himself, his native country, other people, his lovers, his job, and mistreating all of the aforementioned as much as he can - while boning his way through Germany. Having heard of Atzmon before (in other contexts), I was expecting a thought-provoking, or an at least somewhat thought-through, satire of our contemporary world and was instead treated to the rambling narrative of a genuinely dislikable character. It doesn't even work as a criticism of the State of Israel because Gunther is so incredibly vague about what happened when Israel fell and Palestine was created that it seems like he doesn't know (or care). Comparing Atzmon's writing to Roth's (not to mention Maimonides') is a bit of a stretch. I realize that Atzmon is out to provoke the reader, but I find myself bored rather than provoked by Gunther's actions, and that's hard to forgive.… (mehr)