I am not having much luck with #WITMonth so far. I abandoned the first two (highly regarded) books that I had on the TBR: Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki (meh) and The Vegetarian by Han Kang, (more violence against women). And now I've made it all the way through Days of Peace by Rachel Shihor, translated by Sara Tropper and Esther Frumkin, but I nearly abandoned it too. It is almost — but not quite — just another Miserable Marriage, and I have had enough of those.

Naomi seems to be a passive observer in her own life, drifting into, and then out of, an unsatisfactory marriage. You'd think that after all these years of feminism an educated architect would know that marrying an orthodox Jew would mean that she'd have to submit to the domestic impacts of that, and that as a secular Jew from Tel Aviv, she'd find that difficult. But no, Naomi, goes along with it all, until on a trip to Poland she finally makes a decision and leaves him.

This moment of crisis in their marriage is signalled by her refusal to delay her departure to suit him. This is the first time she stands up to him directly.

...I say, Jochanan, I am leaving here. I have already arranged everything. On Sunday a taxi is coming to take me to Warsaw. A driver has been found. My husband understands immediately. Is everything settled? he asks. Perhaps he expected this. And this is what you were doing while I was away? Who recommended the driver?

After that he falls to musing. — It's not that I don't understand, he says finally, but I have one request, he hesitates, Go ahead, but just not on Sunday. Don't cancel your plans, just postpone them. Tell the driver to come on Tuesday instead. I want to show you more important things. We have not yet seen the Jewish museum, and we will go to the plaza near here from which the Jews were deported to the concentration camps. Let's talk. — I went by myself to the deportation plaza, I say.

—And...? my husband asks.

—And I am leaving on Sunday. (p.139)

Days of Peace includes mildly interesting vignettes about all sorts of people in Jerusalem but what saved this novella for me was the descriptions of how Orthodox Jewish life impacted on their relationship because she did not share his religious beliefs. It's not just a matter of having to keep a kosher kitchen. The continuous cycle of religious holidays, with barely enough time to recuperate from their demands, was stressful.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/08/13/days-of-peace-2019-by-rachel-shihor-translat... ( )