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A Tale Of Love And Darkness
by Amos Oz


9.7

based on 17 reviews
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based on 11 votes
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Official Publisher Site

Tragic, comic, and utterly honest, this memoir is at once a great family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation and lived through its turbulent history. It is the story of a boy growing up in the war-torn Jerusalem of the forties and fifties. He leaves the constraints of the family and the community of dreamers, scholars, and failed businessmen and joins a kibbutz, changes his name, marries, has children, and finally becomes a writer as well as an active participant in the political life of Israel. A story of clashing cultures and lives, of suffering and perseverance, of love and darkness. [Harcourt]

Harcourt, 544 pages
11/15/2004
$26.00

ISBN: 0151008787

Nonfiction
Biographies & Memoirs

NOTES:
Translated by Nicholas de Lange

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Chicago Tribune Steven G. Kellman

A powerful portrait of coming of age amid conflict, loss and independence.

Daily Telegraph John Gross

It's a long book, and if it weren't as good as it is you could easily find yourself resenting its length. But you don't. It is moving, amusing, thought-provoking, brilliantly evocative. You're caught up in it from the start and swept along.

Kirkus Reviews

A moving, emotionally charged memoir of the renowned author's youth in a newly created Israel.

Los Angeles Times Amy Wilentz

Oz inspects, ridicules and exposes himself at every opportunity, and yet he remains lovable, a trick that is an integral part of this writer's magic. We are in the hands here of a capable, practiced seducer.[21 Nov 2004, p.R5]

New York Review Of Books Amos Elon

Oz powerfully evokes the sounds and sights of the 1940s but we hear none of the cliches about heroic young men and women, silent, thoughtful, and self-disciplined, fighting for independence and making the desert bloom in remote outposts.

Publishers Weekly

This is a powerful, nimbly constructed saga of a man, a family and a nation forged in the crucible of a difficult, painful history.

Booklist Donna Seaman

For all its acute anecdotal and philosophical parsing of the larger world, this generous, gracefully meandering, many voiced, eventful, gently funny, and often magical reminiscence revolves most around Oz's mother and her tragic death.[15 Oct 2004, p.378]

The Guardian Linda Grant

It is one of the funniest, most tragic and most touching books I have ever read.

The Independent Justin Cartwright

It is one of the most gripping, intense and moving autobiographies I have ever read, seamlessly translated by Nicholas de Lange.

The New York Times Book Review John Leonard

Chekhov is all over A Tale of Love and Darkness -- rendered from Hebrew into supple, acrobatic English by Oz's longtime translator, Nicholas de Lange -- waiting for Kafka to mug him. And mug him Kafka will, even in this glorious, masterly lamentation, these ''Speak, Memory!'' Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Spectator Diana Hendry

Marvelous... Perhaps with A Tale of Love and Darkness Oz has become a metaphorical fireman, rescuing both his parents if not from fire, then from the darkness of oblivion. Without a doubt, Oz 'calls up the dead and shakes up the living.' Read him.

Washington Post Alberto Manguel

An extraordinary, luminous, wise and important book.

The New Republic Robert Alter

One of the most enchanting and deeply satisfying books that I have read in many years.

The Independent David Cesarani

Mesmerizing...But fans of his novels, with their lean prose, may find this hard going. The writing is dense, repetitive, almost liturgical.

Boston Globe Richard Eder

It is a painful story, yet transformed, even lightened, by a novelist's ability to get closer while standing back. There is much that is both comic and very human about the contrast between the father's logomanic distances and his disastrously bungling tenderness.

Daily Telegraph David Isaacson

But where those writers' family sagas were rich, satirical affairs, Oz assumes a sober, objective perspective.

Library Journal Joyce Sparrow

As much as this distinguished book details the lives of the Oz family, it also captures the history of Israel. [Aug 2004, p.80]

The average user rating for this book is 9.7 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Friedel F gave it a10:
Great Book! Oz did an excellent job. It´s not only an autobiographical book. It´s a great saga about a boy, his family and the foundation of a country.

lior e gave it a10:
wonderfull, deep and touching

Norma F gave it a10:
An amazing book with an outstanding translation. Written in a time line that is woven like a fine tapestry--back and forth in memory, yet always staying connected. Oz's psychological insights about himself, parents, extended family and other characters, his historical and literary references are almost mind boggling in their richness. One of the most gripping and satisfying books I have ever read.

Dorothy E P gave it a10:
Beautiful writing style - simple and beautiful. Sad and funny. I keep recommending it to friends. I am a third of the way through and am delighted the book is fat and thick... So much more to look forward to!

Darrell N gave it a9:
Terrific translation … hard to believe it was written in another language. I loved every page of it. The author shows an amazing recollection of details from his childhood. Though autobiographical, the author says more about others than about himself. Much of what he writes about himself is frank, and often, self-deprecating. There’s nothing extraordinary about most of the people or the setting, other than Israel’s growing pains following World War II. The narrative jumps around in time, but to good effect.

A Woodstock gave it a9:
Alternatively hilarious and poignant. A marvelous self portrait and truly absorbing read. I immediately checked my libraries inventory to find other English translations of his works. Very highly recommended!

Judiana L gave it a10:
A wonderful achievement. Oz is both unsparingly honest and tender in his portraits of family members, as well as of himself. And his story of the early stages of the Israeli-Arab conflict is of absorbing interest.

A Tale Of Love And Darkness by Amos Oz

A Tale Of Love And Darkness
by Amos Oz