Eshkol Nevo, Ice Cube you are not

After a few weeks of teeth-gnashing, I am finally done with the novel that I bought that one day on Shenkin: Eshkol Nevo's Homesick (which in Hebrew is called Four Houses, and Yearning--translation, a celebration, I suppose).

This book kept pissing me off but I finished it anyway. Now that it's done with, I am a little fond of it. Homesick for it, perhaps? Paha.

The thing that pissed me off most about the book was that the author kept rhyming his sentences. I kept rolling my eyes and cursing audibly while reading on the bus because of this. Who rhymes their sentences? For paragraphs on end? In a novel? Jesus Christ! I. Could. Not. Handle. It. It was beginning to give me physical symptoms and at one point I almost threw up because it was so dizzying.

And Nevo is way fond of cliches. I know, I'm the one to talk, but he doesn't even play around with these cliches or does anything interesting with them. His books feel like Israeli talking points at times. For example, his character's insistence that there are three types of existences--soldierhood, citizenhood, and trekkinghood. This sentence is the literary cliche equivalent of writing a story about four Israeli dudes who have been BFFs since kindergarten. Oh wait, he wrote that book too. It's called One Wish to the Right. I read it in Jersey.

But the worst part is that he always has his characters trash Tel-Aviv (in speech only and not with actual trash, even though that would be more interesting). This bitch character who I never liked anyway was going on and on about how in Tel-Aviv "everyone's gay, or lesbian, or in touch with their bisexuality. And left-wing, of course. As if there's no other way. As if a political opinion is just another outfit, another trend you have to follow, and not something personal . . . There's something comfortable about [this city]. Comfortable like marrying your first high school boyfriend. No one threatens you too much here. No one would throw a rock at you if you drive on Shabbat; they won't say the Oslo agreements are a gamble, and you probably won't see real Arabs in front of your face . . ." (bold mine).

Aaah, she said "real Arabs" WTF. So many dumb stereotypes about Austin-TX-I-mean-Tel-Aviv. You'd think the author would find something a little more nuanced to say about such a multifaceted city. This author is reinforcing a narrative of "Tel-Aviv = rich white people, everyone else in Israel = ethnic poor people." He's writing the Israeli version of the tv show Friends. Let's pretend everyone is white and rich and wholesome LOL. Gah shuttup.

I guess I like Nevo's books enough to keep reading them. We all know that I am a sucker for Israeli cliches at the end of the day. It is embarrassing but I can't help it.

I'm just glad that the rhyming bonanza is over for now.