Reading this book is a little like dozing off when you really shouldn’t be. You wake up, startled and confused, probably a little sweaty, and not sure how much time has gone by. You glance at a clock and determine only a few minutes have gone by even though it felt like longer. The agitating dream, though brief, lingers. It seemed to make sense when you were asleep, but the more you try to go over it and untangle it in your mind, the further away it gets. What you saw follows you the rest of the day, haunting you and affecting your moods and actions even though you know they are not real. You finally forget the dream and a few weeks pass. You're going about your day when suddenly you see or smell something that seems familiar and you are suddenly hit with vivid details from that dream again.
Every story in this book was incredibly short, sometimes only a page long, but they had a large impact. On one hand, this was great because it never felt heavy-handed or gratuitous and always left me wanting more. But on the other hand, I was often left feeling unfulfilled on certain stories because I wasn't ready to let go of it yet. To link back to the earlier sleeping simile, it was like getting woken up by a sudden, loud noise when something interesting finally happens in your dreams. I never got a chance to settle into something and really understand what was happening, which made me feel restless and uncomfortable.
Overall, I found the writing to be tight and simple. The fantastical elements aren't overwhelming enough to take you out of the story. The stories begin in a normal, banal setting and within a few paragraphs, that world begins to crack and ludicrous details begin to trickle in. For instance, "Halibut" relates a disconnected man having lunch on the seaside with an old friend that is about to announce his engagement only to have the conversation veer off dramatically when the special of the day is a talking fish with salt and lemon. "Fatso" depicts the story of a guy beginning to get serious with a girlfriend when she confesses that at night, she transforms into a hairy man with a crass sense of humor and a robust love for soccer. "Bottle" is the story of two friends going out to drink a few problems away when a man in a ponytail puts one of them in an empty Carlsberg bottle on a hundred shekel bet.
Keret was so subtle in his humor that a few times I didn't even realize something was hilarious until I was already far past it. His stories are created from a strange mixture of bizarre, sad, and funny that can make his wit difficult to detect.
Though I enjoyed reading Keret's work, I'm still not really sure if I get it all. But if I keep trying to work it all out on here, I might accidentally write a review that's longer than the stories in his book.
much love,
hedgie
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