Rhyming Life & Death - Hardcover

Oz, Amos

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151013675 ISBN 13: 9780151013678

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009

Synopsis

An ingenious, witty, behind-the-scenes novel about eight hours in the life of an author.

A literary celebrity is in Tel Aviv on a stifling hot night to give a reading from his new book.While the obligatory inane questions ("Why do you write? What is it like to be famous? Do you write with a pen or on a computer?) are being asked and answered, his attention wanders and he begins to invent lives for the strangers he sees around him. Among them are Yakir Bar-Orian Zhitomirski, a self-styled literary guru; Tsefania Beit-Halachmi, a poet (whose work provides the novel's title); and Rochele Reznik, a professional reader, with whom the Author has a brief but steamy sexual skirmish; to say nothing of Ricky the waitress, the real object of his desire. One life story builds on another?and the author finds himself unexpectedly involved with his creations.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Praise for A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS:

"Every event, every factual detail, every discovery opens myriad doors to unexpected revelations...It is impossible to give a full account of this book's riches." --The Washington Post Book World

"[A] consistently gracious and compassionate meditation on the birth and consciousness of a writer. Revealed here is an exceptionally intimate and emotional archaeology, which provides astonishing truths about the origins of art itself."-- The Miami Herald

"A powerful story of the making of a writer?Oz's panoramic memoir enhances the history of literature and of Israel, and the literature of examined lives." --Booklist (starred)

Praise for THE SAME SEA:

"A prose poem . . . at once melancholic and sensual." --The New Yorker

"Impressive?[l]iterature that is both spiritually moving and secularly provocative."--The Los Angeles Times Book Review

"[L]ovely, lyrical territory?a reminder of the great things a novel can do. How it can cast us into a dream state, put us into contact with our beloved dead and help us recognize the hidden connections among all people and all things." --Chicago Tribune

"At once spare and lushly experimental, an unusual mixture of hard, precise prose that drives the story forward and often lyrical, evocative verse that bathes us in mental glow of each of the characters." --The Nation

From the Inside Flap:

Eight hours in the life of an author. Tel Aviv, a stifling hot night. A literary celebrity is giving a reading from his new book. And as his attention wanders, he begins to invent lives for the strangers he sees around him: here, a self-styled cultural guru, Yakir Bar-Orian Zhitomirski; there, a love-starved professional reader, Rochele Reznik; to say nothing of Ricky the waitress, the real object of his desires. Reality and fiction blend in this ingenious, poignant novel from the celebrated author of A Tale of Love and Darkness.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0151013675
• ISBN 13: 9780151013678
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 117