The Book of Intimate Grammar - Softcover

David Grossman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330335944 ISBN 13: 9780330335942

Publisher: Picador, 1996

Synopsis

The acclaimed author of See Under: LOVE now gives readers the story of the 12-year-old ringleader among the boys in his Jerusalem neighborhood, who, as his friends begin to mature into manhood on the eve of the Six-Day War, decides not to grow up--to inhabit the adult world only as a spy from the world of childhood. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

About this title

From the Back Cover

David Grossman, the leading Israeli novelist of his generation, showed himself in his internationally acclaimed novel, See Under: LOVE, to be a consummate artist of the inner life of the child. Now, in his most moving and accessible novel yet, he gives us the story of the greatest and most universal tragedy, the loss of that childhood world. At twelve, Aron Kleinfeld is the ringleader among the boys in his Jerusalem neighborhood, their inspiration in dreaming up games and adventures. But as his friends begin to mature, Aron remains imprisoned for three long years in the body of a child. While Israel inches toward the Six-Day War, and while the voices of his friends change and become strange to him, Aron lives in his child body as though in a nightmare. Like a spy in enemy territory, he learns to decipher the internal codes of sexuality and desire, to understand the unyielding bureaucracy of the human body. Hurled between childhood and adulthood, between the pure and the profane, he is like a volcano of emotions and impulses. But, like his hero Houdini, Aron still struggles to escape from the trap of growing up. The Book of Intimate Grammar is about the alchemy of childhood, which transforms loneliness and fear into creation, and about the struggle to emerge as an artist. Funny, painful and passionate, it is a work of enormous intensity and beauty.

About the Author

David Grossman is the author of two books of journalism, several children's books, a play, and six novels, including Be My Knife. He lives in Jerusalem.

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0330335944
• ISBN 13: 9780330335942
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352