"Second Person Singular follows two men, a successful Arab criminal attorney and a social worker-turned-artist, whose lives intersect under the most curious of circumstances. The lawyer has a thriving practice in the Jewish part of Jerusalem, a large house, a Mercedes, speaks both Arabic and Hebrew, and is in love with his wife and two young children. In an effort to uphold his image as a sophisticated Israeli Arab, he often makes weekly visits to a local bookstore to pick up popular novels. On one fateful evening, he ...
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"Second Person Singular follows two men, a successful Arab criminal attorney and a social worker-turned-artist, whose lives intersect under the most curious of circumstances. The lawyer has a thriving practice in the Jewish part of Jerusalem, a large house, a Mercedes, speaks both Arabic and Hebrew, and is in love with his wife and two young children. In an effort to uphold his image as a sophisticated Israeli Arab, he often makes weekly visits to a local bookstore to pick up popular novels. On one fateful evening, he decides to buy a used copy of Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata, a book his wife once recommended. To his surprise, inside he finds a small white note, a love letter, in Arabic, in her handwriting. I waited for you, but you didn't come. I hope everything's all right. I wanted to thank you for last night. It was wonderful. Call me tomorrow? Consumed with suspicion and jealousy, the lawyer slips into a blind rage over the presumed betrayal. He first considers murder, revenge, then divorce, but when the initial sting of humiliation and hurt dissipates, he decides to hunt for the book's previous owner--a man named Yonatan, a man who is not easy to track down, whose identity is more complex than imagined, and whose life is more closely aligned with his own than expected. In the process of dredging up old ghosts and secrets, the lawyer tears the string that holds all of their lives together."--Publisher marketing.
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Add this copy of Second Person Singular to cart. $13.27, good condition, Sold by Greener Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from London, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2013 by Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press.
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Add this copy of Second Person Singular to cart. $11.19, good condition, Sold by More Than Words rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Waltham, MA, UNITED STATES, published 2012 by Grove Press.
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Good. GoodFormer Library book. All orders guaranteed and ship within 24 hours. Your purchase supports More Than Words, a nonprofit job training program for youth, empowering youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business.
Add this copy of Second Person Singular to cart. $14.49, very good condition, Sold by Wonder Book - Member ABAA/ILAB rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Frederick, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2013 by Grove Press.
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Very Good. Very Good condition. A copy that may have a few cosmetic defects. May also contain light spine creasing or a few markings such as an owner's name, short gifter's inscription or light stamp.
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Very Good. Very Good condition. Very Good dust jacket. A copy that may have a few cosmetic defects. May also contain light spine creasing or a few markings such as an owner's name, short gifter's inscription or light stamp.
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A 28-year old paraplegic, Yonatan, is a pivotal figure in Sayed Kashua's novel, "Second Person Singular". The book examines the relationship between Arabs and Jews in Israel as well as relationships among Arabs themselves. The book also raises broader questions about the nature of personal identity: what it is and the extent to which emphasizing it may be valuable or harmful to a person or a society. Sayed Kashua is a Palestinian who lives in Israel and who has a following among both Israeli Jews and Arabs. Originally published in Hebrew in 2010, the book was translated into English in 2012 by Mitch Greenberg, the military correspondent for the "Times of Israel". The book reads lucidly and quickly in translation.
The book tells the parallel stories of two Palestinian men who live and work in Jerusalem. The first is the story of a man identified only as "the lawyer". The lawyer is a successful criminal attorney who defends Palestinians in Israeli courts. He is married to a woman named Leila, a social worker who holds advanced degrees. The couple has two young children. Leila came from a different class of Arab society than did the lawyer, a fact emphasized during Kashua's depiction of their courtship. The marriage appears somewhat tepid as the lawyer and Leila for the most part sleep separately. The lawyer's story is recounted in the novel in the third person.
The other protagonist is a young man, 28, who tells is story in his own words. Rather late in the book, his name is given as Amir. But as the book develops, Amir develops not one identity but several. Amir is trained as a social worker but develops an interest in photography for which he shows marked ability. He comes from a small settlement town in which his mother is an outcast. His father had apparently been killed for collaborating with the Israelis.
The two stories are gerrymandered together through the figure of Yonatan. Amir gets a part-time job caring for Yonatan. And one night, the lawyer, ever seeking to improve himself, buys a used copy of Tolstoy's short novel, "The Kreutzer Sonata". A note falls out written in Arabic in his wife's handwriting that appears to be a love note to another man. Yonatan's name is written in the cover of the book. In spite of his training as a criminal lawyer which encourages skepticism and a careful weighing of evidence, the lawyer is beside himself, thinking that his wife is involved with another man and with a Jewish man at that.
There is a great deal in this book about differing groups of Arab people in Israel and their tenuous, difficult relationship to the country. The best scenes of the book describe the backgrounds of the lawyer and of Amir and their varied attempts to make something of themselves. The story of the lawyer, his insane jealousy, and of how Amir dovetails into the situation is too complex and contrived to be convincing. The story descends into something of a parable.
The characters and the author face questions about personal identity that are most provocatively addressed by two secondary figures, a young Palestinian lawyer Tarik who works with the lawyer and Ruchaleh, the mother of Yonatan. For example, in a scene early in the book, Tarik is invited to a gathering of educated Palestinians who are discussing what they see as a separate Palestinian "narrative" in Israeli schools. Tarik boldly questions his peers on why a "narrative", Zionist or Palestinian, is important at all. The lawyer fleshes out the thought with the elliptical observation: "sometimes I think a tree is a tree and a man is a man."
Although it is marred by heavy-handed plotting and by the use of coincidence, this book offers insight into Israeli Palestinians and into Jewish-Palestinian relationships in Israel. The book also invites the reader to think about the possible limitations in holding to a strong sense of personal identity. The suggestion is that people are not like trees who need their "roots" to survive and grow. Individual identities may change and may be more like one another than sometimes is supposed.
