The Seven Good Years

Starred review from August 31, 2015
Karpovsky, a prolific young actor and filmmaker best known for his roles in HBO’s Girls, brings tremendous attention to detail and emotional depth to the new nonfiction title from Israeli fiction writer Keret. Keret chronicles the eventful time period between the birth of his son and the death of his father through a series of short vignettes from daily life, which gradually interconnect against a backdrop of political unrest in the Middle East. Karpovsky, the American son of Jewish Russian immigrants, beautifully masters the range of accents in the narrative. He also captures the developing speech patterns of Keret’s little boy, Lev, from vulnerable toddlerhood to the assertiveness and independence of a seven-year-old. Karpovsky scores in his rendering of the author’s aging parents through such memorable interactions as playing Angry Birds with their grandson. The sheer humanity in both the serious and lighthearted moments makes for a captivating listening experience. A Riverhead hardcover.

Starred review from April 20, 2015
In this slim, episodic set of recollections, acclaimed Israeli fiction writer Keret (The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God) covers the span between the birth of his son and the death of his father. In spare, wry prose, he recounts his child’s birth, the same day as a terrorist attack, and sums up the violent underpinnings of current Israeli life when he tells a disappointed journalist that “the attacks are always the same. What can you say about an explosion and senseless death?” This apolitical, irreligious, and wry fatalism recalls a great deal of Jewish humor, a meditation on the absurd and vital. The initial courtship of Keret’s parents, both Holocaust survivors, is lovingly described with a thirst for life that reflects the vitality of Israel’s earliest decades. Keret thinks and feels deeply, but he makes heavy points with a light touch, describing a childhood friend as having “the smiling but tough expression of an aging child who had already learned a thing or two about this stupid world.” While the short chapters move in linear fashion, each stands firmly on its own.. Without overplaying any single aspect of a complicated life in complicated times in a complicated place, Keret’s lovely memoir retains its essential human warmth, demonstrating that with memoirs, less can often be more.