I saw an ad in my FB feed for Mazeltov, and I was immediately intrigued. A coming-of-age novel about an Israeli boy discovering his queerness while living in a time of war? Sign me up!
The challenge was, this book is told in fractured chapters which jump from time to time, narrated by people you aren’t familiar with, and sometimes they weren’t even about Adam, the main character. So much is left for interpretation and extrapolation—I know some love those aspects of literary fiction, but I’d rather not have to work while I read.
“He always wanted to become the wanderer he thought that he was meant to be and make a home in the cities of his dreams, which were perpetually bright and inexpensive and never hostile to the Jews.”
The book follows Adam at different points in his life. There’s the day his newly religious father takes him to a mountain and cuts his hair for the first time. His bar mitzvah, which doesn’t go well. A school play, which also doesn’t go well for him. Moments of coming to terms with his queerness following his mandatory military service.
While I didn’t love this book, I definitely was taken in by Eli Zuzovsky’s use of language and imagery. He’s very talented; I just wish this was told in a more linear fashion.
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