A reissue of one of the classic works of twentieth-century Jewish fiction; Past Continuous depicts the crises in the lives of three Israeli men - Goldman, Israel, and Caesar - as they attempt to focus their lives and extract meaning from chaos. The reader is drawn into a mass of family tangles and social exhaustion -- wives and ex-wives, passing mistresses and crushing marriages, desperate intrigues and disappointments, the loss of children, friends, ideals. Past Continuous is a brilliant tour de force, a Joycean panorama of the lives of three men, their families, their lovers, and their friends in the quintessentially modern city of Tel Aviv. As much a novel about Tel Aviv - its landscape, its idiosyncratic atmosphere, and its history - as it is about the human condition.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Shabtai's Requiem:
Shortly before his death, Y. Shabtai wrote two inter-related books, Past Perfect and Past Continuous (both of them translated by the gifted Dalia Bilu). The title of the first book, in Hebrew, is Zikhron Devarim, or Memory, and these are indeed books that look back, not only at the lives of their characters, but at the entire project that became the State of Israel, and, more universally, at the human project. These are novels of biblical proportions and they are brilliant from start to finish.
A compelling and deftly written saga:
Past Continuous is an engaging novel by Yaahov Shabtai and is set in modern-day Tel Aviv. Astutely translated from the original Hebrew by Dalya Bilu, Past Continuous strives to present a landscape portrait of Tel Aviv, as it depicts three men, their lives, their loves, their families, and their friends in a criss-cross tangled tale wrapped in the unfolding vibrancy of the city itself. A compelling and deftly written saga, Past Continuous will well serve to introduce to American readers an Israeli writer of... more info
A reader:
Simply the best book published in Israel for the last 30 years.Absolutely fantastic!
one of the best books written in this century:
one of the best books written in this century. not an easy reading- the book is written in one paragraph, and as a continous thought, but it's damn worth it.
