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marc129's review against another edition
1.0
I had expected a lot more from this Israeli Nobel Prize winner. Agnon indeed seems to bring a simple story, but it was a hell of a struggle to get through. This is mainly due to the slow rhythm, the archaic style and the dull romantic story, in which the inner soul stirrings of the protagonists Hirsjl and Blume are endlessly milked out and the surrounding characters remain very superficial. The curious thing is that this novel has a very 19th century flavour, with a rather cliché romantic focal point, an impossible love, which seems to develop into a naturalistic drama, but in the end just doesn’t. Agnon here plays a perverse game of reversal, reinforced by a curious mixture of continual moralizing and ironic remarks. That made the reading very alienating, and did not appeal to me at all. The only charm that this story offered was the rich evocation of life in a Jewish community in Eastern Europe around the turn of the 19th and 20th century.
gilad_bd's review against another edition
funny
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
ravit's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
cricca's review against another edition
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
oshrat's review against another edition
5.0
A beautiful saga, was totally immersed despite the special language and the challenging references included, loved it, at times it felt like reading poetry in a way and always relevant and touching
yozhik's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A pretty inoffensive book but rather boring. The book starts out with a protagonist Blume (prounounced Bluma) who is left a penniless orphan and becomes the maid of her rich uncle. She and her cousin Hirshl fall in love. Forbidden love. The pov switches to Hirshl, a boring mommy's boy and the plot is essentially Hirshl doing nothing. Everything's decided for him and not once does he fight against his lot in life. He marries an equally boring girl named Mina and forgets about Blume and they live happily after. Whatever. Blume is left as an afternote in this book which I found annoying. There are some funny moments in the book. Not really bad but not good, just forgettable.