From the Publisher
"Yehoshua's intelligent and refined novel. . . about an aging Israeli director reviewing both his films and his life. . . recalls once again Faulkner's famous dictum that 'the past isn't dead. It isn't even past.'"
—Kirkus (starred review) "Fascinating...beautiful."-Ha'ir, Israel
"An ambitious, engrossing, playfully testamentary novel" -- Moment
"With beautiful wordsmanship, Yehoshua entangles dignity and humiliation, repugnance and rapture, showing us how difficult they become to distinguish." --Booklist
“In his inimitable style, Yehoshua crafts a powerful allegory of modern Israeli Jewish identity.” – Ha’aretz
"A study of the contested sources of Israeli identity" -- Tablet
"Resolutely realistic" -- The Los Angeles Review of Books
"Yehoshua delivers a stunning explanation of the ethics of art...A fluid and absorbing novel of ideas; highly recommended." -- Library Journal, starred
"An elegant and graceful translation...intelligent and refined." -- Kirkus, starred
"Richly plotted" -- The Jewish Week
"Yehoshua is one of Israel’s most highly acclaimed writers, and ‘The Retrospective’ showcases the author at his finest. He offers a compelling study of character, and a powerful meditation on personal pain and loss, memory, regret, and atonement….a carefully observed portrait of a country in a perpetual state of conflict." -The Jewish Daily Forward
"Filled with detailed and realistic descriptions even as myth and memory are explored, The Retrospective is deeply satisfying, rich sto- rytelling from this outstand- ing Israeli writer." -- The Chicago Jewish Star
"Achieves an autumnal tone as he ruminates on memory’s slippery hold on life and on art." -- The New Yorker
Library Journal
If you’re an author of a half-century’s standing with a stack of prizes to your name, you, too, might want to write a book that probes the responsibilities of the artist. What’s intriguing here is that Yehoshua (A Woman in Jerusalem) makes his central character a film director, facilitating reflections on time and memory while highlighting the complexities of interpretation. Yair Moses has traveled to Santiago de Compostela—symbolically, a pilgrimage city—for a retrospective of his work. With him is Ruth, his longtime leading lady and the former lover of Trigano, the brilliant but difficult screenwriter from whom Moses is now estranged. Above their bed is a rendering of the legend Caritas Romana, in which an elderly prisoner is nursed at the breast by his daughter, which recalls the reason for the traumatic split between director and screenwriter. Trigano had written a similar scene for Ruth that she balked at playing and was infuriated when Moses sided with Ruth. As the story unfolds, Trigano comes off as not just a purist but rigid and monomaniacal—until a final moment when Yehoshua delivers a stunning explanation of the ethics of art. Verdict A fluid and absorbing novel of ideas; highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 9/17/12.]—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
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