What do you think?
Rate this book
The Girl on the Fridge
A birthday-party magician whose hat tricks end in horror and gore; a girl parented by a major household appliance; the possessor of the lowest IQ in Mossad -- such are the denizens of Etgar Keret's dark and fertile mind. The Girl on the Fridge contains the best of Keret's first collections, the ones that made him a household name in Israel and the major discovery of this last decade.
171 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
Etgar Keret
130 books2,353 followersBorn in Ramat Gan in 1967, Etgar Keret is a leading voice in Israeli literature and film. His books have been published in over four dozen languages and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, Le Monde and The New Yorker, among others. His awards include the Cannes Film Festival's "Caméra d'Or" (2007), the Charles Bronfman Prize (2016) and the prestigious Sapir Prize (2018). Over a hundred short films and several feature films have been based on his stories. Keret teaches creative writing at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Since 2021, he has been publishing the weekly newsletter "Alphabet Soup" on Substack.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 405 reviews
November 7, 2011
Short Short Stories
Etgar Keret was born in Tel Aviv in 1967.
This is the third book of his short stories that I’ve read and I’ve loved them all.
To give you one idea of why I like them, there are 46 stories in this collection, and the whole thing is only 171 pages long.
Most stories come in at 1½ to four pages, which means you can read two while you’re waiting for your bread to toast, or your partner to warm your side of the bed for you, or your children to finish in the bathroom (well, maybe I'm fibbing about that last one).
“Brevity is the Soul of Wit”
Polonius said this in “Hamlet”. He was right then and he is equally right now.
He is also right to suggest that any attempt to paraphrase or explain his expression would only require more than his six words, unless you strip it down to something like “shorter is better” (which might be right, but it doesn’t convey the meaning of humour or insight that “wit” does, unless you think that all short things are funny).
The whole idea of a short story is to do as much with as little as possible.
Yet, I find that Etgar Keret has a skill much greater than most of his peers.
He has an ability to pare words and sentences down so far that they teeter (and titter) on the absence of meaning.
Any more cuts and you wouldn’t know what he was talking about.
Instead, he stops at a point where what remains is the bare minimum required to convey meaning.
Nevertheless, he invites us to infer what might have been omitted or cut.
In other words, he expects readers to supply some of the meaning. It’s a collaborative effort.
To this extent, he is like Beckett, in the way he walks right up and stares into the face of the absurd, only he is absurdly funny as well.
We laugh while we wait for Godot.
Take These Words
I suppose every writer does it, but another thing I love about Etgar Keret is that he takes the same words that we have all been given and weaves some amazing tales with them.
How come he can take our vocabulary and do so much better than the rest of us with exactly the same words?
Some of his characters are children, and you can sense that they have acquired their words and mannerisms from the adults around them.
The children take their parents’ words and use them, or perhaps the parents’ words use the children to convey them.
What is going on here?
What magic dust does he have that we don’t have?
Remove Everything but the Magic
I don’t mean to imply that he is unique, however.
He reminds me of how I have responded in the past to Kurt Vonnegut or Richard Brautigan or Tom Robbins or John Irving.
Only just as I used to think that Tom Robbins and John Irving were long-winded versions of Richard Brautigan, Etgar Keret is like an abbreviated version of Brautigan.
The brevity has been abbreviated, but the magic is still there.
Perhaps there is something happening here beyond words.
Not just something that words can’t describe, but something that words aren’t trying to describe.
Something is happening between the words.
These words are playing with each other before our very eyes, dancing, flirting, kissing, falling in love, even fornicating.
Making Something from Nothing
So far, I’ve focused on Keret’s ability to strip away verbiage, but he’s also able to make something from nothing.
In the story “Nothing”, a woman loves a man who is made of nothing.
That’s more or less the first sentence, yet by the time you read it (two-thirds of the way into the book), you’re totally accepting of the possibility that this might be true:
"Nothing in the world would have made her happier than to make love with him all night long, tasting his non-lips once again, feeling the uncontrollable quiver run through him, the emptiness spread through her body…She hadn’t the slightest doubt or apprehension. She knew that his love would never betray her. What could possibly let her down when she opened the door? An empty apartment? A numbing silence? An absence between the sheets of the rumpled bed?"
This writer who works with less asks the question, “What is enough?”
Can we make do with less? Can we make do with nothing? Is nothing less enough? (Sorry, I think I was only joking with that last one.)
What Do We Still Have When You Take Everything Away from Us?
Etgar Keret writes in Hebrew, although perhaps paradoxically even in translation his stories come across with both the richness of Jewish tradition and the independence of 21st century modernity:
" ‘Is because you and me, we both terminal sick,’ Hans explained. I loved his fractured Hebrew, especially when he called me ‘terminal sick’, like I am waiting at some busy airport about to take off for an exciting, different place."
Keret the modernist comes across as cheeky, sharp and fun.
Yet he seems to appreciate and embrace the positives of Jewish culture.
Despite (but perhaps because of) the Holocaust, Jewish culture continues and enriches all those who have access to it.
Even in the darkest of times, Jews cannot have nothing, they cannot have “no compass, no map, no guide”.
They have their culture and their traditions and their perception and their ways of seeing.
To quote the terminally sick Hans again:
"Then I see him on wall…mein Schatten, how you say, aah...shadow. I look at him and I know, my shadow he always with me. I know always what he is going to do, and him even the Germans they cannot take...Zauber (magic)."
It’s our privilege and good fortune that Etgar Keret conveys some of this Zauber to us in his short short stories.
Etgar Keret was born in Tel Aviv in 1967.
This is the third book of his short stories that I’ve read and I’ve loved them all.
To give you one idea of why I like them, there are 46 stories in this collection, and the whole thing is only 171 pages long.
Most stories come in at 1½ to four pages, which means you can read two while you’re waiting for your bread to toast, or your partner to warm your side of the bed for you, or your children to finish in the bathroom (well, maybe I'm fibbing about that last one).
“Brevity is the Soul of Wit”
Polonius said this in “Hamlet”. He was right then and he is equally right now.
He is also right to suggest that any attempt to paraphrase or explain his expression would only require more than his six words, unless you strip it down to something like “shorter is better” (which might be right, but it doesn’t convey the meaning of humour or insight that “wit” does, unless you think that all short things are funny).
The whole idea of a short story is to do as much with as little as possible.
Yet, I find that Etgar Keret has a skill much greater than most of his peers.
He has an ability to pare words and sentences down so far that they teeter (and titter) on the absence of meaning.
Any more cuts and you wouldn’t know what he was talking about.
Instead, he stops at a point where what remains is the bare minimum required to convey meaning.
Nevertheless, he invites us to infer what might have been omitted or cut.
In other words, he expects readers to supply some of the meaning. It’s a collaborative effort.
To this extent, he is like Beckett, in the way he walks right up and stares into the face of the absurd, only he is absurdly funny as well.
We laugh while we wait for Godot.
Take These Words
I suppose every writer does it, but another thing I love about Etgar Keret is that he takes the same words that we have all been given and weaves some amazing tales with them.
How come he can take our vocabulary and do so much better than the rest of us with exactly the same words?
Some of his characters are children, and you can sense that they have acquired their words and mannerisms from the adults around them.
The children take their parents’ words and use them, or perhaps the parents’ words use the children to convey them.
What is going on here?
What magic dust does he have that we don’t have?
Remove Everything but the Magic
I don’t mean to imply that he is unique, however.
He reminds me of how I have responded in the past to Kurt Vonnegut or Richard Brautigan or Tom Robbins or John Irving.
Only just as I used to think that Tom Robbins and John Irving were long-winded versions of Richard Brautigan, Etgar Keret is like an abbreviated version of Brautigan.
The brevity has been abbreviated, but the magic is still there.
Perhaps there is something happening here beyond words.
Not just something that words can’t describe, but something that words aren’t trying to describe.
Something is happening between the words.
These words are playing with each other before our very eyes, dancing, flirting, kissing, falling in love, even fornicating.
Making Something from Nothing
So far, I’ve focused on Keret’s ability to strip away verbiage, but he’s also able to make something from nothing.
In the story “Nothing”, a woman loves a man who is made of nothing.
That’s more or less the first sentence, yet by the time you read it (two-thirds of the way into the book), you’re totally accepting of the possibility that this might be true:
"Nothing in the world would have made her happier than to make love with him all night long, tasting his non-lips once again, feeling the uncontrollable quiver run through him, the emptiness spread through her body…She hadn’t the slightest doubt or apprehension. She knew that his love would never betray her. What could possibly let her down when she opened the door? An empty apartment? A numbing silence? An absence between the sheets of the rumpled bed?"
This writer who works with less asks the question, “What is enough?”
Can we make do with less? Can we make do with nothing? Is nothing less enough? (Sorry, I think I was only joking with that last one.)
What Do We Still Have When You Take Everything Away from Us?
Etgar Keret writes in Hebrew, although perhaps paradoxically even in translation his stories come across with both the richness of Jewish tradition and the independence of 21st century modernity:
" ‘Is because you and me, we both terminal sick,’ Hans explained. I loved his fractured Hebrew, especially when he called me ‘terminal sick’, like I am waiting at some busy airport about to take off for an exciting, different place."
Keret the modernist comes across as cheeky, sharp and fun.
Yet he seems to appreciate and embrace the positives of Jewish culture.
Despite (but perhaps because of) the Holocaust, Jewish culture continues and enriches all those who have access to it.
Even in the darkest of times, Jews cannot have nothing, they cannot have “no compass, no map, no guide”.
They have their culture and their traditions and their perception and their ways of seeing.
To quote the terminally sick Hans again:
"Then I see him on wall…mein Schatten, how you say, aah...shadow. I look at him and I know, my shadow he always with me. I know always what he is going to do, and him even the Germans they cannot take...Zauber (magic)."
It’s our privilege and good fortune that Etgar Keret conveys some of this Zauber to us in his short short stories.
February 3, 2020
"Çünkü Kuanta'yı kimse anlamaz. Hele Fizikçiler, hiç."
Tanrı Olmak İsteyen Otobüs Şoförü'nden daha çok hoşuma gitti.
Öyküler daha derin geldi bana... 2 sayfada hızlıca şaşırtan öyküler de vardı.
⭐
Tanrı Olmak İsteyen Otobüs Şoförü'nden daha çok hoşuma gitti.
Öyküler daha derin geldi bana... 2 sayfada hızlıca şaşırtan öyküler de vardı.
⭐
July 16, 2019
keretin dünyası çox maraqlıdı
August 28, 2014
I bought this at Powell's in Chicago; my wife drove and I read a few stories aloud -- which isn't problematic as most of them were less than two pages and hilariously dry. I finished before we made it to Lafyette. I would read more of his work but have since grown immune to erratic impulses to flash effect.
January 16, 2018
Kısa kısa bir sürü hikaye barındırıyor içinde Buzdolabının Üstündeki Kız. Kara mizah sevenlerin seveceğini düşündüğüm bir kitap. Ama benim için ortalama kaldı diyebilirim. Yazarın çok farklı bir anlatım tarzı var. Vermek istediği mesajı fazla kısa hikayeler ile vermeye çalışıyor. Ve ben bu kadar kısa hikayeleri sevmiyorum. O yüzden bazı hikayeler çok hoşuma giderken bazılarını hiç sevmedim.
May 29, 2019
Bazı hikayeler güzel olsa da toplamda Kapı Birden Vuruldu ve Tanrı Olmak İsteyen Otobüs Şoförü seviyesinde değildi.
Çevirinin çok iyi olduğunu belirtmek lazım.
Çevirinin çok iyi olduğunu belirtmek lazım.
December 16, 2008
I don't know how I discovered Etgar Keret but I've always been happy that I did. As I'm also in the midst of reading a couple of Chekhov collections, I think I can understand why I like Keret: He reminds me a great deal of Chekhov, and not just because most of their stories are very short. Both authors write in a style that, on the surface, is comedic, cynical and superficial but upon reflection reveals an insight and depth of empathy few writers can excel.
This is the weakest of the three Keret collections I've read - The Nimrod Flipout and The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God - but there are a number of good ones in this volume, and it's a collection of Keret's earlier work so (one could argue) reflects his growing maturity and skill as a writer.
My favorites are:
"Vacuum Seal" - reminded me of the first half of Kubrick's film "Full Metal Jacket," especially Vincent D'Onofrio's character
"The Real Winner of the Preliminary Games" - another story about the trauma inflicted by life and how people keep going, regardless
"One Hundred Percent" - a story about expecting too much from love
"Not Human Beings" - a story about how otherwise decent human beings can justify all sorts of atrocity
"Freeze" - reminiscent of the movie "The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything" but with a sharper edge
"Knockoff Venus" - a young man becomes disillusioned with his "Venus"
"The Summer of '76" - a story about a boy's idyllic life won by his grandfather's pain
Very few of the stories have real plots but Keret is often able to create memorable characters in only a few sentences. Highly recommended to anyone, especially Chekhov fans.
This is the weakest of the three Keret collections I've read - The Nimrod Flipout and The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God - but there are a number of good ones in this volume, and it's a collection of Keret's earlier work so (one could argue) reflects his growing maturity and skill as a writer.
My favorites are:
"Vacuum Seal" - reminded me of the first half of Kubrick's film "Full Metal Jacket," especially Vincent D'Onofrio's character
"The Real Winner of the Preliminary Games" - another story about the trauma inflicted by life and how people keep going, regardless
"One Hundred Percent" - a story about expecting too much from love
"Not Human Beings" - a story about how otherwise decent human beings can justify all sorts of atrocity
"Freeze" - reminiscent of the movie "The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything" but with a sharper edge
"Knockoff Venus" - a young man becomes disillusioned with his "Venus"
"The Summer of '76" - a story about a boy's idyllic life won by his grandfather's pain
Very few of the stories have real plots but Keret is often able to create memorable characters in only a few sentences. Highly recommended to anyone, especially Chekhov fans.
September 7, 2020
Okurken bazı hikayelere kendinizi kaptırıyorsunuz, bazen de o hikaye size çok yabancı geliyor. İki sayfalık hikayeyi üç defa okudum, aklımdan şüphe ettim. İsrail kültürü ve yaşamıyla ilgili çok terim vardı kitapta, o da biraz okumayı zorlaştırdı benim için. Tanrı Olmak İsteyen Otobüs Şöförü’nden önce bunu okuyayım dedim. İki kitabı da okuyanların çoğu TOİOŞ’ünü daha çok beğenmiş. Umarım benim için de öyle olur. Etgar Keret ile aramız şimdilik iyi başlamadı.
April 4, 2010
Many readers seem to think this author is a genius and his stories are wonderful. Perhaps, but my opinion differs. They were not to my taste.
This book has 171 pages and there are 46 stories; they’re obviously very short. Thankfully, for me, they were short and the book was short.
As I read I had a sheet of paper handy with loved, liked a lot, and liked as categories, for writing down short stories that fit each one. The results?: none that I could wholeheartedly put on any of those lists, although there were many stories where I really liked parts of them and was able to appreciate the effort. Many of the story titles were intriguing so I was eager to try many of them.
I felt assaulted by many of the stories. I disliked many of these enough to hopefully block them out of my memory and (only partially tongue in cheek) I’m hoping my memory has faded sufficiently that I won’t have much to contribute to my book club discussion in three weeks. I do like dark and disturbing books, including books that share some of the themes of these stories; I just didn’t enjoy this book. The worst of it is these stories didn’t even depress me or evoke any emotion, but left me mostly unmoved.
If not for my book club I would have stopped reading very early on.
I’m not saying these have no redeeming value and I don’t like discouraging others from reading books, even if I’m not a fan, so I say read the reviews written by other Goodreads’ members! However, I am a fan of the short story form and have often appreciated short stories that are very short, but not these.
However, I am genuinely curious what my book club members think of this book and I’m eager to hear from those who enjoyed these stories in order to find out what they enjoyed about them.
What I’m perturbed about is I’ve been eager to get my average rating for my Goodreads read shelf books back up to 4.00 from 3.99 because I do actually “really like” almost all the books I read. My uncharacteristic star rating of this book will significantly delay that shift.
This book has 171 pages and there are 46 stories; they’re obviously very short. Thankfully, for me, they were short and the book was short.
As I read I had a sheet of paper handy with loved, liked a lot, and liked as categories, for writing down short stories that fit each one. The results?: none that I could wholeheartedly put on any of those lists, although there were many stories where I really liked parts of them and was able to appreciate the effort. Many of the story titles were intriguing so I was eager to try many of them.
I felt assaulted by many of the stories. I disliked many of these enough to hopefully block them out of my memory and (only partially tongue in cheek) I’m hoping my memory has faded sufficiently that I won’t have much to contribute to my book club discussion in three weeks. I do like dark and disturbing books, including books that share some of the themes of these stories; I just didn’t enjoy this book. The worst of it is these stories didn’t even depress me or evoke any emotion, but left me mostly unmoved.
If not for my book club I would have stopped reading very early on.
I’m not saying these have no redeeming value and I don’t like discouraging others from reading books, even if I’m not a fan, so I say read the reviews written by other Goodreads’ members! However, I am a fan of the short story form and have often appreciated short stories that are very short, but not these.
However, I am genuinely curious what my book club members think of this book and I’m eager to hear from those who enjoyed these stories in order to find out what they enjoyed about them.
What I’m perturbed about is I’ve been eager to get my average rating for my Goodreads read shelf books back up to 4.00 from 3.99 because I do actually “really like” almost all the books I read. My uncharacteristic star rating of this book will significantly delay that shift.
August 21, 2017
*mencoba mbayangin kalau buku ini di terjemahkan ke bahasa indonesia bagaimana*
1 komentar untuk buku ini mungkin begini: tragis.
sampulnya kece, ceritanya penuh tragedi dan sarkas-sarkas tentang kehidupan. ada banyak cerita yang mungkin bisa membuatmu tertawa karena begitu menyindir (mungkin mirip) kisah hidupmu.
semacam pengingat, kenapa saat kita tumbuh dewasa, kita malah berubah menjadi orang dewasa yang menyebalkan yang bahkan sekedar memiliki permohonan saat ada bintang jatuh pun kita tidak bisa.
cerita favorit mungkin yang Pesulap. anjir itu ceritanya thriller-comedy yang ambyar banget. ngilu pas bacanya.
line favorit mungkin yang ini (saya coba tulis terjemahannya aja ya, malas ketik ulang versi bahasa inggris)
*ada bintang jatuh*
*ada 2 pasangan duduk di tepi jembatan yang lihat itu*
cewek: ada bintang jatuh, ayo minta sesuatu
cewek: kamu minta apa?
cowok: aku minta supaya kita bisa terus bersama seperti ini
cewek: itu saja?
cowok: itu saja
mereka lalu putus. bertahun-tahun kemudian mereka bertemu lagi, si cewek jadi jurnalis sementara si cowok menjadi saksi dalam sebuah kasus terorisme
*setelah selesai wawancara kasus*
cowok: boleh aku bertanya sedikit?
cewek: apa?
cowok: kenapa kau dulu meninggalkanku? tanpa kabar dan kejelasan?
cewek: sudah jelas bukan? aku tidak mau memiliki kekasih yang tidak memiliki ambisi dan mimpi. laki-laki yang hanya mampu berdoa ''semoga bisa bersama kekasihku terus'' dan bukannya berdoa kepada bintang jatuh supaya karir sukses atau hal-hal sejenis itu.
*hening*
cewek: maaf, aku tidak bisa menjawab pertanyaan di luar kasus.
*saya langsung bengong*
*mikir
**masih mikir
***mikirrrr
kira-kira kalau ada bintang jatuh gitu saya bakal minta apaan ya, saya juga bingung hhhhh
etgar keret resmi masuk dalam salah satu penulis favorit saya. suka!
1 komentar untuk buku ini mungkin begini: tragis.
sampulnya kece, ceritanya penuh tragedi dan sarkas-sarkas tentang kehidupan. ada banyak cerita yang mungkin bisa membuatmu tertawa karena begitu menyindir (mungkin mirip) kisah hidupmu.
semacam pengingat, kenapa saat kita tumbuh dewasa, kita malah berubah menjadi orang dewasa yang menyebalkan yang bahkan sekedar memiliki permohonan saat ada bintang jatuh pun kita tidak bisa.
cerita favorit mungkin yang Pesulap. anjir itu ceritanya thriller-comedy yang ambyar banget. ngilu pas bacanya.
line favorit mungkin yang ini (saya coba tulis terjemahannya aja ya, malas ketik ulang versi bahasa inggris)
*ada bintang jatuh*
*ada 2 pasangan duduk di tepi jembatan yang lihat itu*
cewek: ada bintang jatuh, ayo minta sesuatu
cewek: kamu minta apa?
cowok: aku minta supaya kita bisa terus bersama seperti ini
cewek: itu saja?
cowok: itu saja
mereka lalu putus. bertahun-tahun kemudian mereka bertemu lagi, si cewek jadi jurnalis sementara si cowok menjadi saksi dalam sebuah kasus terorisme
*setelah selesai wawancara kasus*
cowok: boleh aku bertanya sedikit?
cewek: apa?
cowok: kenapa kau dulu meninggalkanku? tanpa kabar dan kejelasan?
cewek: sudah jelas bukan? aku tidak mau memiliki kekasih yang tidak memiliki ambisi dan mimpi. laki-laki yang hanya mampu berdoa ''semoga bisa bersama kekasihku terus'' dan bukannya berdoa kepada bintang jatuh supaya karir sukses atau hal-hal sejenis itu.
*hening*
cewek: maaf, aku tidak bisa menjawab pertanyaan di luar kasus.
*saya langsung bengong*
*mikir
**masih mikir
***mikirrrr
kira-kira kalau ada bintang jatuh gitu saya bakal minta apaan ya, saya juga bingung hhhhh
etgar keret resmi masuk dalam salah satu penulis favorit saya. suka!
August 11, 2015
Είχα μια αμφιβολία για το πόσα άστρα να δώσω σε αυτό το βιβλίο μα τελικά αποφάσισα τα 4* γιατί τα διηγήματα μου άρεσαν τόσο πολύ λόγω της παράνοιας που έχουν και της συντομίας τους. Ένας συγγραφέας που γράφει μεγάλη λογοτεχνία με λίγες λέξεις και σίγουρα έχει να δώσει πολλά ακόμη.
January 16, 2012
After hearing an interview with this author as well as excepts from some of his shorts on NPR I rushed to buy this book. Etgar Keret has written a collection of slightly dark and sometimes surreal short stories about the human condition. Individually these stories can be surprising and thought provoking, but as a whole I found the experience of reading this book to be exhausting. This 137 page novel features no less than 46 individual stories. Fourty-six. In case math is not your friend, each short end up being only a few paragraphs, or maybe three pages long.
I am actually a huge fan of short stories. When done well their brevity lends to an intensity that is often not felt in full length novels. However, at only a handful of pages, Keret's shorts never really provide a substantial story. Rather, they are mere suggestions of ideas and glimpses of lives. He gives just enough information to make a situation interesting and thought provoking. But somehow I was left feeling unsatisfied. Again, this may have been an excellent technique when reading selections from this book individually, or even while reading a smaller collection of his tales. But all at once, I was overwhelmed.
Perhaps when I am at a different point in my life Etgar Keret will be worth revisiting. I imagine when I am retired perhaps I will be able to afford the luxury of spending an entire day pondering over a two page story. But at this point in my life, no matter how much I enjoy Keret's writing (in theory) this simply isn’t the book for me.
I am actually a huge fan of short stories. When done well their brevity lends to an intensity that is often not felt in full length novels. However, at only a handful of pages, Keret's shorts never really provide a substantial story. Rather, they are mere suggestions of ideas and glimpses of lives. He gives just enough information to make a situation interesting and thought provoking. But somehow I was left feeling unsatisfied. Again, this may have been an excellent technique when reading selections from this book individually, or even while reading a smaller collection of his tales. But all at once, I was overwhelmed.
Perhaps when I am at a different point in my life Etgar Keret will be worth revisiting. I imagine when I am retired perhaps I will be able to afford the luxury of spending an entire day pondering over a two page story. But at this point in my life, no matter how much I enjoy Keret's writing (in theory) this simply isn’t the book for me.
December 19, 2015
his short stories are super-short, only 3 until 4 pages long, yet they're unbeatably effective in delivering their goal. the stories are hilarious, and sometime surreal too. like when a wife glued her feet to the ceiling and hanging upside down like a bat because, according to the husband, maybe she knew something about his hidden affair with another woman. etgar keret has a unique sense of humour. his way of telling stories reminds me of junot díaz, a writer from dominican republic who wrote 'this is how you lose her' & 'the brief wondrous life of oscar wao'. they're both using simple words, slang, and dialect. i think etgar keret will be my next favourite author. i can't wait to finish this book and read another book by him.
May 27, 2017
Kız arkadaşım Amerika'da birilerinin yalnızlığa karşı bir ilaç bulduğunu söyledi. Dün akşam Gece Hattı'nda duymuş, şimdi de ablasına ona bir kasa yollaması için özel ulakla mektup gönderiyor. Gece Hattı'nda ilacın Doğu Yakası'nda ki bütün eczanelerde bulunduğunu ve New York'ta peynir ekmek gibi satıldığı söylemişler. İki türü varmış, damla yada sprey. Kız arkadaşım damla sipariş etti. Kendini yalnız hissetmesin diye ozon tabakasına zarar vermesinin âlemi yoktu. :)
Hayata dair pek çok noktaya değinen kitap, kısa kısa öykülerden oluşuyor. Dili fazlasıyla yalın. İlginç anekdotları bulunsa da, okuyup kapatılır nitelikte. Aklınızda yer edecek kadar mükemmel değil desem kabalık etmiş olmam umarım.
Hayata dair pek çok noktaya değinen kitap, kısa kısa öykülerden oluşuyor. Dili fazlasıyla yalın. İlginç anekdotları bulunsa da, okuyup kapatılır nitelikte. Aklınızda yer edecek kadar mükemmel değil desem kabalık etmiş olmam umarım.
April 19, 2009
Salman Rushdie calls Keret “the voice of the next generation,” a boldly meaningless statement. Most of us will eventually recall the contentious convention of the next generation, to be so relentlessly covered in USA Tomorrow, in which Salman Rushdie will narrowly defeat Simon Cowell and Donald Trump for the office of Decider of the Voice of the Next Generation. We will recall it as soon as it occurs. But while we are waiting for the Next Generation to form, define itself or be defined, and Mr. Rushdie to win his election and bestow his condescending title, we have The Girl on the Fridge, forty-five or so stories in a book of a 171 pages (including a score of gray divider pages). These are by any definition short stories. Many a page or two long. All have twists, some clever and some obvious from the title. In “Monkey Say, Monkey Do,” the narrator is likely a monkey, or perhaps only a boyfriend. It begins: “’Have a banana,’ she begged. I don’t want to.” In some stories buses die, Roman gods emigrate to Israel, a loser gets the power to freeze action and suggest behavior that gets enacted on his command, a woman loves a man made of literally nothing, a son celebrates his father’s fifieth birthday by braining one of his tenants with a wrench, a magician finds that his magic top hat no longer delivers cute bunnies but rabbit and human body parts, a troubled couple get crazy-glued together at the lips, and so on. Imagine “The Twilight Zone” with glib irony and less time per episode, say the time of a commercial or two. Some of the stories are very effective, most are not and grow tiresome when read one after the other. I liked the story about the emigrating Roman gods, the one about two terminally ill men, and a handful of others. But mostly this was a disappointment. Stories too self-consciously surreal to be provocative, too short to develop their own conceits, too self-satisfied with their O’Henry style endings. Salman Rushdie clearly does not think much of the next generation.
August 27, 2014
This is the awesomest minimalistic weirdness I have ever read, both in terms of word scarcity and stories themselves, some as short as half a page, yet packed with so much juice and life and magic and absurdity of every day life and sorrow and hope and sexual fantasies and violence and poetry and…oh, I can’t continue, I have to catch my breath. Can you fix a relationship with super glue? Like, real super glue, really glueing two people together? Can you be parented by a fridge? Can you vacuum seal yourself so not a drop of sorrow can make you wet? Can you hold a book in your hands and while you read it, shout “Wow!” and “That’s right!” and “Oh my God!” and “Yes!” and “I can’t believe it!” so maybe finally your neighbors will start to complain and you’ll have to explain to them that sorry, you just discovered Etgar Keret and you just can’t help yourself?
I can’t help myself. I want to read more. This my writer, my kind of stories, my language, my weirdness, my everything. If you like Kafka (like me), if you like Murakami (like me), if you like the absurdity and humor of Chekhov’s stories (like me), read it. It will blow your socks off. And more.
I can’t help myself. I want to read more. This my writer, my kind of stories, my language, my weirdness, my everything. If you like Kafka (like me), if you like Murakami (like me), if you like the absurdity and humor of Chekhov’s stories (like me), read it. It will blow your socks off. And more.
October 22, 2017
Yazarın okuduğum ilk kitabı, bir sürü kısa hikayeden oluşan bir kitap. Hikayeler bir kaç sayfa uzunluğunda ve İsrailli yazarın tüm hikayeleri, hafif gerçek üstü ve çok eğlenceli. Az kelimeyle çok şey anlatan akıllıca bir tazı var. Denedim ve memnun kaldım ve başka kitabını da okumak isterim :)
February 18, 2021
বন্ধুর সুবাদে শুনলাম বইটার প্রশংসা। অনুবাদ বেরিয়েছে। রকমারিতে কয়েক পাতা দেখে মনে হল অনুবাদের মান ভালোই। তবে উহা সংগ্রহ করার উপায় নাই, অতএব ইংরেজি সংস্করণ নামিয়ে পড়ে ফেললাম।
যাদের মন বসে না পড়ার টেবিলে, তাদের জন্য সুখবর— মাত্র এক পেজ, দুই পেজ করে গল্পগুলা। একটু লম্বা সাইজের ফেসবুক স্ট্যাটাসের সমান আরকি। লেখায় কাফকার প্রভাব পরিষ্কার, চরিত্র ফুটিয়ে তোলার নৈপুণ্যের সাথে অ্যাবসার্ডিজমও ঘন হয়ে মিশেছে জায়গায় জায়গায়। সংঘর্ষ-সত্যের ভেতরে এক শিশি পরাবাস্তব পুশ করে দিয়ে স্বতন্ত্ররকমের গল্প বুনেছেন কেরেট। বারো হাত গল্পের তেরো হাত মিনিং দেখতে চাইলে অতিসত্ত্বর পড়ে ফ্যালেন।
ফেভারিট? বাচ্চাদের পয়েন্ট অফ ভিউ থেকে লেখা গল্পগুলোই পসন্দ হয়েছে বেশি, সত্যি বলতে:
মরাল সামথিং— ফাঁসির গল্প
দা ব্যাকগ্যামন মনস্টার - বাজির গল্প
গুডি ব্যাগস - উপহারের গল্প
আর অন্যগুলোর মাঝে বলবো 'ভ্যাকুয়াম সিল', 'কোয়ান্টা', 'মাংকি সে, মাংকি ডু', 'পেশেন্স' এর কথা।
যাদের মন বসে না পড়ার টেবিলে, তাদের জন্য সুখবর— মাত্র এক পেজ, দুই পেজ করে গল্পগুলা। একটু লম্বা সাইজের ফেসবুক স্ট্যাটাসের সমান আরকি। লেখায় কাফকার প্রভাব পরিষ্কার, চরিত্র ফুটিয়ে তোলার নৈপুণ্যের সাথে অ্যাবসার্ডিজমও ঘন হয়ে মিশেছে জায়গায় জায়গায়। সংঘর্ষ-সত্যের ভেতরে এক শিশি পরাবাস্তব পুশ করে দিয়ে স্বতন্ত্ররকমের গল্প বুনেছেন কেরেট। বারো হাত গল্পের তেরো হাত মিনিং দেখতে চাইলে অতিসত্ত্বর পড়ে ফ্যালেন।
ফেভারিট? বাচ্চাদের পয়েন্ট অফ ভিউ থেকে লেখা গল্পগুলোই পসন্দ হয়েছে বেশি, সত্যি বলতে:
মরাল সামথিং— ফাঁসির গল্প
দা ব্যাকগ্যামন মনস্টার - বাজির গল্প
গুডি ব্যাগস - উপহারের গল্প
আর অন্যগুলোর মাঝে বলবো 'ভ্যাকুয়াম সিল', 'কোয়ান্টা', 'মাংকি সে, মাংকি ডু', 'পেশেন্স' এর কথা।
November 26, 2020
It's always hard to rate a short story collection like this, where some are so good I want to give them all five stars, some mediocre and some completely shitty. So an average rating comes through, but that fails to provide a clear picture. Here translation plays another part
The stories I absolutely loved are : Asthma Attack, Crazy Glue, Yordan, Vacuum Seal, The Girl On The Fridge, Nothing, The Night The Buses Died, On The Nutritional Value Of Dreams. I would recommend checking them out, if you don't have time for the full collection.
Rating has also been deducted due to the presence of frequent misogynistic elements in a seemingly positive light.
The stories I absolutely loved are : Asthma Attack, Crazy Glue, Yordan, Vacuum Seal, The Girl On The Fridge, Nothing, The Night The Buses Died, On The Nutritional Value Of Dreams. I would recommend checking them out, if you don't have time for the full collection.
Rating has also been deducted due to the presence of frequent misogynistic elements in a seemingly positive light.
August 23, 2019
Birkaç sayfa yahut paragrafla bir olayı anlatmak yetersiz kalabiliyor bazen, atmosferi öyle ayarlamak gerekiyor ki hem okuru olayın derinliklerine acımadan sürüklemek hem de onu oraya hapsedip can çekişmesini izlemek amaç çünkü. Etgar Keret bu işi ustalıkla yapan yazarlardan biri, de��işik bir beyni olduğunu düşünüyorum, adam bir defa uçuk, genel geçer kanıların dışında gezinmeyi seviyor, dalga geçerken sövmesini de çok iyi biliyor, kara mizah duygusunun dizginlerini de sıkı sıkıya yakalamış. Sadece yazar kişiliğiyle de değil İsrailli olması sebebiyle dünyanın saçma sapan oyunlarına başkaldırmasıyla da ayakta alkışlanacak bir zat.
Etgar Keret’ın okuduğum ilk kitabı Tanrı Olmak İsteyen Otobüs Şoförü, okuduktan sonra damakta bıraktığı tat ardından diğer kitaplarını okuma gereksinimi duymamıza sebep oluyor. Buzdolabının Üstündeki Kız, aslında ilk başta insanda garip duygular oluşturuyor, kitaba adını veren ilk öyküyü okuduktan sonra ise yanıldığımızı ve kafamızda canlandırmaya çalıştığımız imgelerin aslında hiç de düşündüğümüz gibi olmadığını anlıyoruz. Bu da hiçbir şey göründüğü gibi değildir savının bir kanıtı olsa gerek.
Kısacık, kısa olduğu kadar derin bir sürü öyküyü içeren bir kitap, zor yanı da yok değil aslında. Neticede su içmek için mutfağa gitmek de zor gelebiliyor insana, neyse.
Öykülerin bu kadar içe işlemesinin yanında kısa oluşlarıyla da şehir içi minibüslerinde okumak için o kısa ama çekilmez zamanı eğlenceli hale dönüştürmeyi başarabiliyor, hele ki kitap okumak için zaman ayıramayıp bu duruma canı sıkılanlar için. Ama sakin kafayla oturup üzerinde düşünüldüğünde aslında öykülerin ne kadar da uç yerlere işaret ettiğini anlıyor okuyucu, imgelerin gölgelerinden çok ona ışık tutanın kaynağına doğru seyre dalıyor adeta. Kitap bitince de apışıp kalıyorsunuz.
Avi Pardo çevirisiyle Siren Yayınları’ndan çıkan 156 sayfalık bu samimi kitap, her kitaplıkta olmayı hak ediyor.
“Kent merkezinde kendine bir daire kiraladı, bütün gün postacının yolunu gözlüyor. Benim postayla bir işim yok, başka ülkelerden bana bir şey gönderecek arkadaşlarım da yok. Olsaydı çoktan yanlarına giderdim. Onlarla içmeye çıkardım, dert yanardım. Onlara sık sık sarılır, yanlarında ağlamaktan utanmazdım. Yıllarımızı geçirebilirdik bu şekilde, ömrümüzü. Yüzde yüz doğal, damlalardan çok daha iyi.” –Damlalar/sayfa 26
Tramvay Durağı Etgar Keret ile hoş bir röportaj yapmış, buradan okuyabilirsiniz, Siren Yayınları’nın okumaktan zevk aldığımız blogunda Etgar Keret üzerine yazılmış tüm yazıları ise şurada bulabilirsiniz. Yazarın internet sitesi ise bu bağlantıda.
Etgar Keret’ın okuduğum ilk kitabı Tanrı Olmak İsteyen Otobüs Şoförü, okuduktan sonra damakta bıraktığı tat ardından diğer kitaplarını okuma gereksinimi duymamıza sebep oluyor. Buzdolabının Üstündeki Kız, aslında ilk başta insanda garip duygular oluşturuyor, kitaba adını veren ilk öyküyü okuduktan sonra ise yanıldığımızı ve kafamızda canlandırmaya çalıştığımız imgelerin aslında hiç de düşündüğümüz gibi olmadığını anlıyoruz. Bu da hiçbir şey göründüğü gibi değildir savının bir kanıtı olsa gerek.
Kısacık, kısa olduğu kadar derin bir sürü öyküyü içeren bir kitap, zor yanı da yok değil aslında. Neticede su içmek için mutfağa gitmek de zor gelebiliyor insana, neyse.
Öykülerin bu kadar içe işlemesinin yanında kısa oluşlarıyla da şehir içi minibüslerinde okumak için o kısa ama çekilmez zamanı eğlenceli hale dönüştürmeyi başarabiliyor, hele ki kitap okumak için zaman ayıramayıp bu duruma canı sıkılanlar için. Ama sakin kafayla oturup üzerinde düşünüldüğünde aslında öykülerin ne kadar da uç yerlere işaret ettiğini anlıyor okuyucu, imgelerin gölgelerinden çok ona ışık tutanın kaynağına doğru seyre dalıyor adeta. Kitap bitince de apışıp kalıyorsunuz.
Avi Pardo çevirisiyle Siren Yayınları’ndan çıkan 156 sayfalık bu samimi kitap, her kitaplıkta olmayı hak ediyor.
“Kent merkezinde kendine bir daire kiraladı, bütün gün postacının yolunu gözlüyor. Benim postayla bir işim yok, başka ülkelerden bana bir şey gönderecek arkadaşlarım da yok. Olsaydı çoktan yanlarına giderdim. Onlarla içmeye çıkardım, dert yanardım. Onlara sık sık sarılır, yanlarında ağlamaktan utanmazdım. Yıllarımızı geçirebilirdik bu şekilde, ömrümüzü. Yüzde yüz doğal, damlalardan çok daha iyi.” –Damlalar/sayfa 26
Tramvay Durağı Etgar Keret ile hoş bir röportaj yapmış, buradan okuyabilirsiniz, Siren Yayınları’nın okumaktan zevk aldığımız blogunda Etgar Keret üzerine yazılmış tüm yazıları ise şurada bulabilirsiniz. Yazarın internet sitesi ise bu bağlantıda.
December 29, 2010
I'm so glad I randomly stumbled across this book at my local bookstore. Etgar Keret's style of storytelling feels fresh and new, playful and smart; and he's very perceptive when it comes to both the dark and lighter sides of human nature. Some of the stories were stronger than others, but I liked them all. And, for at least half of them, I finished the story, closed my eyes, and mentally shouted the equivalent of "BRAVO!" Which is to say, I really really liked the story. :) Also, the writing (in English, duh!) was just absolutely DROP-DEAD FANTASTIC! I realize, Mr. Keret wrote this book in Hebrew, not in English, so it's possible the 2 translators are the ones I should be thanking for that. In fact, as I was reading, I would often come across exceptionally well-written passages, and no kidding, I'd stop and think, "Dang! How exactly was THIS translated from Hebrew? I bet they had to change a lot to get this to "work" in English. But no matter, they did a great job, so I will carry on with my reading! Thank you, Translators!!!"
And carry on I did. It took me a few months to finish as I had other reading assignments in the meantime, but I never forgot to keep coming back to this book. It was a very satisfying and mind-opening read. Thank you, Mr. Keret, and thank you, English-Hebrew translators! And thank you, Phoenix Books in Noe Valley!
And carry on I did. It took me a few months to finish as I had other reading assignments in the meantime, but I never forgot to keep coming back to this book. It was a very satisfying and mind-opening read. Thank you, Mr. Keret, and thank you, English-Hebrew translators! And thank you, Phoenix Books in Noe Valley!
June 16, 2016
I'm a big fan of short stories. I didn't know what to expect with this one; the cover caught my eye (shame on me) and the description on the back pulled me in pretty quickly, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Finished it in less than a week, and wow. I love stumbling across books like this one on accident. The stories come in bite-sized portions; I think the shortest one was 3/4 of a page and the longest was probably six pages. The story topics include: brain cancer, crazy glue, people pissing on doors, people with the ability to freeze time, magic show hat tricks gone awry, an invisible lover, and a very lonely little girl trapped on top of a refrigerator. There are quite a few others, but a great number of them defy explanation. Picking it up throughout the day felt like taking little sips of something spicy and exotic (like... um... hot chocolate... with chili powder in it), and now that I've finished it I'm looking forward to tracking down more of his stories. Go read it. You will like it.
May 20, 2023
এদগার কেরেত সাথে পরিচয় "দ্য গার্ল অন দ্য ফ্রিজ" এর মাধ্যমে। বেশ অনেকদিন ধরে বই টই পড়ছি না। যেকোনো বিষয়ে মন স্থির রাখা একটু কষ্টকর হয়ে যাচ্ছে। এই বইয়ের কয়েকটা গল্প বাদে প্রায় সব গল্প পড়ে ফেলেছিলাম। এতটাই ভালোলেগেছিলো! হঠাৎ খেই হারিয়ে ফেলেছিলাম। বইয়ের দোষ না একেবারেই।
এ বছর ছোটগল্প পড়েছি কম না তবে এরকম ছোট গল্পের ছোট গল্প পড়িনি একটাও। এমনকি ১০/১২ লাইনের ও গল্প আছে এই বইয়ে! যার প্রভাব সম্ভবত ৩০০ ক্রস করা উপন্যাসেও নেই।
খুব ছিমছাম এ ধরনের বইগুলো বেশ ভাল্লাগে। আরামদায়ক, রেশ থেকে যায় অনেকদিন! তবে কিছু গল্প ঠিক ধরতে পারিনি আমি। কয়েকবার রি-রিড দেওয়া প্রয়োজন। সবমিলিয়ে রেকমেন্ডেড!
এ বছর ছোটগল্প পড়েছি কম না তবে এরকম ছোট গল্পের ছোট গল্প পড়িনি একটাও। এমনকি ১০/১২ লাইনের ও গল্প আছে এই বইয়ে! যার প্রভাব সম্ভবত ৩০০ ক্রস করা উপন্যাসেও নেই।
খুব ছিমছাম এ ধরনের বইগুলো বেশ ভাল্লাগে। আরামদায়ক, রেশ থেকে যায় অনেকদিন! তবে কিছু গল্প ঠিক ধরতে পারিনি আমি। কয়েকবার রি-রিড দেওয়া প্রয়োজন। সবমিলিয়ে রেকমেন্ডেড!
May 31, 2008
Though not as good as The Nimrod Flipout there are many stories in this collection that still blow me away. This collection feels darker then his other collection I've read. The story, "The Bet", is a great example. It's short, powerful, and the last sentence will stay with you long after you've finished it, but where you could feel the hope resonating throughout most of the stories in The Nimrod Flipout, Keret seems much more cynical in this collection. Still a great read.
August 27, 2015
Bu adamın hayal dünyasına, yaratıcılığına, üslubuna bay��lıyorum. Tanrı Olmak İsteyen Otobüs Şoförü kadar hayran olmasam da beğenerek, yüzümde aptal bir gülümsemeyle okudum kitabı. Keşke daha uzun öyküler olsaydı dedim yine, tadı damağımda kalan çok.
January 7, 2016
ثاني مجموعة قصصية أقراها لإيتجار كيريت. نفس الخيال العظيم اللي بهرني في المجموعة السابقة كان متواجد في نصف الكتاب الأول. ثم بدأ في الخفوت حتى نهاية الكتاب، ربما كثير من القصص كانت مرتبطة بتفاصيل محلية زيادة عن اللزوم. وربما كانت سيئة فحسب، مش عارف! بس قشطة، مش وحش بس مش عظيم.
February 16, 2015
This was an impulse grab at the library. Its rather interesting full of short stories that are kind of funny, kind of creepy to down right boring. It was an okay read.
September 9, 2015
Çehov'u ayrı tutarak söylüyorum, sanırım Türk öykücüleri daha çok seviyorum. Daha yakın, sıcak geliyor; bir fincan sahlep gibi.
March 29, 2017
Çok övgü almış olmasına rağmen ben pek beğenmedim, zorla okudum. İki sayfayı geçmeyen sonu başı belli değil öykülerle yeni bir tarz yakalamaya çalışmış sanırım, ama sevemedim.
September 11, 2018
Bazi oykuler inanilmaz guzel hissettiriyor bazisi ise siradan ve gereksiz.
Bazi arap-israil iliskisine arif yapilan oykulerde insan haklari acisindan kendimi rahatsiz hissettim ancak yazarin hangi saikle hareket ettigi tam olarak anlasilmiyor.
Etgar Keret'in ilk okudugum kitabi ve cok acik bir sey var ki son olmayacagi belli.
Bazi arap-israil iliskisine arif yapilan oykulerde insan haklari acisindan kendimi rahatsiz hissettim ancak yazarin hangi saikle hareket ettigi tam olarak anlasilmiyor.
Etgar Keret'in ilk okudugum kitabi ve cok acik bir sey var ki son olmayacagi belli.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 405 reviews