Thomas's Reviews > Three Floors Up

An interesting set of three stories, each focused on tenants living on different floors of the same upper middle class apartment building in Israel. I liked the subtle complexities of the characters’ lives in this collection – an overly possessive father unaware of his own toxically masculine shortcomings, a woman yearning for some connection or excitement in the space left by her absent husband, and a widow trying to reconnect with her estranged son. The characters in Three Floors Up all act in messy and at times self-destructive ways, and Eshkol Nevo humanizes these folks so that their behaviors make sense and warrant some compassion as opposed to coming out of nowhere.

While I found this framing and setup with the apartment complex innovative, I wanted a bit more from the writing and plot in this book. It feels difficult to quantify exactly what felt missing, though I know in the second section I found the narrator’s unreliability unhelpful in cementing the emotional gravity of the story, and in the third story I wanted some sharper prose to drive the feelings of the protagonist’s loss – both of her husband and son – even deeper. I think the first story felt the strongest to me, as we’re immersed in this problematic man’s interpretations of events so that we understand him even when we know he’s at fault.

Thanks to my friend Ariana for the thoughtful review that tipped me off to this book!