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A. B. Yehoshua
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The Retrospective: A Novel Kindle Edition

by A. B. Yehoshua (Author), Stuart Schoffman (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 out of 5 stars 52 ratings
An ageing film director must face his past in the acclaimed Israeli author’s prize-winning novel—“a compelling meditation on art, memory, love [and] guilt” (Independent, UK).

Yair Moses, an aging Israeli film director, has been invited to the Spanish pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela for a retrospective of his work. Accompanied by Ruth, his leading actress and longtime muse, Moses discovers a painting in their hotel room that triggers a distant memory from one of his early films: a scene that caused a rift with his brilliant but difficult screenwriter—who, as it happens, was once Ruth’s lover.

Upon their return to Israel, Moses decides to travel to the south to look for his elusive former partner and propose a new collaboration. But the screenwriter demands a price that will have strange and lasting consequences. A searching and original novel by one of the world’s most esteemed writers, The Retrospective is a meditation on mortality and intimacy, on the limits of memory and the struggle of artistic creation.

Winner, 2012 Prix Médicis étranger
Winner, 2012 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger
A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice
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  1. Print length
    349 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Mariner Books
  4. Publication date
    March 5, 2013
  5. File size
    2.3 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Novelist Yehoshua rewards readers patient enough to excavate layers of text and shift tempo. At the bedrock of Israeli filmmaker Yasir Moses, estranged screenwriter Trigano, and their common muse Debdou (Ruth)’s love triangle, we strike inherited imagery’s uniting and dividing powers. In Spain, a laudatory retrospective of early films unfolds at a sluggish pace, promising no dramatic developments yet able to sustain tension. The action rises in Israel when Moses travels back to filming locations: a village on Gaza’s border, his parents’ prominently located Jerusalem house. Risking rocket fire, he seeks reconciliation with Trigano, who haunts him like an amputee’s stump. A priest descended from inquisitors casts struggling Muslim immigrants and rural Spaniards for a once abandoned scene, the screenwriter’s condition for truce. But reimagining art requires echoes and fresh compositions; multiple camera angles are metaphors for differing moral perspectives on this undertaking. Moses the elder must fulfill his student’s belief: Art makes the disgraceful beautiful and the repulsive meaningful. With beautiful wordsmanship, Yehoshua entangles dignity and humiliation, repugnance and rapture, showing us how difficult they become to distinguish. --Cynthia-Marie OBrien

Review

Winner, 2012 Prix Médicis étranger
Winner, 2012 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger
A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice

"[Yehoshua] achieves an autumnal tone as he ruminates on memory’s slippery hold on life and on art."—The New Yorker

"Yehoshua’s prose penetrated to a level of psychological understanding that moved me deeply. . . [His] stories remind us that Israeli literature rightly joins the literature of those other cultures that have earned the right to make of ordinary lives a metaphor for such soul-destroying weariness."—Vivian Gornick, The Nation

"An ambitious, engrossing, playfully testamentary novel."—Moment

"A pure pleasure. . . Yehoshua's best book in years."—Maariv (Israel)

"Genius. . . In The Retrospective, Yehoshua evokes the complexities of growing old — for men and women, and for a country that is no longer fledgling — and the entrapments of regrets and broken memories that make it hard to part 'from what might have been but was not.'"—Jewish Daily Forward

"Yehoshua is concerned with the inadequacies in our quotidian sense of history, our inability to comprehend its violent grandeur. Though the history he has in mind may be Jewish and Israeli, the final words of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man may apply: 'Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?'"—Robert Pinsky, New York Times Book Review

"The Retrospective is intelligent, sensitive fiction . . . In his inimitable style, Yehoshua crafts a powerful and engaging allegory of modern Israeli Jewish identity. "—Haaretz

"Yehoshua delivers a stunning explanation of the ethics of art. . . A fluid and absorbing novel of ideas; highly recommended."—Library Journal, starred review

"A truly international book, a serious set of reflections about coming to terms with the past—with a surprising ending. . . His recent novels have a wonderful restraint, an increasingly elegiac feel."—Jewish Chronicle

"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

"With beautiful wordsmanship, Yehoshua entangles dignity and humiliation, repugnance and rapture, showing us how difficult they become to distinguish."—Booklist

"A compelling meditation on art, memory, love, guilt… A hugely pleasurable read, it shows that in his seventies, A. B. Yehoshua is still producing some of his best work."—Independent (UK)

"Fascinating. . . Beautiful."—Ha'ir (Israel)

"Richly plotted."—Jewish Week

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B008QNSYBU
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books (March 5, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 5, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2.3 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 349 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars 52 ratings

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A. B. Yehoshua

A. B. Yehoshua

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4.1 out of 5 stars
52 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Jack Green
    5.0 out of 5 stars Different kind of book, very good
    Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    This a quiet, thoughtful book. There's not a lot of action. What gives the book it's defining moment is the split, which occurred long ago, between the director, the main character in the novel, and his screenwriter, who appears in only one chapter but is continually referenced. The split is over a scene the screenwriter felt very strongly about that the director didn't film because the actress in the scene was offended by what she was asked to do. The screenwriter is very rigid, inflexible, and filled with hatred for the director who wants a rapprochement with him. They were very close colleagues at the beginning of their careers. I didn't understand why the director felt so strongly about getting back together after so many years of estrangement especially because in their one meeting the screenwriter had so much anger and bitterness for the him. There is also an actress involved who along with the cameraman, who's name is similar to the screenwriter's and caused some confusion, the director, and the screenwriter make up a foursome who collaborated on my films in the beginning of their careers. The retrospective refers to one given in Spain of the director's early films. The book is slow moving, not plodding, which allows for the thoughts of the characters to grow and flesh out during the course of the book. Well worth reading. This is the first book of this author's I've read but I'm going to read another. He's a famous Israeli author.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • RD
    4.0 out of 5 stars Easy to relate to
    Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    His films and life commingle with his craft, craftiness, sense of honor and need to feel he understood, all as he ages and grows less sure of both past and elusive present. Easy to relate to. Some obsessions were either cultural or masculine so we're more. Difficult to relate to.
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  • judygarlandheartbreaker.com
    3.0 out of 5 stars Oy, what a slog.
    Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2013
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    Premise: Israeli film director reviews his life as guest of
    a Spanish tribute to his films; he brings his leading lady,
    and they re-visit the time of the making of the movies, when they were in their heyday.
    No central conflict and pallid characters mar this tale of
    elegiac reflection. Couldn't finish it.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Prudence M. Thorner
    5.0 out of 5 stars I'm a fan!
    Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Whenever a new Yehoshua book is translated into English, I read it as soon as I can. This one is a look back from the end of life by a film maker and his leading lady. It ranks up there with his best books. It is long, but I thought it captured the viewpoints of the director, his star actor, and his lighting and camera man very well.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Louis Rousso
    5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful story with uncanny relevance
    Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2013
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    First, and possibly most importantly, the book is a wonderful story skillfully recited. Second it raises profound questions both in the specific Israeli/Jewish sphere as well as in the universal realm of art and its relation to reality. Very highly recommended.
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  • Kindle Customer
    4.0 out of 5 stars Retrospective
    Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Well written and enjoyable. I followed Yehoshua's use of the idea of a retrospective through the book. The old director-a little nutty, over-the -top- but still not enough to put me off..
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  • Lawrence Marlborough
    2.0 out of 5 stars Not for me.
    Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Not for me. I'm sure the are many readers out there who could get some enjoyment from this book but for me it was a slog through deep self-centered slush. I could not and will not recommend this book.
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  • Elayne Shapiro
    5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully wrought; much to think about
    Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Yehoshua's characters are intriguing; his prose is beautiful; the plot reveals many interesting themes to think about. The Retrospective is a book to share and discuss with friends.
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