Real Time

Rating:
Summary: Really Powerful
Review: Although the reader of Real Time begins this journey cognizant of the impending and catastrophic explosion that connects the lives of its diverse characters, there is nothing predictable about this book. It is a powerful and gripping story, and hooks the reader from the start. Each character is depicted with complexity, from the guilt-ridden adolescent grandson of a German soldier, compelled to discover the truth about his grandfather's past, to the Holocaust survivor trying to create order and beauty on an Israeli kibbutz. These are but two of the lives that are fatefully woven together, and the reader is quickly drawn into their worlds, both external and political, and internal and private. Ms. Kass artfully renders palpable the wide range of often contradictory--and therefore real--emotions that haunt each of the characters, and succeeds in the extremely difficult task of translating the wordless horror of trauma into language. There are no happy endings in this book, at least not in the familiar sense; however, amidst the interminable suffering, Ms. Kass' depiction of deep and enduring love offers relief, and serves to sustain us and give us hope.


Rating:
Summary: Real and timely
Review: As a school librarian who works with young adults, I read Real Time with great interest. It deals with current issues in a way that today's teens can relate to both on a personal level and as a window into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ms. Kass has drawn together a diverse cast of characters, each with his/her own agenda and emotional baggage, intertwining their lives against the background of historical tragedy and present-day issues. The protaganist, Thomas Wanniger, is coming to Israel to try to unravel the mystery of his grandfather's disappearance while serving in the German army during World War II. His decision to participate as a volunteer on a kibbutz near Jerusalem draws several other characters into the plot, which is laid out, chapter by chapter, on a digitally measured time-line. Sameh Lahem, a Palestinian who sneaks across the border every day to work as a dishwasher in a popular diner, expresses the frustration and religious zeal of the Palestinian youth ready to give up their own lives to kill Israelis. The tension grows as the inevitable crossing of their paths ends explosively. Real Time succeeds in balancing many points of view in the context of everyday reality in Israel. My own enthusiasm for Real Time is apparently shared by many others as it was recently awarded the prestigious Sydney Taylor Award. I plan to recommend it most highly to high school students and adults.

Rating:
Summary: Award winner from the Association of Jewish Libraries!
Review: This book is the 2004 winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Older Readers category. The award is given each year for the best in Jewish children's literature.

Real Time follows a number of characters hour by hour to the moment when their lives intersect at a bus bombing in Israel, and through the aftermath of the event. We hear the voices of kibbutzniks, an earnest German youth, and even the Palestinian boy who has been persuaded to
carry the bomb. Some characters are followed through the entire book, while others make only brief appearances. The format takes some time to adjust to, but once you become immersed in the story, it is extremely readable.

The book is sophisticated in its construction, in its characterization, and in its realism. Intricate timing allows us to see simultaneous events and to understand how they are likely to become connected. Every character is realistically portrayed as a mixture of good and bad, guilt and hope, victim and oppressor, each dealing with their own unbearable situation. Each person speaks for him or herself, without interpretation by a narrator, effectively and economically revealing the relevant thoughts and emotions. While the events of the story are the stuff of today's headlines, the book's format shows how political situations are really composed of many, many overlapping personal situations. The whole concept of the book is summed up by the character Baruch, when he says "I am part of the story, and Dan, and Lidia, and also the Palestinian boy, the suicide bomber. Like tangled string when you pull it, it gets tighter."