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Summary: Sensitive Essays of Life in Jerusalem
Review: "House of Windows" is a marvelous book which I have recommended to everyone I know who has ever started life over in a new place - or who has visited or lived in Israel, where these essays take place. Hoffman's every word is important and forms a fabric rather like a tapestry. In an appealing personal and affectionate way, Hoffman shows us her own feelings of vulnerability and humility in relations with her neighbors. Her intelligence and sensitive observations and conclusions are admirable - and quite enjoyably readable.
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Summary: NO PLOT
Review: Adina Hoffman is a poetical soul but this is not a book of poetry. It's a combination memoir, period piece, and mostly an evocation of place. It gives a (slim) view into her life in a neighborhood in Jerusalem. I, like most readers, prefer books that have characters and/ or plot. This book, well intentioned to be sure, has neither. The author never gets a tempo or rhythm going. What a shame. But it is her first book and the mollasses pace that will tire most readers will be a good lesson for a wordsmith who hasn't yet mastered narrative, hasn't gotten the importance of: forward motion, not to say: fast forward.
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Summary: A couple problems with this book
Review: Enchanting at times, The House of Windows lured me into it with its benign poetic descriptions of Jerusalem architecture and colorful residents.Then Ms. Hoffman continued on in her personal stream of consciousness style into broad, unsubstantiated political statements. She makes many declarations about the plight of Palestinian Arabs, but offers no quotes, no sources, no real contact with the East Jerusalem Arabs that she lives right across the freeway from. I benefitted greatly from the contact I had in the East Jerusalem Arab community during my first six months in Jerusalem as a student, and could not relate to this author's distance from them. One may excuse her dismissive treatment of Israel's "security needs", quote unquote, as being born of Oslo hopes, as indeed this book was published only upon the dawn of the current mini-war. But she attended the wedding of the remarriage of a neighbor whose wife was murdered in a terrorist hijacking. I do not know how she could so coolly brush off security needs that may hurt the feelings of some Arabs when she herself knows a family torn asunder by terrorist perpetrated tragedy. Then the stomach turning confrontation over the trimming of a tree in her neighborhood in which she resurrects the classic antisemitic image of a foul mouthed Jew that looks like a monkey. Ape, she reiterates. Was that a story of her love of trees, or a story of her personal disgust for orthodox Jews? As I know an orthodox Jew who went to personal sacrifice to save the trees being torn down to pave the way for the trans Israel highway, this portrait does not match my reality, but that is not really the point. Moshe Zimmerman, professor of German at Hebrew University and a secular Jew, has declared that the secular Israeli press often uses antisemitic imagery straight from Nazi Germany to degrade orthodox Jewish Israelis. Herein lies the same.
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Summary: A masterful literary work!
Review: House of Windows is an eloquent and deeply insightful narrative of life in a diverse Jerusalem neighborhood. Adina Hoffman is masterful in portraying her neighborhood with great sensitivity and careful thought. Through her observations and inquisitiveness, she presents her seemingly ordinary neighbors as interesting characters, who all have a story to tell. Chapter by chapter Ms. Hoffman leads the reader on a tour of the heart of her new home (Jerusalem), and makes this foreign place--to most readers--tangible. As she navigates the reader through the streets, gardens and apartments of her neighborhood, she also shows her own personal growth. The deeper she delves into her neighborhood, the deeper she delves into herself. And this allows her to successfully capture and paint her neighborhood with words. Overall, her story demonstrates that people are the same everywhere, regardless of ethnicity or religion. The difference is their circumstance. Adina Hoffman has produced a wonderful and literary first book, and I hope to see more from her.
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Summary: Window into a fascinating world
Review: I could not disagree more with "readernyc"! I hope that the reader is aware that this book is a work of non-fiction, where plot, per se, is not the purpose. The book is full of stories and characters -- real live characters vividly and sympathetically portrayed. I found Hoffman's descriptions evocative and powerful. This book provides a far more realistic portrait of life in Israel than does the evening news. But it is more than a story about a Jerusalem neighborhood and the people living side by side there. It is about simultaneously being an insider and an outsider, it is about challenging one's initial judgments of others and of the unfamiliar, and it is about understandings one's context. I highly recommend this book!
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Summary: A little Boring but good
Review: I lived in Jerusalem and what I liked most there was how lively and friendly everyone was. That aliveness is not inside this book. You don't get the flavor of how exciting Jerusalem is. But then everyone has their own Jerusalem.I guess this just isn't mine. I would like to meet the author though, since she sounds very smart and understanding.
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Summary: Acute Eyes and Ears in a Jerusalem Neighborhood
Review: I loved this book. It made me want to move right into AH's neigbhorhood, so I too could get to know the wonderfully moving characters that inhabit this book. However, I wouldn't take it all in with her acute eyes and ears, so I'll just wait expectantly for her next book.
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Summary: An Introverted Treasure
Review: I read a review of Ms. Hoffman's book in Passionfruit, a travel magazine and that's why I bought it. At first I thought it was slow going, but hang in there, readers. Adina Hoffman is lapidary in style, and there are many gems in this tour of one neighborhood in Jerusalem. Understated, introverted but poetic, as others have said. Very much worth buying.
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Summary: House of Windows is low keyed, poetic, important
Review: I read this book a month ago and it had a calming effect on me. I think the writer intended this, intended to slow life down, even life in Jerusalem, which is not a slow moving city. She succeeds in drawing us readers slowly into a world she found, but one suspects it's also a world she made. Look for the next book by a talent that is bound to grow.
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Summary: A Softer Jerusalem
Review: I read this book while visiting Israel last summer. It is gentle. The writer has a poetic soul and now, reading it from USA, it gives us a vision of Jerusalem that isn't at war, a nice image if unfortunately not a true one-- not now. But there is a lyrical rhythm to this book that I recommend. 4 Stars.
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