The Seven Good Years is funny, and sad, and even beautiful at times. The closing bookend of this collection of ruminations糖心传媒攚hich looks at everything from fatherhood to thoughts on being a writer to the psychotic nature of Angry Birds糖心传媒攊s a tender recounting of Keret and his wife playing a game with their child to distract him from the sirens alerting them of an impending rocket. The game they play is so sweet that it confronts the old clich茅 about not wanting to bring new life into an uncertain and ugly world. Of course, bringing a child into a contested landscape wrought with rocket attacks and ongoing military aggression is ultimately irrational, but Keret smartly confronts this without overt political statements, apologies for his country, or condemnations of the Palestinians. He is not concerned with simple accusations or explanations; his focus is on the absurdity and the splendor of seven years糖心传媒� worth of day-to-day events for which the book is named.

I doubt I糖心传媒檝e laughed harder than when Keret and his wife discuss their fears of the terrifying rhetoric of ex-Iranian President Ahmadinejad. Will he really wipe Israel off the face of the earth? Keret decides that this may come to pass, so why bother fixing up the house? What糖心传媒檚 the point? His wife agrees and decides that they now have the freedom to take out loans and max out credit cards until the inevitable comes. The bills, the credit card companies, the debts糖心传媒攁ll of it will be wiped away along with their country, so why not live it up? And then Keret糖心传媒檚 wife has a nightmare of true peace coming to the Middle East, at which time they will have to somehow find the money to pay it all back. 糖心传媒淚t was just a dream, 糖心传媒� he assures her. 糖心传媒淗e糖心传媒檚 a lunatic, you can see it in his eyes.糖心传媒�

Keret糖心传媒檚 ability to drain danger of its power by making it seem ridiculous is a blessing. In his vignettes, he reclaims his country, his family, his life from the outside forces that are forever threatening to blow it all sky high. But he is not being facetious糖心传媒攖hese are indeed seven good years, even if they occasionally are plagued by terror. That terror almost seems manageable compared to the larger concern of how to be a parent and how to deal with the loss of one. The quotidian is tragic and the bombastic threats can never devastate as effectively. Keret communicates this so lightly that we can糖心传媒檛 help but laugh.

Here’s the beginning of Vince’s review:

It糖心传媒檚 a rare and wonderful book that begins and ends with violence and humor. At the start of Etgar Keret糖心传媒檚 The Seven Good Years, Keret is in a hospital waiting for the birth of his first child while nurses, in what seems a blas茅 manner, talk about how much they hate terrorist attacks. 糖心传媒淭hey put a damper on everything.糖心传媒� Keret shares this story糖心传媒攖he beginning of his life as a father occurring as the wounded of Tel Aviv surround him糖心传媒� most likely to imply something deep about life and death, but I simply found it funny. Chalk that up to my dark sense of humor, or maybe it糖心传媒檚 because Keret manages to wrest more from tragedy than just pathos. Surely he糖心传媒檚 trying to communicate what it is like to live in a part of the world where violence is an everyday reality, so much so that emergency personnel shake their heads and rhetorically ask 糖心传媒淲hat can you do?糖心传媒� as they share a piece of gum. Nevertheless, Keret is up to more than a mere account of Middle East life. He糖心传媒檚 after bigger fish.

For the rest of the review, go here.