Transcription

Transcription / Kate Atkinson, 343 p.

To paraphrase Patrick, I would rather read a mid-ranking Kate Atkinson novel than the very best of most others'.  True, Transcription is not on a par with the mind-bogglingly good Life after Life and A God in Ruins, but it's terrific stuff.  Juliet Armstrong is just 18 when she's assigned to transcribe recordings of secret meetings of a club of British pro-Nazis in 1940.  I was fascinated by Atkinson's exploration of these slimy Brits from all walks of life, their pettiness, their anti-Semitism, their foolish treachery.  The reader relishes the fact that they wound up on the losing side in 1945 and simultaneously agonizes that they are still among us today.

Great espionage, great history, great characters, a must-read.

Judas / Amos Oz, 305 pp.

It is 1959 in Jerusalem when Shmuel Ash goes adrift.  His girlfriend has left him and he no longer has funds to continue his graduate studies.  So he takes a job as a companion to Gershom Wald, an elderly man who lives with a mysterious woman named Atalia in an old Jerusalem home.  Wald and Atalia are secretive.  What is their relationship?  Why are they so extraordinarily isolated?   The three principals reveal secrets slowly throughout this novel.

Shmuel's graduate research was on Jewish views of Jesus and the role of Judas in the story of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.  In Shmuel's musings, Oz opens up the character of Judas and connects him to 20th century Israeli politics and the founding of the state of Israel.  Even deeper, the novel reflects on what it means to be a traitor.  While the humanizing of Judas and alternative versions of his story are not new in literature (or in song...), this subtle, layered, almost delicate novel refreshes the view and resonates.  Recommended.