Fly Already

at his ear again as if to say he can't hear, and shouts, "I'm sick of it! Enough! How much can I take?" P.T. shouts back at him, as if they were having the most ordinary conversation in the world, "Come on, fly already!" And I'm starting to feel that stress, the stress that comes with knowing that it's all on you.

 

I have it a lot at work. With the family too, but not as much. Like what happened on the way to Lake Kinneret, when I tried to brake and the tires locked. The car started to skid along the road and I said to myself, "Either you fix this or it's all over." That time, driving to the Dead Sea, I didn't fix it, and Liat, the only one not buckled in, died, and I was left alone with the kids. P.T. was two and barely knew how to speak, but Amit never stopped asking me, "When is Mommy coming back? When is Mommy coming back?" and I'm talking about after the funeral. He was eight then, an age when you're supposed to understand what it means when someone dies, but he kept asking. And even without the constant, annoying questions, I knew that everything was my fault and wanted to end it all. Just like the guy on the roof. But here I am today, walking without crutches, living with Simona, a good dad. I want to tell the guy on the roof all about it, I want to tell him that I know exactly how he feels right now, and that if he doesn't flatten himself like a pizza on the sidewalk, it'll pass. I know what I'm talking about, because no one on this blue planet was as miserable as I was. He just has to get down from there and give himself a week. A month. Even a year, if necessary.

 

But how can you say all that to a guy who's half deaf? Meanwhile, P.T. pulls my hand and says, "He's not going to fly today anyway, Daddy, let's go to the park before it gets dark." But I stay where I am and shout as loudly as I can, "People die like flies all the time, even without killing themselves. Don't do it! Please don't do it!" The guy on the roof nods-it looks li

sometimes just downright wacky, Keret s writing is palpably imbued with a distinct element of intimacy, as though the author has just invited you into his local café or pub to chat about the state of the world of our world over your drink of choice. Keret s stories shimmer with an energizing, evocative amalgam of comedy, both dark and light, and a high-level tolerance for the absurd. And always always even when it feels as though he s finessing his pages with a giant shrug about the ridiculous vagaries of the universe, inherent in Keret s writing is a resolute insistence on adhering to life, as well as to the ineluctable joys of wordplay.... If you re already familiar with Keret s work, this is a welcome addition to his canon; if you haven t read him yet, this collection is a terrific place to start. Daneet Steffens, Boston Globe
 
When you read an Etgar Keret story, it s hard not to go straight to genius. The stories in this collection are wide-ranging, and many have that fantastical, highly imaginative Keret element. There is dark humor, wry humor, really-fucking-funny humor. There s depth and sadness. And mostly there s life: people falling into and out of relationships with themselves and others.   GOOP

I am in awe of Keret's ability to simultaneously make me laugh while crying, explore the joy and horror of every day life with precision, brevity and great psychological depth. His recognition of and engagement with the absurd is profound and he never loses his humanity, his heart long the way.
A. M. Homes

"[R]azor-sharp, satiric wit and genre-shifting style."  BBC

"Keret at his best tender and inventive, not giving too much away.... Keret shines when he's gentle and when he gives himself room to explore his characters.... ['Pineapple Crush' is] a lovely, understated story about the human need for connection, and Keret approaches it subtly, portraying the narrator's loneliness without resorting to pity. He doesn't overplay his hand or feel the need to wax whimsical; he's content to consider the human condition in a compassionate, unshowy way. The story is nearly perfect. - Michael Schaub, NPR

Like Lydia Davis, Etgar Keret has written stories of such singular diminutive style it took the culture a few years to realize: this is not a novelty act. This is the work of a genius, and he can pack more comedy and heartache into a single tale than just about any writer alive. A new book is cause for celebration.   John Freeman, LitHub

Keret continues his streak of writing short stories that are mordantly funny and bizarre in his latest collection . . . Threaded through his sense of humor, you feel a little less lonely, a little more light. Tomi Obaro, Buzzfeed

Sly and subversive collection . . . full of modern-day fables about family, angels, UFOs, cloning and other weirdness. Chicago Tribune

[O]nce again displays his knack for comic, absurd, occasionally dystopian observations... Saunders-esque speculative stories... Every piece demonstrates Keret's admirable effort to play with structure and gleefully refuse to be polite about family, faith, and country. An irreverent storyteller who has yet to run out of social norms to skewer.   Kirkus

It s difficult to characterize the work of a writer as prodigiously talented as Keret... for whom nothing seems off limits.... [S]mart, strange, completely enthralling.... [R]eaders new to Keret will be dazzled. Booklist

[Q]uirky, funny, touching, immensely readable, pure pleasure and though most [stories] are very short, they are tightly scripted and satisfyingly complete. Originally written in Hebrew, the pieces in this fine collection lose nothing in translation; the wit and humanity of each tale survive intact. Ideal reading for short bursts of time or short attention spans.   Library Journal

Praise for Etgar Keret

"If I could get you to read one writer, it would be Etgar Keret. His impossible blend of humor and tragedy, cynicism and empathy as well as big-hearted narratives that occupy the tiniest of page counts make him one of my favorites. Maybe one of yours." --Carolyn Kellogg, The Los Angeles Times

"A brilliant writer...completely unlike any writer I know. The voice of the next generation." --Salman Rushdie

"Read him, and the world will never look the same again." --Claire Messud

"One of my favorite Israeli writers." --John Green

"Etgar Keret's stories are funny, with tons of feeling, driving towards destinations you never see coming. They're written in the most unpretentious, chatty voice possible, but they're also weirdly poetic. They stick in your gut. You think about them for days." --Ira Glass, host and producer of This American Life

"Etgar Keret possesses an imagination not easily slotted into conventional literary categories. His very short stories might be described as Kafkaesque parables, magic-realist knock-knock jokes or sad kernels of cracked cosmic wisdom." --A.O. Scott, New York Times

"[Keret's writing] testifies to the power of the surreal, the concise and the fantastic... [O]blique, breezy, seriocomic fantasies that defy encapsulation, categorization and even summary." --Washington Post

"It's astonishing what he can do in just two pages: go from funny to bizarre to touching to satiric to meta to surprising and surreal... [A] master storyteller, creating deep, tragic, funny, painful tales with scarcely more words than you've read in this review." --Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times