Dana Shem-Ur

Where I Am, written by Dana Shem-Ur and translated by Yardenne Greenspan, takes the reader into the mind of a person who feels disconnected from the world and those around her.

This short novel is short on action in the usual sense of the word but is full of action in the sense of human interaction and the ways they can be understood and internalized. Reut is an expat, an Israeli living in Paris by way of grad school in the United States, and a translator of texts into Hebrew. So she not only has come to appreciate many of the things she fled when leaving Israel (a not uncommon experience for anyone "fleeing" a place, even within a country, think small town to city) but through translating texts is still connected to her home country. Her disconnect is further illustrated by the topic of her dissertation, the US Civil War. She is, to put it mildly, everywhere and nowhere all at the same time, and it is the nowhere that seems to be wearing her down.

While most of us haven't experienced the feelings of not belonging (real or imagined) in the same ways Reut does, I think most of us can relate to feeling out of place at times. It matters little whether it was primarily of our own making or because others actually thought we didn't belong, the feeling is the same. So at the same time readers are empathizing with her, we are also thinking about our own life experiences.

Recommended for readers who enjoy a lot of character-driven reflection without a lot of superfluous action. As both a character study and an opportunity for readers to think about their own uncertainties in life, this novel can, for an engaged reader, be very rewarding.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.… (más)

I received this as a Library Thing early reviewer.
This was a well-written, sensory and quick novel. I enjoyed the depth that Shem-ur went into the mind of her main character, making a plot that may have been shallow social drama in the hands of another writer into something absorbing.
The central character, Reut, is in her early forties, a Jewish woman living in Paris with her husband, Jean-Claude, and their son Julien. The book follows her for a shockingly short amount of time: the space of a dinner party at their home, and then the lead up to and first two days of a trip she and her husband take to Italy a few months later. The conflict of the book is in her strained relationship with her husband, somewhat, and their friends and acquaintances, somewhat, but it is largely in her strained relationship and unknowing of herself. I felt viscerally the discomfort she did, enabled by vivid descriptions of both her pains and pleasures, and particularly her perceptions of herself and those around her.
I’d recommend this book; it’s certainly worth the read and an absorbing experience. I’m usually not a fan of this type of unresolved ending, but I thought it worked here. We see Reut fall deeper and deeper into her own misunderstanding, and her own existence, which has the urgency of a freight train despite being a normal set of circumstances. Her animal and yet human responses say a lot about how much society determines our actions, which can be at odds with our own instincts, our own desires, and the ramifications of letting all those things continue to unravel.… (más)

This was an easy read, but difficult to understand its purpose or intent. It almost read in "real time," for example, a cocktail party played out in such detail it almost felt like I was in attendance. Not a lot happened, either. I kept waiting for the big crisis, or twist, but it never happened. The novel moved very slowly, excruciatingly so at times. The main character, Reut, appears to be making poor choices based on alcoholism, which may have been brought about by her feelings of not fitting in. Reut has been living in Paris for two decades and still feels like an outsider, despite having a French husband and a grown son who she describes as "a man with an impeccable Parisian accent, who just so happened to be her son, but could have just as easily been a stranger." Reut also describes her bathroom activities in quite detail, which I found unsettling and unnecessary to the story. She describes the color and flow of her urine; the sensation of a possible infection settling in. Once, I may have forgiven this window into her bathroom habits, but it happened repeatedly. Blech. However, like I said, the book was very easy to read. It flowed well. The descriptions of the French food were a treat. It felt like a narration. So, if you're looking for a quick, easy read that will be easy to put down, and easier still to forget, this may be a good choice.… (más)