The Seven Good Years by Etgar Keret

In The Seven Good Years, Etgar Keret, Jewish, Isreali writer from Tel Aviv, writes about anti-semitism, the normalization of war and violence in his country, family, and how absurd (and so often comical) it is to be human. He does this with wit, irony and often (literally) laugh-out-loud humor. 

This is not a traditional memoir. Each chapter is a little vignette, and reads more like musings in a writer’s journal (think The Folded Clock by Heidi Julavitz, but with politically relevant subject matter and a lot more humor). It is a quick read that could easily be devoured in one sitting, but I’m choosing to savor it a bit more, because it is just. so. awesome.

I must admit, I hadn’t heard of Keret prior to this, so I’ve yet read any of his other work. 100% going to fix that. After I got about a chapter in, and fell headfirst in love with the writing, I Wiki’d him to see what else he’s done. I honestly hadn’t heard of any of his work (which surprised me bc I know quite a bit about books! haha), but I was delighted to discover that a little indie film called Wristcutters from the early 2000s was based on his novella, Kneller’s Happy Campers! So flippin cool, because I LOVE that movie, and it is rad af. (If you love quirky, colorful, weird, magical-realism-esque indie movies, then def go watch it now!) Anyway, not to detract from my love story about this book, but that fact that he wrote the story this movie was inspired by now makes perfect sense.