The Nimrod Flipout

"One of the joys of this collection by Mr. Keret, a young Israeli writer, is the insight it gives into the life of his countrymen . . . Mr. Keret's incredible stories are complemented by his laconic style. Bizarre things happen in each and every one of them, but neither he nor his characters bat an eye at the oddities surrounding them. Like the undercurrent of terrorism, this could be an aspect of the Israeli psyche."—Sonny Bunch, The Washington Times

 

“The Nimrod Flipout contains 30 stories, most of which straddle the line between a joke and a fable. The tone is what Rod Serling might have sounded like had he decided to make ‘The Twilight Zone’ a comedy set in Israel, with each episode lasting just a few minutes . . . Keret’s Israelis are described with the cut-to-the-chase imperative of a comedian. The people who dash in and out of his stories are the sort of familiar urbanites you would find in a sitcom, albeit one playing on a television that might become untethered at any moment, floating away into oblivion as though it were all a strange dream.”—Thomas Beller, The New York Times Book Review

 

“Keret . . . has been hailed as a radical new voice in Israeli literature.  [He] has cousins at an international level—like Haruki Murakami, his young male characters favor hard-boiled speech and make no apologies for their juvenile habits, and they seem unfazed by the mild magical realism that pervades their lives. Yet Mr. Keret distinguishes himself with a kind of overarching sorrow. The deadly realities of Israeli life facilitate a style that differs from Murakami’s fatalism.”—Benjamin Lytal, The Sun

"The Israeli author Etgar Keret writes short stories, some of which are very, very short and nearly all of which are very, very substantial . . . Keret—whose latest collection, The Nimrod Flipout, has just been published in a brisk English translation by Miriam Shlesinger and Sondra Silverston—is a master at enticing the reader with a quick bite that miraculously sates for days. As Israel's most acclaimed young writer, the 39-year-old novelist, short story crafter and screenwriter has conspicuously diverged from the pioneers-and-politics narrative central to his country's (admittedly young) literary canon, choosing instead to tell stories of love, loss and everyday neuroses. But to call Keret apolitical would be to miss a seminal moment in the history of Jewish literature. Indeed, it would be like pigeonholing Isaac Bashevis Singer—at whose knee Keret seems to have learned the art of magic realism, only to use it with more discipline than his master. There is fantasy in nearly every story in this collection—parents who shrink as their son grows; a tryst told from the perspective of everyone in the room, including the cat ('I think I'll meow now')—but the sharpest seasoning here is wit. In 'Fatso,' we are regaled with the tale of a man whose girlfriend morphs nightly into a short, hairy man, with surprising consequences for the relationship. 'When you first met him, you didn't give a damn about soccer, but now you know every team. And whenever one of your favorites wins, you feel like you've made a wish and it's come true . . . And so it goes: every night you fall asleep with him struggling to stay awake for the Argentinean finals, and in the morning there she is, the beautiful, forgiving woman who you love, too, till it hurts.' Keret is a cynic who can't manage to shake off his hopefulness—the most reliable kind of narrator there is. His true ancestor may not be Singer but Woody Allen, who, in his earlier years, summoned the gods of fantasy to help argue his most famous philosophical insights. And Keret is exhibiting 'Annie Hall'-era talent here, churning out gem after gem. 'This is one story you've got to hear!' reads another of his attention-grabbing openers. Indeed it is."—Alana Newhouse, The Washington Post Book World

"The Nimrod Flipout is a volume of hip, cynical tales, rendered in a cool, remote tone. It's not too long, though, before Keret's desperate and ridiculous characters, dancing in the face of their existential despair, inspire warmth. Keret's prose is assured, intelligent, funny, and oddly touching."—Richard Vernon, Baltimore City Paper