Be My Knife

A Novel

No cover

David Grossman: Be My Knife (Paperback, 2003, Picador)

Paperback, 320 pages

English language

Published April 18, 2003 by Picador.

ISBN:
978-0-312-42147-2
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OCLC Number:
52136373

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2 stars (1 review)

When the awkward, neurotic and childlike Yair, a seller of rare books, sees a beautiful woman across the room at a class reunion he feels compelled to write to her. So begins a love affair of words between two married, middle-aged adults, dissatisfied with their lives, yearning for the connection that has always eluded them. “Be a knife for me,” Yair writes to Miriam, “and I, I swear, will be a knife for you.” As they peel back their inhibitions, their correspondence unfolds into an exchange of their most naked confessions in a novel that is as passionate as it is spellbinding.

4 editions

Infuriating!!

2 stars

This book is infuriating! Essentially a one-sided book of letters from a thirty-something man to a woman he spies at a reunion, the concept is unusual. Some of the prose is stunning, really profound streams of consciousness. However, these brief passages are hidden in the depths of so much arrogant, egotistical whining that it became a real slog to finish the book. I've seen effusive five star reviews for Be My Knife so obviously others have got into the writing in a way that I was unable to do. Still, having finally got to the decidedly bizarre ending, I am relieved to stop!

Subjects

  • Fiction
  • Literature - Classics / Criticism
  • Romance: Modern
  • General
  • Fiction / General
  • Romance - General