"A beautiful craft of writing that Michal presents to me as a reader" / Lily Milat "Takes a shelf"

I'm pretty sure you also have a book like this that you've read and you recommend it with full confidence, but if you're asked what the book is about, you have no idea. What remains after many years have passed when you read it is only the bottom line - the name of the book and the author and the knowledge: yes, it was a good book.

Rachel's oath / Michal Shalu

That's how I am with the book Rachel's oath של His container, which I probably read the year it was published or shortly after - 2003-4 like that. It's amazing that even when I read the summary of the book, nothing sparkles in the long-term memory bank. 

My good friend, next to whom I write this column on Wednesdays, wisely claimed that these are "books next to books". You read them and they draw you in a good way, but they are not the book that remains in the private library. And this does not detract from Michal Shalov's touching writing. By the way, my friend also stated with certainty that Rachel's Oath is a book she would definitely recommend and she, like me, doesn't remember anything about it either.

If so, I agreed with myself, probably somewhere in that year 2004, that Michal Shalov is a writer that I will continue to read. In this way, two more were collected from her library.

Little Lies / His container

Surrounded by the nostalgia of that reading, I opened last Friday, symbolically - Women's Day, with silent lies. I thought I would devote an hour or two to it in the morning and a little more before bed.

Based on my reading pace and the time I have to devote to them, I assumed I would finish on Sunday or Monday. In the end, with short cooking breaks, a morning meeting with a girlfriend, a game of rummy with my amazing family and maybe a long shower, shortly before midnight, the man invited me to watch a movie together.

However, I faced the last 30 pages of the stories of the multi-faceted building in Florentine and there is no way I would have left Sion, the heroine of the book, alone to deal with the secret she kept with her for decades.

family secrets

Family secrets are a part of life, I know. I also understand where they are coming from, often really well intentioned, at least for one side of the story. But such secrets, as far as I'm concerned, march safely, on the back of their good intentions, all the way to hell.

Most of the time, those who will pay for them will not be the owners of the secret. The high price was exacted from those whose teeth were dulled while their ancestors ate unripe. Needless to say, I detest family secrets and it seems that books dealing with revelations fascinate me. 

You can't help but love Sion. You are all a big heart and you want to think of yourself as having such a Sivan inside of you, which will also contain Michal, the mentally ill neighbor in Florentine and the things she does for her and for people like the drunk Mikhail on the street corner, all as the phrase "on a working day" says, while dealing with the corrosive secret, bring tears to their beauty.

It should not be understood from this that Sivan is a round and boring character. On the contrary, it was her complexity and still her ability to take small and beautiful actions that captured my heart.

The names Bambi and Yael become completely legitimate

At the same time, there is something I really don't like about reading and can make me stop reading a book, even if it's good and it has bad or weird names. In the book Quiet Lies, there is Bambi, Sivan's sister. Yes, you read that right, Bambi like Disney's and it's not a nickname, it's really her name. And there is El Yael, Sion's brother-in-law.

But I can promise you one thing when it comes to this book - pretty quickly Bambi and Yael become completely legitimate, as if you've always known people with such names. And today, almost a week after I encountered them, I am overcome with warmth when I think about them, because they are Sivan's world and my feeling when I finished the book is that I am part of this world, which is like a privilege given to me to participate. 

After reading the book, you will feel as if you have physically visited the Tel Avivian Florentine, surfed waves in the Israeli sea alongside the dreamy beaches in Brazil and your human perspective will be sharpened. It is a beautiful craft of writing that Michal Shalev presents to me as a reader and I cherish her thanks for that. In addition, you will get a reminder of the Corona era, which seemed so far away and why it brought many protesters to the streets every week. There is an expression of a political opinion here through the story.

Now, a few days after reading it, I remember this matter more through notes I made to myself and less from the story. I do mention this, but it is important for me to clarify that no matter what your political opinion is, it does not add or detract, in my opinion, from the story itself.

In light of all that has been said, it will surely surprise when it comes to the question of whether it remains or is released in my private library - I will answer that my silent lies are a container of his loose. My friend here said another accurate thing; For me, this book is not immortal. Due to the physical space allocated to the spray, I have to be precise in choosing the remaining books and it is not one of them. I do know, for sure, that I will read more of his container. I do know, for sure, that I will recommend this book just like Rachel's Oath. 

A poignant quote that stayed with me from the book:

 A lie, as time passes, is hard to get rid of, and it becomes a part of your body, like an implanted internal defibrillator, whose electrode is embedded in the blood vessels and to remove it if it becomes contaminated, you need open heart surgery.

Book details: 

Quiet Lies by Michal Shalov, Kinneret Publishing House, Zamora, Dvir, 2021.

Pleasant reading and may good words be by your side always,
Lily