Look for Me

Look for Me

Random House Canada; HarperCollins

Winner of the Hugh MacLennan Prize for
Fiction


The title of Edeet Ravel’s second novel, Look for Me, is as multi-layered as the story it tells through Dana’s lens, the reader is afforded a panoramic, intimate view of Israeli society As an imperative, Look implores the reader to look around and see the people whose parallel lives coexist with your own and see the love that you are overlooking The Israeli army uniform and music are two ongoing refrains that surface throughout the often mordantly funny, sad, intensely passionate and always honest story.

- Angela Himsel, New York Jewish Week

Look for Me becomes extraordinarily moving and reveals a depth and compassion that speaks to everyone who cares about Israel. Dana’s voice is direct, idiosyncratic but thoroughly sane. Her passion is direct too, channeled with clarity Look for Me is easy to read and far from didactic. It was only afterwards that the many layers of meaning in the story took on political significance and the depth of this novel became fully apparent. I suspect is is a book that will reward re-reading, full of foreshadowing and forbearing.

- Australian Jewish News

In Look for Me, the second installment of Ravel's Tel Aviv trilogy, she again makes good use of the drama of the Middle East and the problems of lovers caught in the chaos. Once more, she blends the personal and political so well that our understanding of each dimension is enlarged Ravel's characterizations are nuanced, and sidestep stereotypes. Her portraits of an offbeat group in Dana's apartment building are especially good. But Ravel's writing is at its loveliest when she describes the terrain Dana carefully observes and sometimes photographs. Like its predecessor, this is a novel with a strong moral centre, one that argues forcibly and honourably for an end to hatred and violence The dialogue is crisp, the plot compelling, and the glimpses of the ongoing war are powerful. Not a false note anywhere as Dana looks for her husband and also attends peace rallies, struggling to be effective in both arenas.

- Cynthia Holz, Globe and Mail