The Ministry of Special Cases

Critics

• The gravedigger's tale

  The Ministry of Special Cases Nathan Englander 340pp, Faber, £14.99 If, as Homer has it, Zeus sends us suffering so that future generations will have something to write about, we can all feel proud of how much remarkable copy our past century has giv ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

• Innocents Lost

  Who is this Nathan Englander, at 37 so young in novelist years, but already possessed of an old master’s voice? Well, it’s not his voice exactly; one senses that Bernard Malamud and Isaac Bashevis Singer are living under the name Nathan Englander in ... (read full critics)

  nytimes published on Sat, 18 Sep 2010

1 Review

• 

  I found this book very good, and very sad. Set in Buenos Ayres in the 1970's, it starts by telling us the everyday life of a Jewish family: mother, father and son, with all the everyday contrasts that are typical in a family with a young son who seems to be growing apart from his parents.

  Then som ... (continue)

  I found this book very good, and very sad. Set in Buenos Ayres in the 1970's, it starts by telling us the everyday life of a Jewish family: mother, father and son, with all the everyday contrasts that are typical in a family with a young son who seems to be growing apart from his parents.

  Then something happens, and through the story of this family, Englander tries to imagine how it must have been for people during the Argentinian dictatorship, what hopes and fears they felt in a time where it was very dangerous to express anything at all, and how these dynamics influenced relationships inside the families. He does this not only with sensitivity, but also with great creativity, describing things that did happen in a way that creates a dreamlike, surreal atmosphere around them.

  I really really enjoyed reading this book, I've always been interested in the topic of Argentina 1976-1983, and I liked how Englander approached it in a creative, yet well-informed way. Definitely recommended.

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  natalia said on Jan 6, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Others 454 Pages
• ISBN-10: 1602850798
• ISBN-13: 9781602850798
• Publisher: Center Point Pub
• Pub date: Oct 01, 2007
• Also available as: Mass Market Paperback, Paperback, Hardcover and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Libri Italiani

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