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| Benjamin Tammuz |
Minotaur |
| Novel |
Tel Aviv, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1980; Jerusalem, Keter, 1992. 104pp.
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"Thea, This letter…is not signed and I daresay we shall never meet. Yet I have seen you and I have made sure that you saw me…You didn't recognize me. But even so, you belong to me. You will never have an opportunity to ask me questions, but my voice will reach you through my letters, and I know that you will read them."
Thus begins a bizarre correspondence. The writer first sees Thea on a bus. With her dark hair, honey-colored eyes and regal bearing, she is the mysterious beauty he claims to have been searching for all his life. Thea is bright, intellectual, sheltered and romantic. He is a secret agent and he becomes Thea's phantom lover. He is unseen, unknown, except through the hypnotic letters with which he bewitches both her heart and her soul. The reader awaits every letter as tensely as Thea, and feels equally frustrated and upset by the cruelty of the anonymity he demands. The novelist's great skill gives credibility both to Thea's growing love for her unseen partner and to the obsessive desire for innocence and beauty that she inspires, despite the incredible circumstances.
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About the Book
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The appearance of Minotaur in English translation in 1982 inspired comparisons to such masters as Malamud, Nabokov and Faulkner. In England it was named Best Book of the Year by Graham Greene in The Observer in 1981 and by David Pryce-Jones in The Financial Times in 1983. "I was locked in and engulfed by the story....The design is beautiful and complex, with not a word wasted," wrote Alan Sillitoe. "A novel...about the expectations and compromises that humans create for themselves...very much in the manner of William Faulkner and Laurence Durrell," noted The New York Times Book Review. Italian critics were equally enthusiastic, describing Minotaur as "fascinating and...intriguing" (Il Piccolo) and applauding Tammuz as "an exceptional writer" (Il Venerdi). "Minotaur is a spy story, but it is much more than that: it is mainly a love story...including tales of perdition and devotion. An uncommon book, very suggestive and original, whose charm enraptures the reader. Not to be missed," wrote L'Unita.
Il Corriere della Sera echoed this praise, "After reading the last line, you feel like holding the book in your hands for a while, with love and anger, before putting it back on the shelf of timeless novels."
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