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| Dorit Orgad |
Testing Time |
| Young Adults |
Tel Aviv, Hadar, 1979. 105 pp.; reissued 1993. 122 pp. Age 13 up
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This is a tense story of identify confusion and unconventional friendship.
Hamid, a first-year medical student at Tel Aviv University, is looking for a room to rent. All the doors are slammed in his face because he is an Arab, until he reaches Miriam Rosen`s house. She feeds him a hot meal, runs him a bath, and lays out clean clothes for him in his room. She also calls him Haim. Uneasy, Hamid corrects Miriam`s mistake, but she doesn`t seem to hear. Hamid discovers that Miriam is pretending that he is her son, Haim, whose death in the last war she cannot accept. Comforted by Hamid-Haim`s presence, Miriam slowly regains her peace of mind.
The idyll ends when Miriam`s daughters accuse Hamid of deceiving Miriam and force him to leave the house. Distraught, Miriam follows him to his village in the Galilee, where she is taken in by Hamid`s family. At the sight of Hamid’s grieving aunt, who has also lost a son, Miriam finally accepts reality.
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