A Man Returns Home

Dan Benaya Seri`s short stories focus on his childhood memories of the poor Yemenite neighborhood in Jerusalem where he grew up. Seri returns there and breathes life and color into his various characters. A boy meets his “little bride” and is then torn away from her for years; we discover hidden ties between neighbors, the grief for a father who has died, leaving his wife to support seven children, and Rahamim Siman-Tov, the son of Flora the prostitute, a well-known storyteller. There are also stories of Grandma Rumiyeh, her amazing journey to Jerusalem and its neighborhood crazies, who are exposed in all their frailty and longing for a little human warmth. Seri`s characters move with ease between the difficulties of daily life and a world of miracles and folk belief, between sadness and the humor with which they regard the wondrous world around them. But most of all, this is an affectionate portrayal of people who, despite the trials of life, have created an exuberant reality for themselves.