The Tunnel

A. B. Yehoshua

2020 • 337 pages

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Average rating4

From the award-winning, internationally acclaimed Israeli author, a suspenseful and poignant story of a family coping with the sudden mental decline of their beloved husband and father--an engineer who they discover is involved in an ominous secret military project Until recently, Zvi Luria was a healthy man in his seventies, an engineer living in Tel Aviv with his wife, Dina, visiting with their two children whenever possible. Now he is showing signs of early dementia, and his work on the tunnels of the Trans-Israel Highway is no longer possible. To keep his mind sharp, Zvi decides to take a job as the unpaid assistant to Asael Maimoni, a young engineer involved in a secret military project: a road to be built inside the massive Ramon Crater in the northern Negev Desert. The challenge of the road, however, is compounded by strange circumstances. Living secretly on the proposed route, amid ancient Nabatean ruins, is a Palestinian family under the protection of an enigmatic archaeological preservationist. Zvi rises to the occasion, proposing a tunnel that would not dislodge the family. But when his wife falls sick, circumstances begin to spiral . . . The Tunnel--wry, wistful, and a tour de force of vital social commentary--is Yehoshua at his finest.

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Herman

Met liefde geschreven, zoals een goede vriend het omschreef, maar ergens iets in het taalgebruik maakte dat het uiteindelijk lastiger doorkomen was dan ik had verwacht, daarom 3*.

Gepensioneerd ambtenaar van de afdeling wegen en tunnels krijgt de diagnose Alzheimer.

“His wife intervenes: “In the North. Sitting before you, Doctor, is the engineer who planned the two tunnels in the Trans-Israel Highway, Route Six.” Why the tunnels? wonders the husband, these are not his most important achievements. But the neurologist is intrigued.”

In een poging zo lang mogelijk bij de pinken te blijven het advies om vooral mentaal actief te blijven, en wordt hij onbezoldigd adviseur bij een projectje om ergens in the middle of nowhere een tunnel aan te leggen (die zo op het eerste oog niet direct nodig is) - daarbij speelt het Israelisch-Palestijns conflict op de achtergrond ook nog een rol.

““Asael tells me you also think a tunnel is possible.” “Everything is possible,” responds Luria, “but impossible that someone will approve such a huge expense.” “All the same, is it lawful, in order to build a military road, to destroy a hill with important archaeological ruins?” “It depends whose ruins. If they are of other nations, we have officials who enjoy destroying them. Yes, Mr. Shibbolet, I had such cases in the past.””

De hoofdpersoon raakt beetje bij beetje steeds meer dingen kwijt (namen, de cijfercode van de auto [die hij vervolgens onderaan zijn arm laat tatoeëren...]) en wordt de angst zichzelf uiteindelijk kwijt te raken ook steeds groter.

““Zvi,” the teacher speaks the name of the pensioner who climbed this hill many months ago, “aren't you Zvi?” “Yes, Zvi,” Luria accepts the return of his name with excitement and gratitude, and is filled with fear.”