Der dritte Zustand

With his ironic portrait of the self-tormenting intellectual Fima, Amos Oz has not only succeeded in diagnosing contemporary Israeli society, but also in creating an extremely humorous and affectionate portrait of individual Israelis confronted daily with questions of life and death. For here, the hopes and fears of Israelis are depicted with the utmost precision: Jerusalem appears utterly decayed, nothing works, every "other guy is half-prophet and half-prime minister," in short: "a madhouse."