LOOK FOR ME

A woman conducts an 11-year search for her missing husband only to find him hiding in plain sight: another tale of love gone awry in Israel from kibbutz-raised Canadian Ravel (Ten Thousand Lovers, 2003).

Dana Hillman’s husband Daniel was burned in a freak accident during army reserve duty. She was barred from seeing him at the hospital, from which he soon vanished. Assuming that he left because he feared his disfigurement would repel her, Dana places yearly, full-page newspaper ads declaring, “I will never ever ever ever stop waiting for you.” Daniel has a mail-drop address she’s never been able to trace, and a private investigation has turned up nothing. Several brushes with army intelligence lead Dana tantalizingly close to Daniel’s whereabouts, but she always comes up against an unspeakable truth her informants balk at revealing. The story’s present-time action spans ten days, and the first half alternates between scenes from her seven years with Daniel and her current peripatetic life as one of an embattled cadre of Israeli peace advocates. Terse, serviceable prose and somewhat stilted dialogue carry us through Dana’s everyday drama, as she photographs acts and symbols of resistance at pro-Palestinian “demos,” writes romance novels for hire, and copes with the other denizens of her beachfront apartment building, all of whom lend new gloss to the phrase “quirky alone.” Welcome diversions include tips on how to make chai-like café au lait, how to use onion slices to counteract tear gas, and how to write sex scenes the way Jane Austen would have, maybe. A fellow activist with whom Dana falls in conflicted love has a friend with connections, and Daniel’s location is finally leaked. The novel races to a conclusion as Dana’s beau geste at a checkpoint nearly scuttles her quest, but the longed-for reunion lacks emotional weight. Ravel has failed to convince us that Daniel was really missing, or much missed.

Enthralling setting in search of lifelike major characters.