My Michael

By: Amos Oz, Nicholas de Lange - translation

Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan

One of Amos Oz's earliest and most famous novels, My Michael was a sensation upon its initial publication in 1968 and established Oz as a writer of international acclaim. Like all great books, it has an enduring power to surprise and mesmerize.

Set in 1950s Jerusalem, My Michael is the story of a remote and intense woman named Hannah Gonen and her marriage to a decent but unremarkable man named Michael. As the years pass and Hannah's tempestuous fantasy life encroaches on reality, she feels increasingly estranged from him, and the marriage gradually disintegrates.

Gorgeously written and profoundly moving, this extraordinary novel is at once a haunting love story and a rich, reflective portrait of a place.

©2005 Amos Oz (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

A man’s idea of a woman’s thoughts

Generally, I like this author, but this book is clearly a man’s idea of what, and how a woman thinks… Filled with beautiful language and descriptions, but no plot or soul to the character

What a wonderful novel

Oz is a special writer, like James able to make a rich telling with but a few voices. His protagonist, a woman whose surreal dreams and fantasies interweave with her quotidian life, is a great invention, never trite. The times are vividly revealed

Excellent Narrator

It's hard for a woman narrator to convey male voices well but Flanagan does an excellent job of it. As for the story, the author was not able to sell me on the characters, especially Hannah, which made the entire story a bit of a slog to get through.

Well performed

Lisa Flanagan is quite natural in this introspective novel told by Hannah, a housewife in Jerusalem in the 1950s. She is not an entirely sympathetic protagonist, in fact she may suffer clinical depression, or more persuasively to me, bipolar disorder due to her extremes of moods. She is married to Michael who is moving toward his PhD in geology throughout the ten years of the span of the novel. They are not very compatible. They argue frequently. She is impatient with being a mother. Her manic sprees cut into their finances and prevent them from moving to a better apartment and area. Flanagan has a sensitive ear. Her voice captures Hannah’s character, makes her authentic. She gives Hannah’s narrative the hues and tones and intonations. Oz’s writing is masterful. As I read I was in awe at how he wove Hannah’s story, developed her character as well as Michael, her foil. I admired how measured he was in keeping Hannah under control—not making her too ill, or too mean, or too egoistic, even though that was evident but with some other writer could have jumped the rails. I read this book while listening to this Audible recording. Lisa Flanagan’s performance added layers of dimensions that made the reading much more appreciable. It is her voice, her delivery, her acting, that creates the world that we can see, hear, breathe, touch.

Return to Jerusalem of old

The book takes us back to Jerusalem of the 1960s, with authentic and exciting descriptions.