Masha Kisel

In Etgar Keret’s Suddenly, a Knock on the Door (2010), thirty-five humorously unexpected plots develop with the predictable timing of knock-knock jokes. The book begins with the titular short story about a writer held hostage by an armed intruder who knocks on his door and demands a story. The “suddenness” promised in the title loses its quiddity by the third paragraph. The same sequence of events repeats itself when the narrative opening, “Suddenly, there is a knock on the door,” summons a Moroccan pollster with a gun, then a pizza delivery man with a cleaver. Keret does not shy away from using the social and political tensions between Jews and Arabs, as well as between Israelis and Russian newcomers in his native Israel throughout this collection. But, as the Keret-like protagonist explains … Read More »