Amos Oz’s memoir starts in pre-independence Jerusalem and ebbs and flows back to Oz’s parents birth countries in Eastern Europe and Russia.  Nu, what? Is is Oz’s grandfather’s standard greeting. He’s deeply skeptical of the socialist bent of Zionist, as he worries that they’ll bring Stalin to Israel. He is interested in traditional Judaism though hardly profoundly religious. He calls Menachem Begin’s argument style straight out of the Yeshiva – that he’ll just cast out his arguments and all will follow. (NOT!) Oz’s mother commits suicide when he’s still quite young and he and his father grow estranged.  He leaves Jerusalem for Kibbutz Hulda where he exchanges his last name, Klausner, for Oz.

Oz is an expert at bringing even less important characters to life though his father offers a critique of an early book that Oz’s characters are more like caricatures. Ah, families!