I will not bother writing down the story line of Meir Shalev‘s A pigeon and a boy, because you can get that from many sources. Instead let me share my personal experience reading this book and some minor observations.
It was really hard to get through the first 40-50 pages, because the style, place, timeframe, voice direction, subject changed so often that it was hard to piece together what’s going on. But I committed myself to reading the whole book for my bookclub so I forced myself to do it. Now, that I finished it I am happy I did. Once all the perspectives became clear it became much easier to follow and found the reading rather rewarding. It is a rich story, rich in plot elements, biblical parallels, ethical questions, fantastic descriptions.
When I got to page 69 I knew that I found the core theme of the book in this sentence, “A pigeon has to love her home otherwise she won’t want to return to it.” The whole book is about exploring what home is and how one gets there. For some people is the person they want to spend their lives with. At our book club discussion it was suggested that for Jews home is a temporal and not spatial concept,. This notion is based on Heschel’s description of the Sabbath as a “cathedral in time”. But since (and even before) the founding of the modern state of Israel, the land itself can contain a home and for the protagonist a certain house became the home he always missed earlier.
I really enjoyed the “ten characteristics of a good pigeon handler” from page 116, including the importance of being moderate, loyal, responsible, kindhearted, patient, devoted, tidy, strong-willed, sensitive, industrious, considerate, and adept at learning. All of these are important values for any human and this list was the closest I ever found to a secular “ten commandments.”
Some people will be faster in figuring out to whom the main characters tells the story. I got my first hunch only halfway through the story. And I only worked out the secret of the important, but hidden relationship around page 200 out of 300. In this regard it was a good mystery novel, where I had to keep guessing. The question was not exactly the usual “whodunnit“, but more like “whodunnitwithwhom.” Then it was satisfying to get my suspicion confirmed later on.
If you are not prudish about the explicit sex scenes, showing up in the last third of the book, I recommend to work through the beginning of the book. You will be rewarded with many open questions and even more answers than you may want.