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Review: Croc-Attack!

Ordinary Israeli life: death and laughter

February 25, 2010 14:09

ByAnonymous, Anonymous

1 min read

By Assaf GavronFourth Estate, £12.99.

Croc-Attack! is the story of two ordinary men born into the powder keg of Israel-Palestine. Eitan Enoch - known as Croc - is a feckless, 33-year-old salesman stuck in an unsatisfying relationship and a redundant-sounding job reclaiming "dead seconds" for businesses. By slicing time off directory enquiries calls, his firm's software can allegedly save companies thousands of dollars per day. This "solution" is presented as a typical product of the febrile Israeli atmosphere, an atmosphere in which Croc escapes, by the narrowest of whiskers, first one, then several terrorist attacks. He is swiftly made a national hero.

Alternating with this narrative is the story of Fahmi, a degraded, angry, idealistic, weary Palestinian, struggling for his life in an Israeli hospital, following his own, failed suicide attack. Though apparently trapped in a coma, Fahmi remains sentient, and his reminiscences are juxtaposed with his reactions to Svetlana, the nurse who tends to him.

Fahmi's internal rage - "you goddamned Jewish whore" - soon gives way to yearning - "Oh, Svet. I need your fingers" - in a darkly comic allegory of what might happen if only we were nicer to each other. Svet, meanwhile, becomes convinced that docile, silent Fahmi may just be "the perfect man".