A best seller, nonetheless

Amir Gutfreund writes eloquently and skillfully, but his plot reads like a PowerPoint presentation.

By RONEN TAL
jane doe missing 370 (photo credit: courtesy)
jane doe missing 370
(photo credit: courtesy)
When Amir Gutfreund was asked to describe the tedium in the life of his nameless hero, he wrote, “A few pages of the book have been lying next to his bed for two months. It’s an important book, written by a distinguished writer, whom everyone loves. But he doesn’t understand how to walk in this rocky wilderness.”
And then later, “It was an evening full of changes. Something real happened in this book that was written by a distinguished writer. More than a hundred pages include contemplative characters, and the protagonist moves around aimlessly from one place to another, and only engages in sexual intercourse one time. And then his mother dies, and there is a feeling that the protagonist is becoming stronger and stronger as the pages turn, and the story develops and something is about to happen....”
Is Gutfreund trying to redeem himself in the eyes of people who don’t consider him a distinguished author? Or maybe he is waiting for the reactions to his new novel, so he can compare them to the rave reviews of books that no one can finish reading? To be sure, A Mercenary and Winter Buds has an extensive plot. The protagonist has recently been ousted from the hi-tech company he founded, and dumped by the woman he loved. He spends his empty days roaming around the empty streets of Haifa, fantasizing about taking revenge on his former partners, and sitting silently across from his psychologist.
One day, he stumbles upon the case of a missing girl named Leer Ohayon and decides to join the search party. As expected, the real purpose of this search is to find new meaning to his own life.
A Mercenary and Winter Buds comprises all of the components on the shopping list of new Israeli literature: a frustrated man who aspires to get rich, a woman who suffered from sexual abuse as a child, racially related urban violence, an unsolved police mystery, sensationalist media and a small terrorist attack. Unfortunately, Gutfreund has a hard time molding all of them into a coherent narrative.
A Mercenary and Winter Buds is like a PowerPoint presentation of the various plot options that ends too soon. The protagonist’s obsession with Dana, a waitress who aspires to be an actress, is not backed up by the text. And her motivation for leaving – aside from routine intimacy problems – is arbitrary.
The dialogue between the two resembles a Channel 10 teen soap opera.
The crisis that causes the protagonist to be ousted from the start-up he founded is cliché, lacking any detail or depth.
The search for the lost girl is supposed to save the protagonist from the emotional darkness that has overcome him. But the disturbing plot line cannot be rescued with this formula. In the last third of the book, Gutfreund concocts a violent and absurd episode that could have been taken from a Steven Seagal movie.
He then scrambles to tie up all the loose ends: the lost girl and her sad fate are pushed aside so that the protagonist can partake in pathetic sexual interludes. The first is with the neglected wife of a career pilot, named Nofar Suissa – a name that could easily be interchanged with Nofarit Vanunu, a friend of the missing girl, who frequently cries on TV. The reader can quickly guess it is only a matter of time until the protagonist reunites with Dana, and the hi-tech firm disintegrates without him.
Gutfreund writes eloquently and skillfully. The author manages to convey genuine emotion when he describes the hero’s journey through the streets of Haifa. But the plot has been laid out carelessly. It is difficult to understand why the protagonist needs to go to the hospital on three separate occasions – twice following violent attacks, and a third time to visit his brother who has been lightly injured in a terrorist attack. Or that he should run into the Russian waitress Sveta who has magically turned into a nurse.
Despite its defects, A Mercenary and Winter Buds presents a soft, diluted and comforting image of reality, alongside physical and emotional abuse. Each conflict reaches resolution and every loss is compensated for. The crises are nothing more than invented anecdotes and dramatic components. It’s as if Gutfreund is pinching his readers’ cheeks, winking at them, saying, “Don’t worry – you know that in the next 40 or 50 pages everything will turn out okay.”
Fortunately for the author, this type of literature sells well. In other words, A Mercenary and Winter Buds will probably become a best-seller. ■
Translated by Hannah Hochner