Black Box (book)

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Black Box is a book by Israeli writer Amos Oz. It was first published in Israel in 1986 by Am Oved, and in the US by Harcourt in 1988.

The book's plot deals with the tensions resulting from a destroyed marriage. The behaviours of a wild and rebellious son, spiralling out of control, serve as an excuse for the rejected wife to write to her ex-husband and conjure up all their past demons.

The book is written in the form of letters, which the various characters write to each other.

[edit] Characters

• Ilana Brandstatter - the main character in the story, she marries Alex Gideon and eventually they divorce because Ilana is unfaithful. Ilana seeks a new life by marrying Michael Somo, but grows to despise him as well. She is the mother of Boaz Gideon.
• Alex Gideon - the hardened and fanatical IDF officer who marries Ilana. He abandons his family and moves to the US after Ilana is found to be cheating, and severs all contact with them.
• Boaz Gideon - Ilana and Alex's son, he is violent and unruly. This is presumably caused by having seen Alex beat Ilana as a child, and having no father figure later on.
• Michael Somo - the person whom Ilana marries in an attempt to rebuild her like. Like Alex, Michael is fanatical, but this is expressed in his religious and financial dealings.

The book begins with Alex in Chicago, Ilana, Michel-Henri Somo, and their daughter Yifat in Jerusalem, and Boaz at his agricultural school somewhere to the north. Key places in the book include:

• Chicago - where Alex moved and teaches as a professor specializing in fanaticism
• Zichron Ya'akov - where Alex grew up, where his father lived until he was sent to a sanitorium, and where Boaz moves towards the end of the book to fix it up.
• Kiryat Arba - a settlement near Hebron, where Boaz is sent by Michel to reform, highly religious.
• Kibbutz - an unspecified kibbutz from which Rachel (Ilana's sister) writes, where Ilana and Boaz lived right after the divorce.
• Algeria/France - where Michel was born and then later lived, respectively.
• Poland - where Ilana was born
• Russia - where Alex's father was born

• Character Summary