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Summary
Summary
What is it like to be a young woman in a war?
At a time when Israel is in the news every day and politics in the Middle East are as complex as ever before, this story of one girl's experience in the Israeli national army is both topical and fascinating. Valerie begins her story as she finishes her exams, breaks up with her boyfriend, and leaves for service with the Israeli army. Nothing has prepared her for the strict routines, grueling marches, poor food, lack of sleep and privacy, or crushing of initiative that she now faces. But this harsh life has excitement, too, such as working in a spy center near Jerusalem and listening in on Jordanian pilots. Offering a glimpse into the life of a typical Israeli teen, even as it lays bare the relentless nature of war, Valerie's story is one young readers will have a hard time forgetting.
Author Notes
Valerie Zenatti was born in Nice on April Fool's Day, 1970. When she was thirteen, she went to live with her parents in Israel. Her experiences with national service inspired When I Was a Soldier. Even now, she doesn't go anywhere without her survival kit-which these days includes a book, a notepad, and a pen. She currently lives with her two children in Paris, where she works as a translator of Hebrew.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-In this compelling memoir, Zenatti, first among her group of friends to be called for compulsory military service, chronicles two years of growing up in the Israeli army between 1988 and 1990. With teen self-absorption, she describes the end of her high school years, her initial excitement with the uniform and gun, and grueling training. At first overwrought and pretentious, her voice matures as she continues her course, suffers an anxiety attack, and is posted to a security listening post. As Zenatti grows away from her old friends and a former boyfriend, she becomes more aware and open to the ideas, interests, and needs of others-even, eventually, to the Palestinians who share her country. It is true, as adults told her, "The army changes everything." Although immersed in the country and the experience at the time, Zenatti retains her outsider perspective. French by origin, she and her family emigrated to Beersheva when she was 13, where she learned Hebrew. Her love of language shines through, and the translation, though undeniably British, is smooth. Journal entries in italics are interspersed with the present-tense narrative. This is a fascinating glimpse of a different part of the world and a different kind of experience. Older readers, facing the end of high school themselves, will be drawn to this description of the interim between childhood and adulthood that is a universal Israeli experience.-Kathleen Isaacs, formerly at Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Zenatti's fascinating memoir recounts her two years of compulsory military service in the Israeli Army, laying out the complexities of Israeli society, her training, and universal adolescent experiences of friendship and romance along the way. Ages 12-up. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Zenatti's memoir of her requisite two years in the Israeli army following high school is well written and compelling, emphasizing both familiar teen issues and those specific to Israelis. Though it lacks an anticipated climax and skims over the more disturbing aspects of mandatory enlistment and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the book's accessibility and lyricism provide easy entry into an unfamiliar world. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
The theme of compulsory military service for both men and women in Israel makes this author's memoir unusual. Although no reason is given, her family has recently emigrated from France and her friends are from the former Soviet bloc, so there is no family experience with the draft. She recalls the months before beginning her two-year enlistment as she and her friends face school tests, dating, sex and the unknown world of wearing a uniform. She is sympathetic to the Palestinians except when it comes to giving back any of Jerusalem, but like many non-religious Jews, she is definitely not sympathetic to observant Jews and makes no mention of their alternatives to military service. She describes her military service years filled with training, bus rides across Israel, special missions and chasing after a boyfriend in Jerusalem who has moved on to a new lover. There is, by the conclusion of her military stint, a growth in character--and the arrogance of those who are younger and believe they are smarter than the previous generation gives way to an appreciation of the work done by the army. Recommended for its different perspective on life in contemporary Israel. (Nonfiction. YA) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 8-11. For immigrant Valerie, 18, the required two-year Israeli army service is an exciting rite of passage. She gets to leave home, be considered equal to boys, and feel like a real citizen. The military training fascinates her, even if she misses her bitchy best friends (friends and rivals forever ), and she is haunted by memories of the boyfriend who dumped her. Zenatti's fast, wry, present-tense memoir, translated from the French, begins like a contemporary YA novel: What will I wear? is the important question for Valerie's farewell party. But later, when Valerie confronts the politics and propaganda, she has a breakdown: Who is the enemy? she wonders. Why am I fighting? Zenatti's family immigrated to Israel from France when Valerie was 13 (she now lives in Paris), and much of the memoir's power is in the writer's dual perspective as newcomer and participant. Valerie is entranced by contemporary Israeli diversity and intellectual life, even as she sees Palestinian poverty, sadness, hatred. There is no heavy message. Readers will be swept into Valerie's military experience only to realize she can't justify why she is there. The honest conflict about haunting issues in daily life is prime teen material, and readers on all sides of the war-peace continuum, here and there, will find much to talk about. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2005 Booklist
