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As I keep saying, reading in Hebrew tends to skew my ratings. If I enjoy the book at all, I tend to rate it higher because I'm excited that I liked a book in a foreign language. If I didn't like the book, I feel angry and resentful at having had to slog through it in a foreign language and probably rate it lower than I otherwise would. Here, this book probably deserved a 3.5-star rating, but I rounded up.

Some of the earlier stories in the book seemed more facile and obvious. A mother visiting her son overseas is disappointed to realize (finally) that he won't be fulfilling her dreams for him, but is won over by his adorable stepson. How touching. I don't mean to be so cynical, but I just felt that it was Disney movieish and unsophisticated. On the other hand, some of the stories were fascinatingly complex and multi-layered which redeemed the book for me, even though I actually wasn't crazy about one of the more complicated stories.

The stories did pull me in, though. I guess with short stories, there isn't enough time to get all elaborate and detailed about setting the stage which is what some of the Hebrew novels were like. In that sense, short stories were a good choice for reading in a foreign language -- the action had to start right away, and the author got to the point quickly. I didn't mind reading the book, which is saying a lot for Hebrew -- hence the generous rating.