Waiting for Gary Cooper

 Waiting for Gary Cooper, Gabriel Bensimhon, 2020

Set in Israel of the 1950's, this is the story of Jonathan, a young boy who, along with his family, emigrated to Israel from a small town in Morocco.

Jonathan is in love with Nurat, a Sabra (born in Israel) girl who listens to the opera "Carmen." He get a copy of the record, and immerses himself. But, she only has eyes for someone else.

Jonathan's uncle is an exorcist; there is not much need for them in modern-day Israel. After the family made it to Israel (Jonathan and his younger brother travelled separately from their parents), Dad, a carpenter, got the required permissions to turn an old, abandoned building into a synagogue. He did everything the right way, and built it all himself. Everything was good, until the members of the synagogue started arguing about what songs should be sung during the service. Dad got fed up, and left, to build a new synagogue, and another, and another, with the same arguments breaking out. Jonathan got a job at the local movie theater running the translation machine. Someone else did the actual translating into Yiddish. His job was to get the translation on the screen at the same time as the English words spoken.

This has lots of politics and culture, but it is not a political novel. It does a very good job of showing life in 1950's Israel, warts and all. It has lots of good writing, and will certainly keep the attention of the reader.