How to fit a city in a story. Or to fail to.

I must recognize I was thinking a bit at least twice before deciding to write about this book. No, it was not very difficult or the book too complex to describe. By far. Christiane Wirtz's Ein Jahr in Tel Aviv/One Year in Tel Aviv, is a memoir of a German Christian woman in her 30s deciding to take a year off in Tel Aviv, learning Hebrew, finally finding an Israeli boyfriends, scattering references to the life on the beach, eagerness to see the Bethleem for Christmas, one mention of JDate, relations between Germany and the state of Israel, coffee(s), not-so-tensed-life-as-we-see-on-tv etc. Often I had the impression that it is about recollecting some disparate memories put in a certain narrative form. And usually, memory is a traitor and if your memories are not discerned through a critical viewpoint you risk to be stereotypical, as your first stop in the rememoration process would be exactly what it is common to various representations.

Maybe it was intended to advertise Tel Aviv, celebrating this year 100th anniversary. Possibly, as in Germany the book was distributed with a small stamp marking this event, but it is hardly difficult to find too much about the city, as a potential tourist or individual interested about this city, in general. People are drinking coffees all over the world, or going to cut their hair or men are flirting with single women.

As usual, there are good and bad stories, good and bad writers. A city means memories, understanding of places, interacting with people, catching the whole landscape. After, selecting what it is interesting, attractive, unique. It is available for any kind of "city" stories, as each have its special history. When it is about books, you should be able to stimulate the imagination, to describe by your words images. Not the strong point of this book.

I rediscovered Tel Aviv, through the Flying Camel, a 1994 movie of Rami Na'aman. With not a very smart and sophisticated story, but simple, even absurde, and with structured visual information about the city, mostly about the Bauhaus buildings. And, of course, not forget about the statue of the flying camel - the symbol of the Tel Aviv of the pre-State of Israel, which a Jewish European-Israeli professor and a Jewish Palestinian sanitation worker, try to restore.

The story of the camel is shortly the following. In 1932, after the first international fair was inaugurated in Tel Aviv, it was annouced the designation of the Northern part of the city as a permanent fairground, the Levant Fair. Before this decision was took, the mayor of Yafo derided his Jewish colleagues who were dreaming about a fair, "encouraging" them that this will be established when the camel will grow wings. As the fair was established, the symbol of the Levant Fair was chosed the Flying Camel.