January 1, 2013
Count to a Thousand is a poignant novel about an American expatriate whose insular life in Israel is shattered by unanticipated events.
After two decades in Israel, American born and bred Victoria still struggles to make peace with her relocation to Israel. She constructs a purposefully insular life in a coastal community analogous to the one she’d expected to live back in the United States, replete with conventional activities associated with American suburbia and expat friends that share the same acerbic, oftentimes critical, attitude to their surroundings. Cracks in this bubble-like existence begin to emerge with her elder child’s induction into the Israeli Defense Forces, and a succession of unexpected events, ultimately collapse the fragile equilibrium she’s managed to attain, crushing any remaining pretense of ambivalence toward her adopted country and forcing her to reassess her allegiances.
Discussion Questions
Courtesy of Caroline Igra
- A recurring theme of the book is how we define home. How do you define home? What does one need to feel “at home?”
- Victoria talks a lot about the challenges and pleasures of being an expat. Is being an expat in Israel, as a Jew, different than being an American expat anywhere else in the world? How does the fact that making aliyah is considered “coming home” affect the expat experience?
- The difference in conscription to an army such as the IDF from, say, the US Army, is explored over the course of the novel. In what ways does service in one differ from service in the other? How might you feel, as a parent, if your child were to join either one, or the other?
- The author presents a variety of expat experiences through different characters. How does this enrich your understanding of the immigrant experience? Can you imagine where you might fit in if you were among the group? Which of the difficulties described felt like those you might also have? Alternatively, what aspects of the local life described did you think you might embrace?
- Does a character’s Jewish backstory need to be explicitly discussed for the novel to feel Jewish? Why or why not? And what makes a character “Jewish” without overt mentions of their practice of the Jewish faith?
- Victoria experiences a major change of heart over the course of the novel. How would you explain this change? What aspects of her story most contribute to it?
- What role do you think a Jewish education, whether through religious school, youth group, camp or family life, affect one’s interest in making aliyah? There is a growing trend of youngsters, in college and freshly graduated, joining the army and making aliyah. What are the reasons, other than Zionism, which might compel them to make this decision?
- Do you think the protagonist questions too much? Should she just move on? Do you feel that her hesitations make her weak or strong? Do you believe that there’s a point in line when we must accept our choices or is it legitimate, and perhaps valuable, to continue to question them?
- Victoria discusses the organization of the year around the Jewish calendar, daily life punctuated by one religious holiday after another. How does this organization affect the rhythm of the year? How does the organization of life outside of Israel according to the Gregorian calendar, obviously creating a different reality, affect one as a Jew?
- Do you think expats can ever truly be integrated into their adopted culture?
- Victoria and her “Anglo” friends face many cultural challenges. Examples include a different language, different manners and the understanding that one’s children will be conscripted. How would you deal with some of these issues? Did Victoria’s experience make aliyah an appealing option or an intimidating one?
- The author discusses the concept of family: what defines one, what it means to have one, how not having one can affect one’s life. How would you define family? Does the fact that social media and modern modes of transportation can close vast distances in this present era affect earlier definitions? Is family life in America cherished in the same fashion as it is in Victoria’s Israel?
- The novel primarily explores the female expat experience. How do you think a male expat perspective might differ? Do you think that the willingness to exchange one life for another is gender related? Do you think gender affects the ability to integrate?
