I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: January 4, 2024] “Shelter”

I wasn’t taken with this story.  The middle part of it was really interesting but I felt like the opening and ending were rather flat.

Cohen is in Tel Aviv.  He is a very smart man who helped to build a company that a bigger company liked enough to buy out.  But since then he hasn’t really done anything creative.

In fact most of his life seems to be settling.

In Tel Aviv he sees a young woman who is very pregnant. He wants to talk to her because she reminds him of his wife when she was very pregnant several decades ago.  But he doesn’t talk to her.  And his wife is cheating on him (with a heart doctor).

Cohen had his bag stole, which meant that he couldn’t get back into the place he was staying (Air BnB) right away.  While he was waiting, the young mother went into labor.

Suddenly the story changes gear and gets very exciting. Not because there’s any danger to anyone, but because the story suddenly takes things seriously.  Cohen is trying his best to help but he doesn’t know the language.  The mother can’t contact anyone because her phone broke and since Cohen is there, responsibility is thrust upon him.

He imagines what it would be like to stay with this young woman (since the nurse assumes he is the father).  Move to Tel Aviv, get away from his former life.  He starts to put things in motion in his mind.

But I found the end returned to a state of inertia.