Synopsis from Goodreads:
Leah Kaminsky’s powerful fiction debut—a multi-generational novel perfect for fans of The Tiger’s Wife and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena—unfolds over a day in the life of a young physician in contemporary Israel, who must cope with modern threats in the shadow of her parents’ horrific wartime pasts. A young doctor in Haifa, Israel, must come to terms with her family’s painful past—and its lingering aftermath—as the conflict between Palestine and Israel reaches its height and the threat of a terrorist attack looms over the city.... Born to two survivors in the smoky after-haze of WWII, Dina has never been able to escape her parents’ history. Tortured by memories of Bergen-Belsen, her mother leaves Dina to inherit her decades of trauma. Dina desperately anchors herself in family—a cherished young son, a world-weary husband, and a daughter on the way—and her work as a doctor, but she is struggling to cope, burdened by both the very real anxieties of her daily life and also the shadows of her parents’ ghosts, who follow her wherever she goes. A witty, sensitive narrator, she fights to stay grounded in the here-and-now, even as the challenges of motherhood and medicine threaten to overwhelm her. In taut, compelling prose, The Waiting Room weaves between Dina’s exterior and interior lives, straddling the present and the past—and building towards a profoundly dramatic climax that will remind readers of the fragility of human life even as it reassures them of the inescapable power of love and family.
Review:
Yea. This is actually a DNF. And I received it free for review from the publisher. Thank goodness for that. The characterizations and the dullness of this book were just part of the problem for me. I think the biggest NO NO for me was just that the book held so much promise between the prologue (which was BEAUTIFUL) and the back cover synopsis that once I began to read and hate Dina, I just had to give up. I skimmed a good portion of the novel, HOPING beyond hope that some passage would be redeemable, but alas, the only good part I got was of Tahirih and her story (and not good as in the situation was good because it was not, but good as in the only good piece of writing and characterization I could find up to that point.) But otherwise, the utter unlikeability of Dina really makes this a terrible read. I can't even claim the "unreliable narrator"trope. She's just. Ew.
So yea. I didn't finish this. I couldn't even force myself to.
*Free copy given by publisher in exchange for an honest review.