Yoram Kaniuk prefaces his novel Rockinghorse with a quote from Jorge Luis Borges: "Writing is but a guided dream." It is an exact description of a book that reads like the notes of an endless nightmare. The dialogue is terribly intent and cryptic. Intellectuals gravely intone philosophical nonsense. Trivial objects have transcendental meanings. Macabre figures behave eerily. Rockinghorse is a long challenge to logic, psychology and clarity, an outpouring of riddles and non sequiturs.

But from a distance, like a pointillist painting, the novel coalesces into a tangible reality. With absurdist imagery it brings existential despair to a disquieting life. Learning is ignored as a solitary dealer in Hebrew books sells his wares in the New York snow. There are no bridges between people. Couples copulate without emotion. The narrator Aminadav abandons his daughter, the only person he loves. His mother gives him silly recommendations about avoiding water...