BOOKS
Blowing Up A Myth
o to your average book-
store in search of books
on Israel. What will you
find? Dozens of works
on Israeli counter-ter-
rorism, histories of the
Israeli army and air
force, and exposes on
Israel's covert relationships with
the United States.
In the fiction category, most
Israeli-oriented books are mere-
ly variations on spy stories like
The Heat of Ramadan, or tech-
no-thrillers involving such icons
as Israeli agents, hidden nucle-
ar weapons and Palestinian ter-
rorists.
No wonder many Americans,
including many American Jews,
hold a stiff and monochromatic
‘riew of Israel and its citizens. Be-
tween these none-too-subtle
works and the mainstream news-
papers painting Israel as a coun-
try of blacks and whites, little
room is left for colors — neither
the grays nor the brilliant hues
that make up one of the most di-
verse and kinetic countries in the
world.
One way of exploring the rich-
ness and details of Israeli life,
apart from moving there, is to
read Israeli novels, which one can
ferret out of a few local libraries
'and bookstores. And as summer
reaches its vacuous middle, a few
Israeli books have appeared at
just the right time — the paper-
, back publication of David Gross-
man's The Smile of The Lamb
(Pocket Books), one of the first
novels to deal with the intifada;
A.B. Yehoshua's Mr. Mani (Dou-
bleday), the story of five gener-
ations of Sephardic Jews in
> Israel; and The Selected Poetry
, of Yehuda Amichai (Harper-
Collins), newly edited and trans-
‘--=-1ated.
These three books, although
very different in style and con-
tent, provide insights into the
present and future of Israel, ex-
ploring and exposing the myths
Israelis use to sustain and ex-
„plain themselves.
In The Smile of the Lamb, for
instance, the protagonist is a sol-
dier who finds himself stuck in
\, the Occupied Territories as his
•deas of truth and justice are as-
N led. In Mr. Mani, the reader
who is also director of BHU's
Meyerhoff Library. "Both soci-
eties and readers come from the
same backgrounds, and the same
departures from tradition. For
each side, it offers a refraction of
the same problems."
Paula Gottlieb, director of the
Jewish Book Council in New
York, also views Israeli literature
brew Literature.
In the article Mr. Alter chron- as a helpful tool for understand-
icles the increasingly warm re- ing modern Jewish and even
ception accorded Israeli authors modern American life.
On a roof in the Old City
"Israeli writers are talking
in
the last few decades, until
laundry hanging in the late
about themes that Americans
their
body
of
translated
work
in
afternoon sunlight:
the 1980s became "the most vis- can relate to — alienation from
the white sheet of a woman
ible foreign language in the Unit- modern times, looking for iden-
who is my enemy,
ed States after that of Latin tity, the relationship between fa-
the towel of a man who
thers and sons, mothers and
America."
is my enemy,
daughters," said Ms. Gottlieb,
Arthur
Lesley,
who
teaches
Is-
to wipe off the sweat of his brow.
adding that publishers are print-
raeli
literature
at
the
Baltimore
In the sky of the Old City
ing more and different kinds of
Hebrew
University,
agrees
that
a kite.
studying Israeli literature is a Israeli literature.
At the other end of the string,
One reason that American
gateway into their society. But
a child
Jews might not think to read
he
added
that
Israeli
fiction
can
I can't see
provide American Jews with in- more Israeli literature is because
because of the wall.
sights about their own lives and they assume the authors will
We have put up many flags,
subject them to "heavy" themes
histories as well.
they have put up many flags.
they already read about in the
"Israeli
books
written
in
He-
To make us think that
paper, and that they associate
brew
for
Jewish
audiences
ex-
DANIEL SCHIFRIN
they're happy.
many of Israel's top writers, like
actly
express
the
dreams
and
Special to The Jewish News
To make them think that
Amos Oz and David Grossman,
nightmares
that
we
also
have
we're happy.
here as Jews," said Dr. Lesley, more with liberal political posi-
In Israeli literature one can
tions than literary exploration.
At the same time however,
these and other authors have
earned a solid international rep-
utation for their fiction and po-
etry, and are read by non-Jews
in America and elsewhere. David
Grossman, whose new book will
appear in English in December,
has been compared in the New
York Times to William Faulkn-
er and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
And there are many more ma-
jor names in Israeli literature,
many of whom have been trans-
lated into multiple languages:
Meir Shalev, Shulamit Hareven,
Yaakov Shabtai, Aharon Ap-
pelfeld, and of course S.Y. Agnon,
who earned the Nobel Prize in
literature in 1966.
Ms. Gottlieb, who acknowl-
edges that many people don't
read at all — much less Israeli fic-
tion — suggests that the univer-
sal appeal and especially the high
quality of Israeli fiction will coun-
teract its reputation for serious-
ness.
"Israelis," she said simply, "are
(Left) David Grossman's "The Smile of the Lamb," one of the first books to deal with the intifada.
very
good writers." ❑
(Right) A.B. Yehoshua's "Mr. Mani," the story of five generations of Sephardic Jews in Israel.
hears only one side of five indi-
vidual conversations, as current
Israeli society is turned on its
head in a chronologically-re-
versed narrative. And in the new
collection of poetry by Israel's pre-
mier poet, Yehuda Amichai, the
mundane details that reflect Is-
rael's deepest concerns are re-
vealed for the world to see.
In one of his poems,
"Jerusalem,” Mr. Amichai writes:
Israeli
literature
means books
about
counter-
terrorism
and covert
operations,
right?
Wrong.
find "an acutely sensitive and
subtle seismograph for the spir-
itual and political life that can-
not be equalled by the cruder
gauge of journalistic report and
analysis," writes Robert Alter,
a U.C. Berkeley professor and
authority on Hebrew literature,
in a recent issue of Modern He-