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-