Summer Jacke Shadow Life LU U.J - D CC f-- LU LL1 48 hen I was in graduate school, the late Joseph Brodsky taught a class in which he required his students to memorize each poem that he assigned. There was something both old-fashioned and scary about that. Looking back, that's probably why I didn't take the class. Nevertheless, I saw its disorienting effects. People wandered the halls in a daze, moving their lips. Some huddled together and re- cited to each other. Others formed a kind of improvisational class to act out lines or dance to the meter. But as the semester wore on, Brodsky's students became absolutely giddy over their unrestrict- ed access to the poets they studied. Those poems will always belong to my fellow students, who achieved a permanent state of reading, experiencing the thrill of what the lit- erary critic Sven Birkerts calls a "shadow life." This shadow life res- onates most after a book is returned to the shelf. One of the purest examples of someone who lives the shadow life of a reader is my 2-year-old daugh- ter. For her the act of reading is still pure resonance. She recognizes the cover of her favorite book and retreats to the shady zone of word sounds and story sequence. "I read," she declares proudly. And she does, by dipping into a metaphoric well where image and memory and passion come together in an intoxicating brew. Before there were books there was the designated reader who either entertained or educated the illiterate majority. (I like to think of book reviewing as a direct descen- dant of that medieval practice.) Gutenberg's press changed all of that by facilitating the wide distribution of books. Gutenberg could not possibly have imagined the ways his invention would change the world. The notable decline in illiteracy led to a num- ber of historical phenomena, including democratization and secularization. All of that happened because people learned how to read. Now we're surfing the World Wide Web. Are we on the brink of another seismic shift in our reading lives? Many social and literary critics already see bound books strewn along the side of the information superhighway, tire tracks streaked across their covers. In this atmosphere, assembling a summer reading issue may be an act of faith. But in my experience a faithful act can never become obsolete like a computer pro- gram. It is as timeless as reading itself. I predict that the printed page will always be with us. An English professor of mine once attempted to enliven a literature survey course by comparing the excitement of reading to looking at a partially clad body. His point was that human beings have an intrinsic need to visualize by imagining. So I've stopped worrying about CD-ROMS and books on tape. To update the metaphor: Virtual reading is like virtual sex. Nei- ther is as challenging or as passionate as the real thing. Book reviews, positive or negative, create midrashic spaces. Assembling this sum- mer reading issue is also as purposeful. The following pages are intended to create a shadow life for readers to retreat to when the temperature rises. JUDITH BOLTON FASMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS - Our FICTION Dori., the administra- tor's middle-aged wife. Back in Israel and ob- sessed with Dori, Ben- jy decides to marry in order to continue the affair without attract- ing suspicion. He hastily weds free-spir- ited Michaela, who has traveled widely in India, is deeply steeped in Eastern philosophy and ap- parently is unboth- ered by Benjy's lack of love for her. Benjy's search for inner happiness is elu- sive. Following the ad- ministrator's death after bypass surgery, both women in his life reject and abandon him; Dori goes off to Europe and Michaela takes his infant By A.B. Yehoshua daughter to India. The new hos- Doubleday, 498 pgs., $24.95. pital administrator relieves him apturing the long-held of his part-time staff position. Israeli fascination with Mr. Yehoshua's foray into treks to exotic places, in- the world of Eastern religion ternationally acclaimed symbolizes Israeli society's Israeli novelist A.B. Yehoshua turning outward after years of transports readers to India in isolation and insularity. His his fifth novel, Open Heart. character's unsuccessful search With its emphasis on East- for fulfillment in the mysteries ern religion and philosophy, of the East, rather than in his this richly detailed novel breaks own rich Jewish heritage, is dis- with Mr. Yehoshua's earlier turbing and poses one of the works, which feature Israeli fundamental challenges of the Jews confronting personal is- peace process: Must Israel's sues against the backdrop of freedom from conflict with its Jewish history and the Arab- neighbors translate into a Israeli conflict. wholesale rejection of Jewish Rejected from a coveted sur- history and tradition? gical residency at a Tel Aviv — Bluma Zuckerbrot- hospital, protagonist Dr. Ben- Finkelstein jamin Rubin is suddenly cho- sen by the hospital's chief administrator to help him bring home his hepatitis-stricken daughter from a remote village By Zev Chafets in India. Readers journey Warner Books, 305 pgs., $21.95. alongside Dr. Rubin as he ex- lurring the lines between periences the exotic sights, fact and fiction and unit- sounds and smells of India and ing the disparate worlds are drawn into the doctor's of NBA basketball and philosophical inquiry about Middle Eastern terrorism, Zev birth, death and the transmi- Chafets weaves an engaging, gration of souls. fast-paced thriller in Hang During the trip, the doctor, Time. Benjy, falls in love both with As a former head of Israel's the rivers of India and with `Open Heart' C `Hang Time'