From Publishers Weekly
A solid introduction to a writer who has justly been compared to Faulkner and Joyce, this collection of 25 stories by Nobel Prize-winning Israeli novelist Agnon (1888-1970) presents a Jewish modernist who transformed traditional themes and sources in works that speak eloquently of community and dislocation, of longing and loss. Born in a region of Galicia then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Agnon settled in Palestine in 1924 after a decade in Germany. Blending antic humor, ironic detachment, erudition and yeasty lore, the tales include vivid autobiographical sketches of the author's ambivalent early life in Palestine ("Hill of Sand"); complex psychological portraits ("The Doctor's Divorce"); and poignant family drama ("Between Two Towns," which gently satirizes complacent, innocent German Jews of WWI, blissfully ignorant of their ultimate fate). Only a few of the selections are appearing in English for the first time, and nearly half have been previously anthologized. Still, by collecting some of Agnon's best, and by providing an insightful biographical sketch and extensive introductory notes, Mintz (Hebrew/ Brandeis) and Hoffmann (English/Fordham) go far in helping readers to appreciate why Agnon is widely considered the greatest modern writer of fiction in Hebrew.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
This posthumous collection of short stories by Hebrew literature's only Nobelist (Shira, LJ 9/15/89) includes many pieces that are appearing in English for the first time complete with an autobiographical framework and an introduction for all 25 stories. There are stories that portray the rich Jewish culture of Agnon's hometown in Poland grouped under the title "Buczacz: The Epic Life of One Town." These stories were written in the last years of his life and evoke in an imaginative, coherent fashion the lost world of East European Jewry. In the section titled "Artists in the Land of Israel," Agnon presents a series of self-portraits that give narrative form to the writer's understanding of himself, his community, his art, and the Jewish past. Other sections include "Stories of Germany" and "The Search for Meaning." Readers of Agnon as well as new readers will savor this work. Recommended for all large collections.?Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, Md.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
