Customer Reviews

Elsewhere, Perhaps

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was a quiet, unassuming story that draws one in, almost by surprise. A simple novel about the intertwined personal relationships of two families on a kibbutz; for all its lack of action or high drama, it was nonetheless a very satisfying read.

Amos Oz is a very accomplished novelist and here in a tour de force he brings to life the story of two families frustrated by situations beyond their control which
bring them pain, hope and struggle. His style is phenomenal and poetic. He is a first rate story teller. This truly enjoyable page-turner lets you peer into the inner lives of several individuals which probably are very similar to those Amos Oz
has known over the decades of living in the same Kibbutz. His knowledge and command
of history, geography and culture is also commendable. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to sample the works of this outstanding author who must receive a
Nobel Literature Prize soon.

One of the interesting features of this novel is the voice in which Oz writes. He writes in a kind of collective voice, as if the kibbutz were being described by its members, a kind of 'our Kibbutz' like Thorton Wilder's 'Our Town'. In adopting this voice Oz however presents things with a certain kind of innocence, and yet irony. He is making you see things the way the kibbutz members see them which is not necessarily the way he sees them, or he expects the reader to see them. Again, a certain distance and irony are in the writing.
Nonetheless the descriptions of the kibbutz, and the collective portrait he makes of the two families whose lives are at the heart of the story, are fascinating. He begins with the kibbutz poet Reuven Harish who has been betrayed his wife, now living in Germany. Harish is a conscienscious citizen and father, who after a time enters into a relationship with the wife of another kibbutz member, Ezra Berger. Berger a truckdriver Bible reader is one of three brothers, one a scholar, and the other living in Germany where Harish 's wife has absconded to. The beautiful daughter of Harish and his wife Ora is a central figure in the whole action of the book. Oz enters deeply into the intimate lives of the main characters. The collective voice is a gossip which explains why gossiping so important and necessary a source of social control on the kibbutz. The whole impression given of the work is mixed, for there is a mocking at kibbutz idealism and heroic ideals of itself while at the same time an understanding and affectionate portrait of it.
Oz's descriptions of people and of landscape are powerful and poetic.

Elsewhere, Perhaps, is Oz's effort to show the type of kibbutz socialism which he is (or was) an advocate in his non-fiction writing. He paints an appealing picture. The people of kibbutz Metsudat Ram are not heroes. There is adultery. There is infidelity. There is gossip and pettiness. But the socialism of the kibbutz is humanist; it takes measure of human shortcomings and frailness and works with them for the greater good. This is not the grand heroism of Soviet socialism, trying to pour people into molds where they do not fit, often at the point of death and imprisonment. The kibbutz here is like a large family, and belonging to it brings all the benefits and pitfalls of family life. Only the outsider, Siegfried, who comes into the kibbutz and tries to solve its problems by non-kibbutz methods, is painted in unappealing, even anti-Semitic colors. Oz's point is clear: the kibbutz can clean up its own messes. Only kibbutz solutions can solve kibbutz problems.

gorgeously worded as usual with interesting characters and an engrossing study of kibbutz life in general. but on the whole a dark book, with many psychological mysteries left unsolved. one always loves Oz's books while reading them, but there is no real sense of completion. that is the point, perhaps. recommended for the pleasure of the ride.