Israel: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions) [Paperback]

Michael Gluzman (Author), Naomi Seidman (Author), Robert Alter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1996 | Series: Traveler's Literary Companions (Book 4)

There may be no place more blessed — or burdened — with narrative than Israel. In this country, story and place are inextricable. From stories set in the historical, holy city of Jerusalem to those that take place in the modern, secular city of Tel Aviv, from writing addressing the current "situation" to tales inspired by the timeless desert, this volume of sixteen short stories of Israel's finest new writers, and some of its best-loved ones, captures for the reader one of the world's most fascinating travel destinations. Contributors include Gafi Amir, Yossi Avni, Yosl Birstein, Orly Castel-Bloom, David Ehrlich, David Grossman, Shulamith Hareven, Etgar Kerrett, Yoram Kolerstein, Yitzchak Laor, Amos Oz, Ofra Riesenfeld, Gadi Taub, and A. B. Yehoshua.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Through fiction and a smidgen of fact, Gluzman, a professor of poetry and comparative literature at Tel Aviv University, and Seidman, who teaches Hebrew literature at the Center for Jewish Studies, Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif., purport to present works that "will enlighten a traveler to the soul of" Israel. The latest in a series for readers planning trips (two more are also due out in 1997), this collection includes, but is not limited to, pieces about villagers burning a neighbor's house; a soldier kicking an Arab in the face before the other can shoot him; and a religious Jew molesting a secular Jew. The stories themselves are strong, eloquent and penned by the very best Israeli writers (among them David Grossman, Shulamith Hareven, A.B. Yehoshua). But the only one not guaranteed to sadden is an exquisite piece by Ofra Rizenfeld on the innocent Adam and Eve romping in the Garden of Eden. And we all know what happens to them. "Where does it get you, this state you made?" a religious Jew asks Amos Oz in one of two pieces or reportage. "Murderers, prostitutes, robbers, perverts, blasphemers, emptiness and impudence." Kind of makes you want to stay home.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This is the fourth in a series of collected short fiction depicting contemporary life in a locale popular with tourists (previous volumes are on Costa Rica, Prague, and Vietnam). The editors, travelers and journalists, have selected 16 recent essays grouped under the headings Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Eilat, kibbutz, land, borders, and pilgrimage, all written in Hebrew and translated into English. The authors are mostly Israeli, e.g., Amos Oz ("Thank God for His Daily Blessings," about Jerusalem); David Grossman ("Barta'a," which focuses on the West Bank border), and Ofra Rizenfeld ("What's There and What Isn't," concerning kibbutzim). The pieces reveal a cross section of people in situations tender, sad, angry, and funny. Collectively, the pieces present a view of Israeli life seldom encountered by tourists or other outsiders, as well as suggesting the rich state of creative writing in the country today. A good foreword and preface place the essays in context for the reader. This reasonably priced series offers opportunities for public libraries to add depth to their travel collections.?Harold M. Otness, Southern Oregon State Coll. Lib., Ashland
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Whereabouts Press; First Printing edition (March 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1883513030
• ISBN-13: 978-1883513030
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,122,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A worthwhile introduction, December 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Israel: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions) (Paperback)

A mixture -- beautiful, sad, weird. But definitely worthwhile. I was disappointed not to be successful in finding books available by these authors.

2.0 out of 5 stars A good idea that didn't work out, November 16, 2009

By 

Larry R (Cape Cod, MA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Israel: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions) (Paperback)

[Spoiler Alert] The back cover of this book included a capsule review "The idea.. is simple: Explore a place ... through the writings of that country's best writers". The idea may be simple, and it may be a good one. But sadly, this book falls short of what the idea has to offer. In anticipation of a possible upcoming trip to Israel, I picked up this book with the hope that it would provide me with a 'feel' for the place and its people. Unfortunately, the stories in the book seemed both pretentious and uninteresting. We're treated to a Casper-Milquetoast-ish woman who travels to meet her sister... and that's pretty much it. A 20-something platonic couple lamenting about being all washed up as they approach 30. A gay romance struck down when the protagonist accuses his paramour of theft. A group of co-workers forced together by circumstances, eventually winding up in a drunken menage a trois. While the stories were competently written, none of them seemed particularly interesting... and any of them could easily have been set in an American or European city, with no real change except for the scenery. In short, the book fell far short of providing any insight into Israel, or Israelis. When I was done, my reaction was 'I sure hope the country and its people are more interesting than the ones in these stories'. As the original works were in Hebrew, its possible that something was lost in the translation. Its also possible, that despite being thousands of miles away and surrounded by enemies, Israelis are pretty much like everyone else. I still want to take my trip. But this book did nothing to either entice me to do so or prepare me for the experience.

2.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't Exactly Make You Want to Go There . . ., May 27, 2009

By 

Reader in Tokyo - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Israel: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions) (Paperback)

This book was published in 1996 and contained 16 works by 15 writers. As far as could be determined, there were 12 short stories, 2 excerpts from novels, 1 piece of reportage, and 1 essay. All the works were translated from Hebrew.

The oldest writers in the collection were two immigrants from Poland, Yosl Birstein (1920-) and Shulamith Hareven (1930-2003), as well as the native-born Amos Oz (1939-) and A. B. Yehoshua (1939-). Among the youngest were Gadi Taub (1965-), Gafi Amir (1966-) and Etgar Kerrett (1967-). Others included David Grossman (1954-), David Ehrlich (1959-), and Yehudit Katzir (1963-). Of all the writers, five were women. Not included in the collection were distinguished authors such as Aharon Appelfeld and Amos Elon.

The collection was weighted heavily toward the contemporary. Ten of the works were from the 1990s, five from the 1980s and one, by Yehoshua, from the 1950s. The settings included Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Eilat, nameless small towns, a kibbutz, and borders with the West Bank and Syria.

The book's introduction briefly surveyed Israeli writing after the 1940s, seeing homogeneity in the 1950s and through much of the 1960s. The great majority of the authors of the time were male, of Ashkenazi heritage, with backgrounds in socialist Zionist youth movements and veterans of the 1948 war. In their work, the army and the kibbutz were adopted repeatedly as settings, with urban life coming to the fore only in the 1960s. Frequent themes were issues of national values and the tension between private desires and social expectations. The style, it was said, was frequently humorless social realism.

More recent writing was described as disorientingly varied, shattering the façade of a monolithic Israeli culture, disclosing cultural diversity and contradictions and mutual incompatibilities. There were Orthodox believers, secularists, and those indifferent to religion. The diversity extended to place, as reflected in the present collection. Likewise, contemporary styles were said to range from deadpan realism to magic realism, surrealism to anecdotal narratives in the first person. It was claimed that this anthology was the first collection to reflect honestly such diversity.

For this reader, two of the most interesting works in the collection weren't the fictional pieces at all, but reportage by David Grossman and an essay by Amos Oz, both from the 1980s. These concerned the relations between Palestinians in a village that had been divided by war -- showing mutual envy, admiration and dislike -- and the tension between Orthodox Judaism and a Zionism the writer thought was in decline, as reflected in the changes seen over time in an old neighborhood in Jerusalem. These two writers' powers of observation and description were apparent, especially those of Grossman, with his sensitivity to the many dimensions of his subject, though the writing of Oz felt more convoluted than it needed to be.

Among the fiction, most enjoyed were a story by David Ehrlich about the tension between a small northern Israeli town inhabited by people with traditional pioneer values and a materialistic young couple that moved in. A story by Katzir, about a woman's frustrated search for connection, seemed overlong, taking up a fifth of the book, but captured well how cruel people could be, thoughtlessly or otherwise, to the sensitive protagonist.

There were a surprisingly generous number of stories about alienation, materialism, a frustrated search for love or sex, and other failures to connect. Nearly all of these were written in the first person, which eventually grew monotonous and began to grate. There were no pieces containing attractive characters, healthy family ties, friendship that survived and grew over time, or a healthy grounding in a faith, religious or political. And too many pieces that felt opaque (Ofra Riesenfeld, Orly Castel-Bloom, one of Birstein's). For these reasons, regrettably I wasn't able to enjoy much in this collection, unlike the other books read so far in this worthwhile literary companion series, and was unable to rate it more highly.

It was a surprise too that none of the fictional pieces in the collection brought together an Israeli and Palestinian for any kind of meaningful conversation. An anthology of Palestinian writers, A Land of Stone and Thyme, published the same year as this collection, contained a short story by Riyad Baidas in which a casual conversation showed how differently things like surroundings, human contact and peace of mind could be viewed.