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Panther in the Basement

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1947 Jerusalem - "Proffy," age 12, spends his days recreating famous battles on his living room floor and plotting with two friends the overthrow of the British occupation. His firm conviction that all British are evil, however, is shaken when he meets Sgt. Stephen Dunlop. Dunlop is an overweight, asthmatic, lonely man who loves Israel and longs to speak her language better. Convincing himself that teaching Dunlop Hebrew is a form of espionage, Proffy begins regular meetings with Dunlop.

Proffy's friends, however, declare the meetings treason. This forces the intellectual boy to think long and hard about what constitutes an enemy and why wars begin in the first place. Both Proffy and Dunlop love the Bible. In fact, Dunlop's greatest desire is to read the Bible in Hebrew. He shares Proffy's conviction that God wants Israel belong to the Jews. How can such a man be an enemy?

Oz is one of Israel's most famous authors. Clearly this novel is as much about Israel's present conflict with the Palestinians as it is about the wars of his youth. Proffy's friend said, "Loving the enemy is the height of treachery." Yet that is what Jesus commanded. Panther in the Basement, then, is a novel as much for Christians as Jews, and I heartily recommend it. Kathleen T. Choi, HAWAII CATHOLIC HERALD

Attack in Jerusalem...Suicide bombings...Reoccupation of West bank...Bush proposal for Palestinian State...

Yes - the headlines are horrendous... and, as an American Jew, there are times when I find myself questioning my feelings toward the situation in Israel. ...That is until a book such as this, as told through the eyes of the 12-year-old son of 2 Holocaust survivors, comes along reminding me of the importance of Israel to Jews all over the world!

Panther in the Basement is set in in 1947 British-occupied Palestine. While a real Underground is actively working toward the formation of a "Hebrew State", 12-year old Proffy and his friends are operating a make-believe underground movement. This first-person narrative tracks the growing pains of Proffy, from his "traiterous" relationship with British Sargeant Dunlop to his crush on his friend's older sister and, most importantly, to his understanding of a true need for a Jewish homeland as made evident through his relationship with his parents.

Once I got used to his style of writing, I found Mr. Oz poetic in his prose and I look forward to reading some of his other works.

The state of Israel created in 1948 has given birth to new warriors, to young men and women who refuse to entertain the annihilation suffered by their relatives led to slaughter. The land is in flux, anxiously preparing for the end of the British Occupation.

Proffi lives in a time of epiphany, the fears and caution of his childhood soon to turn into self-reliance and pride. Proffi's summer is pivotal, the simplicity of childhood but a chapter in his life, a boy who already registers the nuances, the many facets of human behavior, even in the British occupiers.

Surrounded by history, Proffi lives in an environment that venerates the written word, the accumulation of knowledge; his father's bookshelves reach to the ceiling, smelling of must and old paper, a most heady perfume. A solitary child, Proffi daily recreates great military battles, using whatever is handy to plan each new siege once his parents have left for the day. And every day, an hour later, Proffi's two friends, Ben Hur and Chita Reznik arrive to assist in strategizing campaigns and plan forays aimed at the British Occupation, the boys members of a secret organization, FOD, Freedom or Death.

Life is good, Proffi's world defined by sundry battles and a newly awakened curiosity about the female sex, until he discovers an accusation painted on the wall: traitor. Required to appear before the FOD the next afternoon, Proffi must answer the serious charge. "Instead of a panther in the basement, they saw me as a knife in the back." Indeed, the boy is guilty of fraternizing with the enemy, one hapless and friendly Sergeant Dunlop. Proffi and the soldier have been meeting at a local cafe, each learning the language of the other, a secret and innocent pleasure.

This is a coming-of-age story set in the fulcrum of history, as a young boy navigates the mysteries of life in a world defined by the Holocaust and the reverberations felt around the globe from that infamous event. Proffi is confronted with the challenges of friendship in a new context, one that requires a different perspective, leaving childhood behind and ushering in a future defined by personal choices and a new-found sense of self.

This small novel is a gem, the brilliant analysis of a pivotal moment in a boy's life caught on the cusp of past and future. The author's descriptions are lyrical and visual, both the emotional journey undertaken by Proffi, the familiarity of a home filled with row upon row of treasured books and a family who understands the impermanence of time. Life awaits, but childhood still beckons seductively. Luan Gaines/2004.

One day, Proffi sees the words "low-down traitor" painted on his wall, and next thing he knows, he is summoned to a trial for his treachery. What is he guilty of?

Proffi is a twelve-year old boy from Jerusalem. It is 1947 and Israel is on the verge of independence. The British are still in the country and as they prepare to leave, everyone is speculating what is going to happen. We get to know the situation from Proffi's point of view (he, as an adult, is the narrator), and, although he is a library rat and an unusually intelligent (bookish intelligence though) boy, who likes to play with words and loves encyclopedias, obviously he does not understand everything. With his two friends, they are obsessed with the war and form an underground unit, playing heroes of the Israeli liberation movement which is the authority accusing him now of treachery.

Proffi wonders on the subject of treachery, war, freedom, enemy (Sergeant Dunlop is the person who he befriends on the "enemy" side), but also on the usual subjects the boy of twelve could think about - women, friendship, his own future. His interpretations of the things he sees are often wrong, but his intuition is usually right. That is the source of his doubts and the reason for a lot of real philosophical, universal questions that are tackled in this compact novel. Proffi recalls the events as he remembers them, but it is obvious that he - unconsciously- learns a lot during that summer (pay attention to the words of Yardena, which he completely misunderstands at the time!).

"Panther in the Basement" talks about the basic, human feelings and deals with issues everyone wonders about, however its setting in Israel at the historically crucial point is essential.

Amos Oz is one of the writers who possess the ability of talking without unnecessary embellishments about important matters and do not repeat themselves or autoplagiarize.
His books stay with the reader for a long time and I have a feeling that they are timeless and will be read for years to come.

Panther in the Basement tackles the same set of narrative concerns which Oz handles with greater prowess in other works, notably The Hill of Evil Council and portions of his memoir, A Tale of Love and Darkness. Oz uses a literary technique in Panter which can be quite effective when applied evenly: the young narrator's games mirror that of the adult world, exposing the fear, hypocrisy, and outright fraud of grown up society. But somehow Oz misses his target here. Although all the elements are in place, there is the feeling that he is not in stride in this work. Although a worth while read, especially for someone who wants to explore the range of Oz's styles and themes, this work does not represent Amoz Oz at his very best.

Seeing himself as "panther in the basement," much like Tyrone Power in a favorite old film, Proffi, the 12-year-old son of activist parents in Jerusalem in 1947, is a member of an "underground cell" which he and two friends have formed. Their objective, like that of their parents, is the ouster of the British, who have been mandated by the UN to set up a Jewish homeland. Though the children enjoy "spying" and see themselves as glorious heroes, their plans of attack are distinctly childish. When Proffi finds himself drawn to Sgt. Stephen Dunlop, a gentle, shy British soldier from Canterbury, who wants to learn Hebrew and to teach Proffi English, Proffi justifies this friendship as his chance to probe for information for his own "secret DOD agency."

Declared by his friends Ben Hur and Chita Reznik to be a "lowdown traitor" when this relationship is discovered, Proffi feels isolated, at a crossroads in his life. Jerusalem is under constant curfews, the British are searching houses for weapons, his parents are involved in an underground movement, and he himself is beginning to become interested in girls--at least in Yardena, the nineteen-year-old sister of Ben Hur. As we come to know her, the people of the neighborhood, and the people important to Proffi, such as Mr. Gihon, his teacher, we see Proffi's knowledge and insights to be those of a twelve-year-old child whose belief in a bright future is absolute.

The powerful, often poetic language of this coming-of-age novel, along with its lively humor and warm understanding of human nature, make this an unforgettable novel of great universality. Told by an adult narrator who accurately captures Proffi's youthful viewpoint, the novel paints a picture of a loving, scholarly family seeking peace and knowledge, even as they actively try to expel "perfidious Albion." As we watch their interchanges with each other, with Proffi, and with British soldiers, we see them as decent people who want to be left in peace in a homeland of their own, to recover from the traumas of the Holocaust. Filled with gorgeous sense impressions and images (the description of the father's library is stunning), the novel draws in the reader with its contagious warmth and good humor. Written by Israel's most highly regarded novelist, this short novel is an eloquent and elegant testament to enduring values. Mary Whipple

Proffy is a 12-year-old Jewish child in British-occupied Palestine before the establishment of the state of Israel. When his two friends, Ben Hur and Chita, find out that he's been keeping company with Stephen Dunlop, a British solder, they bring Proffy to trial and accuse him of being a "low-down traitor" and not at all the underground resistance fighter he professes to be.

PANTHER IN THE BASEMENT presents a child's view of the political situation in 1947 Palestine. It questions who the enemy truly is and whether one's enemy can be a friend at the same time or possibly later. Oz does a great job of bringing politics down to it's simplest form as he examines how three children view the enemy differently. There is an element of danger introduced through Proffy's parents who are, in fact, involved with the resistance movement against the British, although they try to keep their son feeling safe and secure. Here's an interesting story, brimming with nostalgia, sometimes purposely going off on tangents, but eventually coming to a warm, moving conclusion.

This book is hard to fully appreciate until you've read it several times. I read it in Hebrew, and I have to admit that Oz must be one of the greatest Israeli authors. The word play (I don't know how well it came out in the English translation), childish and powerfully metaphoric all at once, of a boy growing up in a developing Jerusalem, with his internal struggles reflected in the entire Jewish history, forms one of the most poignant books I have ever read.
On a personal note, I grew up in a Jerusalem of the 1980s, a city full of life, completely developed, with cultural centers, theaters, malls, parks, opera houses, etc. Reading this book has made me truly conscious of and made me truly appreciate the immense amount of change and progress Jerusalem has gone through in the past few decades.
Also recommended - A Tale of Love and Darkness, although I don't know how it came out in the English translation.

For us, as westerners, starting this book is hard, because it is different from what we are used to. But once you get into it, you appreciate the still and exact observations, the philosophical insight to another world. Getting aquainted with A.O. it is good to start with his children books. I woutd recommend "Don't call it night", to be read second.

A book to enjoy not just for the delight of seeing the main character - a boy in pre-Independence Israel - live through history and typical childhood traumas, but to savor the briliant writing. The scenes describing Proffy's father's library and also of the meal prepared by his babysitter are stunning.......we see, feel and taste with the characters. On the 50th anniversary of the State of Israel, this serves as a reminder of what a homeland means to small, insignificant people; people who are ultimately the most significant.