{"id":1831,"date":"2014-03-14T12:45:04","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T19:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=1831"},"modified":"2014-04-16T14:14:41","modified_gmt":"2014-04-16T21:14:41","slug":"amos-ozs-between-friends-is-a-tight-collection-of-short-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2014\/03\/14\/amos-ozs-between-friends-is-a-tight-collection-of-short-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Amos Oz\u2019s Between Friends is a tight collection of short stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early 1950s, at the age of 15, Amos Oz moved to Kibbutz Hulda in central Israel. Idealists at that time still celebrated the kibbutz as a new form of community that would transform human nature. But the reality was something else. In Between Friends<\/i> (Mariner Books, 2013, translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston), the acclaimed Israeli novelist takes us to a fictitious kibbutz in 1950s Israel called Yikhat to meet several characters that were part of that world.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Amos Oz in 2006.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With an eye for revealing details, Oz recreates a rich world of ordinary, well-meaning people with difficult pasts and passionate dreams. Their anxieties are not unique, stemming from tangled-up longings, failed relationships and unspoken thoughts. Their personal crises would not be out of place as part of daily life in any tightly knit community.<\/p>\n

Oz, an acclaimed Israeli novelist who has been mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature, writes eight stories that are interconnected about the plain folks of the kibbutz \u2013 the gardener, schoolteacher, mechanic, electrician and others. They may have once believed they could change the world but, by the time we meet them, they are resigned to their quiet routines, which they undertake without complaint and, in some instances, with considerable pride. However, their emotional lives remain in turmoil, entangled in tussles \u201cbetween friends.\u201d A pervasive feeling of loneliness in the midst of neighbors they have known for years overshadows all other feelings.<\/p>\n

Zvi Provisor is the first kibbutznik we meet. He is obsessed with reporting famines, earthquakes, plane crashes and other disasters from anywhere in the world. Most kibbutzniks dismiss him, with some affection, as the Angel of Death. Kibbutznik Luna Blank offers a sympathetic ear.<\/p>\n

As their friendship grows, they meet in her room for coffee. One evening, she is, as Oz writes, so overwhelmed with compassion that she suddenly takes his hand and holds it to her breast.<\/p>\n

\u201cZev trembled and pulled his hand back quickly, with a gesture that was almost violent. His eyes blinked frantically. Never in his adult life had he touched another person intentionally, and he went rigid whenever he was touched \u2026 a short time later, he stood up and left.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with Haaretz<\/i> after the book was first published, Oz said he wanted to look at the loneliness in a society where there is supposedly no place for loneliness.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a few of the stories, a situation is portrayed of \u2018almost touching\u2019: people very nearly touch, but something blocks it. Like [\u2018The Creation of Adam,\u2019] in the painting by Michelangelo, where finger almost touches finger.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very curious about loneliness and grace, or a moment of grace amid loneliness, because that is a description of the human condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stories are set on a kibbutz, but they tell about universal situations, about the most basic forces in human existence, about loneliness, about love, about loss, about death, about desire, about forgoing and about longing. In fact, about the simple and profound matters, which no person is unfamiliar with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>
Between Friends<\/em> takes readers to the fictional Kibbutz Yikhat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not surprisingly, Oz portrays simple kibbutz life with some charm. Kibbutzniks translate Polish novels in their spare time and listen to classical music. Everyone takes his or her turn doing a shift in the dining hall.<\/p>\n

Osnat is a quiet woman. She works all day alone in the laundry, beginning at 5:30 a.m. As we are introduced to her, Osnat\u2019s partner Boaz has just told her that he has been in a relationship for eight months with another kibbutznik, the tall, slim Ariella Barash, who works in the chicken coop. Boaz has decided to move into Ariella\u2019s apartment.<\/p>\n

On Kibbutz Yikhat, the environment reinforces the characters that live there. Ariella has an old cat and young dog that treat each other much like the kibbutzniks relate to the other kibbutzniks. The young dog was frightened of the cat and would politely give it a wide berth, Oz writes. The old cat would ignore the dog and walk past as if the dog were invisible. Boaz shows some affection for the young dog. \u201cBut if the cat should jump onto his lap asking for affection, he heaves him off with such disgust that I cringe,\u201d Ariella writes in a note to Osnat, several days after Boaz has moved in with his new love.<\/p>\n

We are not told about Osnat and Ariella\u2019s relationship before Boaz arrived on the scene. However, after Boaz starts living with Ariella,<\/p>\n

the two women exchange notes. Osnat, who is not angry about the break-up, continues to worry about Boaz\u2019s health. Ariella tries to justify her relationship with another woman\u2019s partner.<\/p>\n

With Oz\u2019s poetic style, the chapter ends with a gentle breeze blowing, \u201cjust enough to cool a cup of tea.\u201d A solitary figure abandoned by her lover, Osnat listens to \u201clight music\u201d on the radio and reads a book before going to bed. \u201cHer nights are dreamless now and she wakes before the alarm clock rings. The pigeons wake her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oz is well known as an outspoken advocate of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Middle East tensions and Israeli politics pop up only as a backdrop to the kibbutzniks\u2019 lives. He writes about the effect of events on the kibbutzniks, not much about the events themselves. The characters mention threats to the kibbutz but without any discussion of events.<\/p>\n

We learn that Nahum\u2019s wife was killed in a retaliatory raid and that his son was killed during an army incursion into the village of Deir al Nashaf. We are told nothing more about these confrontations. However, we can feel the impact of these tragedies when Nahum struggles as his 17-year-old daughter Edna, a few months before going into the army, moves in with David Dagan, a teacher her father\u2019s age, as well as a longtime friend of her father.<\/p>\n

David is a devout Marxist who speaks with authority about ideological issues as well as matters of everyday life. Nahum is an unsure father who does not have the confidence to confront David over the inappropriate affair.<\/p>\n

Oz is extremely effective in bringing the reader right into the room with the characters he creates. We are in Nahum\u2019s electrician\u2019s workshop, where he sits, day after day, \u201cshoulders stooped, glasses sliding down his nose, working on appliances in need of repair: electric kettles, radios, fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

We are taken to the doorstep of Edna\u2019s dorm room, where Nahum has gone to bring a sweater she has left at his apartment. He listens to the music coming from the room, \u201ca light, lengthy \u00e9tude that repeated itself in a melancholy way.\u201d<\/p>\n

In later chapters, we hear the gossip about kibbutz secretary Yoav Carni. We see the futile efforts of Henia Kalisch as she tries to arrange for kibbutz support for her son to study abroad. Despite whom we meet, there is no escaping the sadness and loneliness that permeates the lives of so many people on Kibbutz Yikhat.<\/p>\n

Our kibbutz visit ends with a funeral for shoemaker Martin Vandenberg, an enthusiastic advocate of Esperanto, the universal language that was to unify humanity.<\/p>\n

Osnat is the last person to leave the cemetery. She lingers, feeling a sense of peace. In remarks that could be Oz reflecting on the entire book, Osnat feels as if this \u201chadn\u2019t been a funeral, but a good satisfying conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oz does not leave the kibbutz at that point, however. Osnat has a sudden desire to say more, one or two quiet words in Esperanto in tribute to Martin. \u201cBut she hadn\u2019t had time to learn anything and she had no idea what to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Media consultant <\/i>Robert Matas<\/b>, a former<\/i> Globe and Mail journalist, still reads books.<\/i> Between Friends is available at the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library. To reserve this book, or any other, call 604-257-5181 or email library@jccgv.bc.ca<\/a>. To view the online catalogue, visit jccgv.com<\/a> and click on Isaac Waldman Library.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the early 1950s, at the age of 15, Amos Oz moved to Kibbutz Hulda in central Israel. Idealists at that time still celebrated the kibbutz as a new form of community that would transform human nature. But the reality was something else. In Between Friends (Mariner Books, 2013, translated from the Hebrew by Sondra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[672,677,673,676,675],"class_list":["post-1831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-amos-oz","tag-between-friends","tag-kibbutz-hulda","tag-nobel-prize","tag-sondra-silverston"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}