The Amos Oz Reader

This is a wonderful collection of fiction, non-fiction, and autobiography by a practicing humanist that has never lost perspective in spite of deep involvment with the issues of his country and the times.

We must keep in touch," Amos Oz said during my first meeting with him three years ago. "With great pleasure," I answered, proceeding to ask him today's natural follow-up question: "What is your e-mail address?" He looked at me with his charming smile and responded: "I don't have an e-mail." Amos Oz, Israel's best-known and most translated author, has penned 33 books -- including novels, novellas and short stories -- along with more than 400 articles on literature and Israeli politics. I use the word "penned," because this gifted writer and outspoken political commentator accomplished this impressive literary output the old-fashioned way -- with pen and paper. Actually, with two different pens -- one blue, the other black. "They each have a special purpose," he once told me. "One is to rage against the government and tell them to go to hell, and the other is to tell stories." On May 4, Oz will turn 70. As part of the celebrations, a new English-language anthology, "The Amos Oz Reader"(Harcourt), was just released, offering a retrospective of some of the author's finest writing from both his pens. It is a refreshing departure from the stereotypical out-of-context compilation, and credit for this goes to editor Nitza Ben-Dov, a professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at Haifa University. Ben-Dov has creatively grouped Oz's writings into four different themes: The Kibbutz, Jerusalem, the "Promised Land," and some of Oz's personal reflections, "In an Autobiographical Vein." In so doing she gives us a bird's-eye view of his life through the lenses of his writing. Born May 4, 1939, in the Kerem Avraham neighborhood of Jerusalem, Amos Klausner grew up an only child in war-torn British Mandate Jerusalem during the years immediately leading up to the establishment of the State of Israel. His father, Yehuda Aryeh Klausner, was an intellectual whose politics were right-wing Revisionist Zionism. His mother, Fania Mussman, also an intellectual, suffered from severe depression. Their tiny Jerusalem apartment was filled with thousands of books, and Amos grew up in a milieu that included weekly Shabbat afternoon visits with his great uncle, professor Joseph Klausner, and often with Klausner's neighbor and arch rival, the great writer S.Y. Agnon. In 1952, Amos's mother committed suicide at the age of 38. Two years later, just 14 1/2 years old, Amos Klausner left Jerusalem for Kibbutz Hulda, leaving behind his father and his family name, renaming himself "Oz" (which means "strength"), and rejecting his father's Revisionist Zionism in favor of left-wing, Socialist Zionism. This biography continues to shape and inform much of Oz's writings. The "Kibbutz" section of the anthology features an excerpt from his first novel, "Elsewhere, Perhaps" (1966), where he explores the complex fine line between personal and communal life on the kibbutz, as well as the often-blurred line between kibbutz idealism and petty human behavior typical of any society. Oz's m

Amos Oz will be this year, 2009, seventy. He has been a recognized and highly praised writer now for close to forty- five years. Throughout most of his career his greatest literary achievements were taken to be his novels, beginning with 'My Michael'. But Oz also has been a public intellectual of great weight in Israel, and his non- fiction books perhaps most notably 'In the Land of Israel' are major depictions of the Israeli reality. However in 2003 there appeared a work of such overwhelming power and beauty , that it is today considered by most readers as Oz's masterpiece. This is the autobiographical work 'A Tale of Love and Darkness'. This present anthology contains a selection from the memoir, from a number of Oz's novels, stories and essays. It is possible to quarrel with some of the specific selections but on the whole they give a very clear sense of Oz's writing. The book is organized in four large sections, one on writings centered on the Kibbutz, another on writings centered in Jerusalem, a third on ' the Promised Land' and a fourth on autobiographical writings. There is a long and profound introduction by Robert Alter which makes an overall reading of Oz's work. One of the central themes here is the theme of contesting with being hedged in, enclosed , imprisoned , surrounded as Israel has been in relation to its most frequently hostile neighbors. The works are translated by Nicholas de Lange who is a great master of the trade. They do express a great deal of the special beauty of Oz's prose which in Hebrew can be poetically overwhelming. For readers who know Amos Oz's work this Anthology will provide an opportunity to see much of it in perspective. For those who do not know his work, this Anthology provides an opportunity to make acquaintance with a major writer.