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| Yehoshua Kenaz |
| Apartment with Garden Entrance & Other Stories |
| Stories |
Tel Aviv, Am Oved, 2008. 212 pp.
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From the book
Memory of a Dead Moment
During recess at school one of the kids announced that Dasa Eliyahu had been released from prison and was wandering around the orchards again. One of the tough kids said they should get a few people together and go find him to beat the hell out of him. In the afternoon, as Tzvika sat at the big table in the kitchen doing his homework, his thoughts started to wander and the picture that had been dormant in his mind for some time suddenly woke up and wouldn`t give him any peace. The figure sprang up before him, as if it had risen from the very bowels of the earth, brown and shiny, reaching out its thin hands and croaking in a thick cigarette-burnt voice: "Hey redhead, get over here right away!" But Tzvika wasn`t a redhead, he had dark brown hair although his face and arms sported quite a few freckles. He could never tell if the whole thing happened in a dream or reality, and if indeed it really happened, so much time had passed that the picture in his memory had become worn and fallen to pieces, like the remains of a dream. Why was it so important for him to figure out if the memory was real or just a dream? Maybe because he hadn`t grown up enough yet to know that, essentially, there is no difference.
Synopsis
The nine stories in this collection differ in their setting, characters and period, but share the restraint characteristic of Kenaz`s writing, his unique insight into his characters and the precise humor that helps give them relief.
"Wild Flesh, Foreign Flesh," set in a small agricultural settlement during the early years of the state, focuses on a Holocaust survivor who is convinced that Nazi flesh is growing inside her body. In "Memory of a Dead Moment," the children meet the village idiot hiding in an orange grove, who turns out to be quite benign. In "Room Number 10," a devoted son accompanies his elderly father to the doctor and shares the humiliation of old age, while "The Shezaf Case" focuses on a soldier who is held responsible for an act he did not commit and is haunted by the incident for years.
A long-awaited work by this major Hebrew writer.
From the press
In my opinion, Kenaz is the greatest living writer in Israel today.
Maariv
The power of this book lies in the humble refusal at its heart: the darkness will not be illuminated artificially, the strange will not become familiar.
Haaretz
Everything that I hold dear in Kenaz`s writing is present in this book: the simple commonplace scenes coated in compassion and generosity; the restrained, precise perspective of the onlooker. Kenaz`s alchemy makes `strange things` become pitiful and daunting, they clutch at one’s throat and cling to one’s memory. This book has charisma... It is awe-inspiring to read.
Haaretz
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