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| Savyon Liebrecht |
Apples from the Dessert |
| Stories |
Tel Aviv, Sifriat Poalim, 1986; Keter, 1992. 174 pp.
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Savyon Liebrecht's four collections of stories have made her what Ha’aretz newspaper called "a kind of signpost of modern Hebrew prose." Her writing depicts a broad panorama of contemporary Israeli society, and reveals the passionate and intense layer under seemingly ordinary lives. The latest collection departs from the central themes of her earlier volumes – war traumas and family dramas – with ten bittersweet tales of fury, passion and disenchantment.
In the title story, a young teacher stages a confrontation with a woman who was her father's mistress thirty years before. She is compelled to enact an ending to the romance, though her father has been dead for almost thirty years. Liebrecht's characters are often plagued by high-fidelity memory, and frequently conduct a running dialog with the past. When a story ends in reality, it lives on in memory. In some ways, love stories never have endings. These stories are touched by the uncanny, strange instances that can neither be explained nor dismissed. In describing these dramatic moments in her characters' lives, Liebrecht exposes their vulnerabilities and failings. Her descriptions probe wounded souls with delicacy and sensitivity.
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About the Book
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Savyon Liebrecht's four collections of stories have made her what Ha’aretz newspaper called "a kind of signpost of modern Hebrew prose." Her writing depicts a broad panorama of contemporary Israeli society, and reveals the passionate and intense layer under seemingly ordinary lives. The latest collection departs from the central themes of her earlier volumes – war traumas and family dramas – with ten bittersweet tales of fury, passion and disenchantment.
In the title story, a young teacher stages a confrontation with a woman who was her father's mistress thirty years before. She is compelled to enact an ending to the romance, though her father has been dead for almost thirty years. Liebrecht's characters are often plagued by high-fidelity memory, and frequently conduct a running dialog with the past. When a story ends in reality, it lives on in memory. In some ways, love stories never have endings. These stories are touched by the uncanny, strange instances that can neither be explained nor dismissed. In describing these dramatic moments in her characters' lives, Liebrecht exposes their vulnerabilities and failings. Her descriptions probe wounded souls with delicacy and sensitivity.
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