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| Yehoshua Kenaz |
The Great Woman of the Dreams |
| Novel |
Tel Aviv, Dvir, 1973; Hakibbutz Hameuchad/Siman Kriah, 1986. 200 pp.
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The story takes place during a long, tormented summer in the lives of the tenants of a rundown apartment house in Tel Aviv, depicting their slow mental and physical disintegration. The characters include Zion the taxi driver, the submissive half-wit Shmulik and their wives, Dr. S. and Ilse S., immigrants from Germany, a gentle bachelor known as "the Hungarian," and Blind Rosa who seeks fulfillment in the streets. Malka, Shmulik's wife, in her stupor and vacuity represents the earthly embodiment of the dream woman of the title. She is both a haven of security and a source of torment. The horror of the situation in which these characters are trapped stems in particular from their being such ordinary people, and it is their very banality that gives this novel its tragic impact.
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About the Book
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While clearly part of the contemporary Israeli writing scene, Kenaz's prose remains distinctive. Kenaz consciously eliminates symbolic and allegoric elements from his writing, and tries in both theme and technique to attain the essence of each situation. Critic and author Aharon Amir considers Kenaz "a first-rate Hebrew prose writer" and notes "The Great Woman of the Dreams leaves the reader with an almost exhilarating sensation of catharsis." Critic Gila Ramraz-Rauch points to the universal Beckett-like quality of The Great Woman of the Dreams. The gray dullness and ordinariness of most of its characters strip them and their fate of any romantic, idealized or tragic dimension, and underline the emptiness and futility of their existence.
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