About ´Fate´ by Zeruya Shalev (translated into German by Anne Birkenhauer)

 

Fate (translated into German as Schicksal by Anne Birkenhauer, who translated among others David Grossman or Yehuda Amichai) is from all the books by Zeruya Shalev I´ve read until now, the most Israel-oriented. All of her books are taking place in Israel and do include elements of the everyday life in the country, particularly terorist threats or the religious context, but the main topics mainly have to do with relationship, betrayal, love and pain (the book before, Pain was by far my favorite, for the complexity of the characters and the surgical precision exploring suffering).

Fate - that was completed during the Covid pandemic - has a completely different spin and is partly inspired by Shalev´s own family history, namely her father´s. After the death of her father, a famous brain researcher, Menachem (Mino) Rubin, her daughter, Atara wants to find out the woman her father was married before, Rachel. Atara, an architect specialized in historical monuments, lives in Haifa (like Shalev herself). Rachel, whose son is a Breslev hasid, met Atara´s father during their time in Lechi, an armed group active during the British Mandate whose aim was, among others, to push the Brits out of the country, with any price. 

Most of the book is an exploration of memory, the ways in which we remember. Memory is an emotional business and its authenticity is at a large extent doubtful. The names of the Lehi members killed are repeated in the story as a mantra. Likewise, the story of the doll stucked with explosive who blew up. For many reasons, the history of Lehi in the creation of the state of Israel is rarely mentioned openly - compared to Irgun or Palmach, for instance. In the account include in Fate, they look like promoters of a Jewish-Arab entente and co-existence, with the only enemy being the Brits, which is a too edulcorated and romanticized version for my taste. I would have loved much more a rough version of a Lehi member, maybe confused, violent, idealistic, but more authentic than by being assigned ideas and intentions that just resonate with current political concerns. This distorted voice is a big pity for the overall representation of Lehi, given that they were, in fact, a very interesting movement, to be understood and placed in the equally complex context of the times.

I had access to the book in audiobook format, read by actressed Maria Schrader and Eva Meckbach. 

Rating: 3 stars 

On Cultural Boycotts

Cultural boycotts, of any kind, are idiotic. Exactly, you´ve read the word right. There is nothing more lame and anti-intellectual and the opposite of being intelligent in general as a cultural boycott. It denies automatically the mission of writing and culture in general, which is, in my opinion, to open minds and hearts through ideas and words.

The media is lately mentioning how Sally Rooney, an Irish bestseller author famous for books like Beautiful World and Normal People and latest Beautiful World, Where are You? is definitely against her last book being translated into Hebrew. Her first books were published by Modan Publishing House into Hebrew but now, her agent confirmed that she opposes a further translation. 

Sally Rooney is a popular Millennial author, writing in a simple way about issues Millenials may deal with. In one of her books a character is going to a pro-Palestinian demonstration. Recently, she signed together with other authors and public intellectuals, a letter accusing Israel of apartheid and called for her (Israel´s) international isolation. 

In fact, Israel´s publishing industry, one of the most vibrant in the Middle East, is doing well, with or without Rooney´s books, that I bet are a favorite read among Palestinian millennials as well, many of them perfectly fluent in Hebrew. 

But people like Rooney do not have - and sometimes do not want it either - time and energy for such subtelties. By embracing the BDS they seems to be happy for apparently fulfilling a role of public intellectuals. Rooney is not the first and probably not the last author with such a stance. In 2012, Alice Walker also refused her book The Color Purple - to be translated into Hebrew. Her bad, but in fact, readers, smart readers in Israel can and will read their books, in many other international translations because eventually they will want being informed, including about those who really don´t want them to exist. Israel is a country where there are many people native-level fluent in many languages, covering, among others, various Arab dialects, Amharic, Persian, French, Russian, German etc.

This is not a literary post where I will evaluate the literary value of Rooney´s books. It does not matter at all, in fact. The decision of boycotting a language - and not other languages from countries where, for instance, women are sent to prison for not being in line with a strict religious interpretation or for their private life choices - is a cheap, very cheap manifestation of a so-called public opinion makers. 

By using her temporary status of literary star for uttering an international politics stance, Rooney is not doing anything outstanding. She is not a hero or a writer turned overnight into an opinion maker. She is a person of temporary talent who is keen to get more points for supporting a very controversial and anti-intellectual movement. It´s not mainstream, it is not bravery. It is intellectual opportunism which is, in fact, nothing close to public awareness or the weight of an intellectual mission. What she - and maybe others - does not help anyone. It´s just an intellectual parody.