Book review: The Remains of Life by Zureya Shalev

From my NYJB review: “. . . readers prone to depression might consider acquiring a prescription for antidepressant medication before attempting to read The Remains of Love.” Additional remarks that appeared in a different and now defunct publication begin with the next paragraph.

Israeli books: Zeruya Shalev's 5th novel views family through a Freudian lens

Israeli author Zeruya Shalev's fifth novel The Remains of Love, published yesterday by Bloomsbury, departs from the first person narration of her previous fiction in favor of a third person narrator whose attention alternates between three protagonists. Ms. Shalev's novels are known for their raw emotion (I strongly recommend her previous novelThera, but only to emotionally stable readers). In my New York Journal of Books review of The Remains of Love I note that "by shifting between the characters the emotion is diffused and less intense" than Thera, though it is still "emotionally powerful," and I recommend the new novel "to readers who enjoy psychological fiction about family dynamics written in dense prose."

Of the book's three protagonists Dina most closely resembles her author, both of whom were born on kibbutzim, moved with their families to urban areas as children, and as adults married and became mothers of only children. Ms. Shalev's left-wing politics are represented by Dina's brother Avner, a human rights lawyer.

Her characters have solipsistic perspectives, but that should not reflect badly on their author. In 2004 while walking in Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood after dropping her child off at kindergarten a passing bus was blown up by a suicide bomber resulting in injuries to Ms. Shalev from which it took four months to recover. After such a trauma a person of weaker character might have become politically neoconservative, but if Avner is any indication it appears Ms. Shalev stands by her progressive principles,

One aspect of Jerusalem life not reflected in her fiction is the extent to which her secular characters have become an ever smaller and isolated minority within that increasingly Orthodox city. It would not be surprising if characters in her future novels will have moved to the western suburbs such as Mivaseret Zion.
Zeruya Shalev

JFK: Lines of Fire, a Verse Docu-drama

On 11/22/63 I was a 4th grader in PS 110 in Manhattan. That afternoon our lesson was interrupted by a radio broadcast over the PA system describing the shooting and eventually President Kennedy's death. Only then did the principal or asst. principal announce early dismissal. On the door of my bedroom I had a poster of the presidents and added "-1963" under the picture of President Kennedy. Three decades later I wrote JFK: Lines of Fire, a Verse Docu-drama

JFK: Lines of Fire is a sequence of dramatic documentary vignettes culled from the literature concerning the assassination of President Kennedy. . Many of these found poems are dramatic monologues in the voices of people who had information about the assassination and either failed to prevent it or lacked a context to understand such information until it was too late. These accounts share certain emotional undercurrents, the need to act balanced by a sense of resignation, the shock of recognition balanced by a callous bravado. Whether or not Oswald acted alone or was nuts, there was (is) a wider insane acceptance of violence that (through these dramatic voices) provides an emotional context to this event. In this sense the real subject of this book is our American vernacular and the ways these themes are expressed in our speech. JFK: Lines of Fire was first published by PulpBits in 2003; PulpBits went out of business in March 2007, and I am happy to make it available here.

Book review: The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson’s Envelope Poems

In my New York Journal of Books review I describe The Gorgeous Nothings as “. . . one gorgeous book . . . like attending a museum exhibition in the comfort of one’s own home.” For a comparison between Ms. Dickinson's draft of a poem and the posthumously published version see an article that appeared in a different and now defunct publication, which begins with the next paragraph.

Books: The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson’s Envelope Poems

In The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson’s Envelope Poems, published today by New Directions, we learn that the poem her posthumous editor published as

“I have no Life but this —
To lead it here —
Nor any Death — but lest
Dispelled from there —

“Nor tie to Earths to come —
Nor Action new —
Except through this extent —
The Realm of you —“

is based on the following first draft Ms. Dickinson wrote in pencil on the back of an envelope:

“I have no

life [to] [but] [live] [this]

[But] [To] lead

it here

Nor any

Death but

lest dispelled

+Abased from

there —

“Nor +Plea

for World s

to come

+Nor Wisdoms

new

Except through

this +Extent

“The loving

you —

Withheld —

+

deprived

from

there —

+ Nor tie to

+Expanse —“

The original had wider spaces between the words than examiner's publishing tool allows. The plus signs (+) indicate alternate words and phrases Ms. Dickinson considered as she revised her poems.

From the published versions of her poems readers would hardly guess how open her original drafts were. The published versions seem formal and of their time, while the drafts seem experimental and ahead of her time. Ms. Dickinson did not want her work published during her lifetime for fear of just such editing by other hands.

In my New York Journal of Books review I describe The Gorgeous Nothings as “. . . one gorgeous book . . . like attending a museum exhibition in the comfort of one’s own home.” It’s a book every Emily Dickinson fan and armchair literary sleuth will want to own.Emily Dickinson (left) at age 29.

Book review: The Lion Seeker portrays South Africa's Jewish community

Set in 1930s and 1940s Johannesburg, South Africa, Jewish-Canadian writer Kenneth Bonert's debut novel The Lion Seeker is a bildungsroman, immigration story, and family saga rolled into a page turner. In my New York Journal of Books review I refer to the book as a promising debut. To hear an interview with Mr. Bonert go to my examiner article. Kenneth Bonert

Book review: Half the Kingdom by Lore Segal explores old age

Here is my New York Journal of Books review of Lore Segal's new novel about old age Half the Kingdom. For additional commentary and excerpts from the novel see my examiner article too. Lore Segal

Amos Oz returns to the kibbutz in Between Friends:

Here is my New York Journal of Books review of Amos Oz's new book of short stories Between Friends. As I discuss in my examiner article, this book and his previous book of short stories reflect two distinct emotional reactions to capitalism's defeat of socialism in Israeli society and its economy.



Amos Oz

Subtle Bodies | New York Journal of Books

Subtle Bodies by Norman Rush portrays a happy marriage. Read my review on New York Journal of Books. See my additional remarks on examiner.com. Norman Rush