Meir Shalev (1948–2023)

“I know enough about farming to know that the best fictions of all grow from the earth of reality.”

This is a memoir by Israeli author Meir Shalev who was born in 1948 on Nahalal, Israel’s first moshav. The book is translated from Hebrew by Evan Fallenberg. The moshav movement was a cooperative agricultural community of individual farms started by the Zionists as part of the Second Aliyah (1904-1914 Jewish emigration to Palestine, largely from Russia). The moshavim were more family-based than kibbutz. The first moshav was established in Nahalal in Jezreel valley where this story takes place. Grandma Tonia, the central character in the story, arrived in 1923, as part of the Third Aliyah. She was born in Rokitno, Ukraine in the 1900s and married Grandpa Aharon after she arrived in Palestine.

The story revolves around the feisty and dirt-obsessed Grandma Tonia and later her mysterious American vacuum cleaner. Tonia has a difficult life, declaring war as she does on the dirt in Palestine. She refuses anyone admittance through her front door, makes them sit on the porch and only the favoured few gain admittance through the back door. The family are made to shower out by the cows’ barn and conduct as much of their daily lives outside as possible. Tonia seems ill-matched with Grandpa Aharon, who seems far more socialist and zionist than she is, and he is clearly unsuited for the farming life he has chosen. Grandpa Aharon and the moshavniks eschew all things frivolous. In particular he disapproves of his brother Uncle Yeshayahu, the traitor who has committed the unpardonable crime of moving to America, the land of temptation and hedonism. Uncle Yeshayahu eventually sends Grandma Tonia a monstrous shiny new vacuum cleaner as a grandiose statement of superiority and possibly revenge. Initially Grandma is captivated by the “svieeperrr,” her new ally in the war against dirt, and her grandson Meir is determined to discover the fate of the mythical appliance that has become the stuff of family legends, rumoured to be imprisoned in Grandma’s spare room. This is a humorous look at family life, and sheds light into the hardship of moshavnik life and the culture in Palestine at the time. The disappointing thing to me was that despite Grandma Tonia being “a character” I was unable to really warm to her. Other than her fanatical approach to cleaning, hard work, and the tyranny with which she enforced her regimen on the family, the only supposedly endearing traits mentioned were her few favourite phrases and mispronunciations. She seemed to have a soft spot for Meir’s girlfriends but this was the only chink revealed in her armour. I also found the very conscious narration with the author’s constant worries about misrepresenting another family member’s version of events distracted me from enjoying the story more.… (more)

Por amor a Judit
Meir Shalev
Publicado: 2002 | 406 páginas
Romántico

Aquel día, el 6 de febrero de 1950, nevó en el fértil valle de Jezreel, y Moisés Rabinovich taló furiosamente un eucalipto secular. Para los habitantes del pueblo, un objeto simbólico, pero para Moisés, el instrumento de un destino trágico. Con este episodio comienza la historia de Zeide, que con su propia voz acompañará al lector en un sugestivo viaje por el recuerdo. En el núcleo de la narración está Judit, su madre, una mujer fuerte e independiente que esconde un enigmático secreto. Y en el escenario se alternan tres figuras masculinas muy distintas entre sí: son los hombres que no sólo se disputan el amor de Judit sino también se atribuyen la paternidad de Zeide, de quien se ocupan generosamente.Mezclando voces y episodios, pasado y presente, Meir Shalev —uno de los mayores representantes de la literatura israelí actual— ha creado una trama rica en relaciones personales, en historias que se entrecruzan para construir un mosaico existencial en cuyo centro surge el misterio de Judit, siempre huidiza e inalcanzable. Conducida por la idea de un destino ineluctable, donde la ironía y el romanticismo se entremezclan con la comicidad, la novela avanza con un ritmo ligero que aparece punteado por los sonidos, los perfumes —inolvidables los de las exquisitas comidas que Jacob, uno de los supuestos padres, le prepara a Zeide— y los sucesos de un microcosmos rural que se transforma en emblema universal. Elogiada unánimemente por la crítica de Francia, Alemania, Italia, Inglaterra y Estados Unidos, que ha destacado su humanismo conmovedor, es ésta una de las mejores obras de un reconocido maestro de la narrativa.… (more)

Reason read: Israeli author, TIOLI #1
Blue Mountain was Meir Shalev's first novel. It tells the story through the narrator Baruch, granson of one of the village founders. Baruch is owner of the cemetery where he buries the pioneering generation. The pioneers are the first immigrants from Russia and Ukraine that return back to the Land with ideas of socialism and religious fanaticism. The location is a small cooperative village in the Valley of Jezreel prior to the founding of Israel. They started to arrive in the early 1900s. There are many themes of redemption and rebirth. The characters are colorful. Other themes include the earth and nature. I enjoyed the funny stories full of magical realism but I also did not enjoy the sexual content. I did not get any strong feelings that women were treated disrespectfully. They were earthy women as were the men. Israel is a people of the earth. Nature is friend and foe, good and bad. Narture is politicized.

The author was born in Israel in 1948, the same year of the founding of Israel. He died in April of this year. He identified with the left and wanted a two state solution but also was aware that "Radical Palestinians still say that the only solution would be for all Jews to pack their bags and return to where their grandparents came from. When there are no more Jews left in the Middle East, then the problem is solved, according to their logic. As long as they continue to think that way, there will be no peace. We are here and we are going to stay. Only after that fact is generally accepted can progress be made."
I rated it 3 stars.… (more)