A Book that Was Lost: and Other Stories

I read a few Agnon stories when I took a Modern Hebrew Literature class in college and was interested in reading more of his work (I loved and still love reading the literature of nobel prize for literature winners though this hasn't always panned out positively for me). And though i was interested i had a lingering doubt in my mind wondering whether or not agnon actually deserved the award, not that he would have been the first writer undeserving of the nobel -cough- t.s. eliot -cough- to receive it, nor are the nobels a hard and fast barometer of what is worthwhile reading and what isn't, still the doubt was planted due to my somewhat less than fantastically overwhelmed response to the few stories of his i had read.

Having finally show more completed this compilation I can say that he did deserve the nobel but maybe not for the reasons that have been stated. i'm not saying this to simply be contrary. when i read some of the praise of agnon and he's described as what is essentially the scribe/sage of the modern jewish experience, i roll my eyes because such a title is hyperbole to the point of being satirical, he might as well have been called the philosopher king of jews if we're following this line of praise to its not too illogical evolution. agnon, to my reading of his work and life, wasn't writing so much about the general jewish experience but rather was attempting to do so through depictions of the specific tinged with the ancient and traditional. the results of this approach vary decidedly almost with each individual story.

That is one of the two main problems i have with agnon: inconsistency. The other is his ego combined with his pretension to the role he set out to create and live for himself as 'the writer'. Agnon, maybe even more so than james joyce (which up until now i really didn't think was possible) was all too entangled in the mystique and grandeur of the writer as both lone wolf and erudite judge of his people and their history as well as their future. this is not to say that neither joyce nor agnon weren't these things, but maybe not to the extent that either one of them imagined. And, again like joyce, this wouldn't matter so much if this role playing and sometimes even holier than thou attitude didn't bleed into the work, but it does, with mixed to mostly good results.

Now, for brass tacks. Despite everything I just typed, i do firmly believe that agnon was, is, and forever shall be a great writer. The best of his stories presented in this collection such as agunot, the sign, on the road, the doctor's divorce, and others, are masterful works. Agnon weaves and interweaves the religious and the secular, the ancient and the modern, as well as the past, the present and the future, into fabulous tales depicting a single people sometimes chained to and sometimes joyful because of, a separateness from the rest of the world and a servitude to a god and a way of life that is at times wonderful and glorious but just as often degrading, antiquated, and simply kindling for the fires of the blast furnaces of not only persecution from the gentile/non-jewish world but as foreboding harbingers for division, judgment, isolation, and spiritual and even at times literal, death from within the jewish community as well.

Agnon never goes for the easy answers in what can only be described as a 'difficult' and 'complicated' history. The holocaust was and is a horrific event and agnon judges the viciousness of the nazis and their compatriots as they deserve to be judged, as inhuman monsters and the absolute most disgusting detritus that this world has produced. But, and this is a huge but, agnon doesn't spare the victims either. He realizes that while the fires were being lit and the jackboots were being fitted, many, too many jews and other future victims sat idly by in ignorance, or worse, denial, relying either on their god or their rituals or really on nothing much at all excepting possibly their own ignorance to save them.

Neither is the state of israel given a clean slate. Agnon gives tacit agreement to the sins of the state, namely that whilst many jews were being marched to their hells on earth constructed by cultured hands and condoning nods, the state was lost in many of the same asinine ritual and cultural wastes of time and energy as their apparent brothers and sisters had before the 'troubles' began. Agnon does of course view israel as a modern miracle but not without more than its fair share of human, and dare i say, divine error. Israel is not the period to the jewish story, the holocaust and jewish conflict with the world and with each other does not and has not gone away since the establishment of the state, it cannot, such a thing is almost beyond impossibility, agnon is aware and doesn't hide this truth.

Overall this is a wonderful but often long winded and exhausting collection of tales. But all hold a magnificent level of depth regarding not only a very specific jewish experience but, when done well, can be easily extrapolated to encompass many factors of the totality of the human experience no matter the culture or the history, but all another set of incidents within the grand and not so grand paradigm of human kind's continuity.

PS 'Pisces' is one of the most boring short stories ever put to the page, this is agnon at his worst and is most of the reason why this collection didn't get five stars from me, read that one with peril and a hell of a lot of patience with very little expectation. show less

A Book That Was Lost delivers many short tales of Jewish devotion - to Torah, to the Land of Israel, to the author's birthplace in Buczacz,
to love, family, and the end of wars.

Shmuel Agnon gradually weaves in the horror and massacres of World War II.

For World War I, many Jewish men fought on the side of Germany.
This adds to the horror of the massacres and extermination in World War II.

S.Y. Agnon seeks to unite divine reason with classical and modern Jewish thinking.
His beliefs are inspired by his devotion to religious tradition.

My favorite of his stories of variable quality and interest was "The Tale of the Menorah,"
while I deep-pearled "Pisces" for animal cruelty.

The Glossary was excellent reading.

The stories are touching and the language is exquisite (I had the privilege to read it in Hebrew).