Encounters with Aharon Appelfeld

ESSAY ^n^^^^^^^^^^H ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H Appelfeld is oneofIsrael'smost revered andprolific authors (morethan forty books of shortstories, novellas, novels,and essays),enjoying an international as wellas a national reputation. Hisfans include not onlysophisticated adultreaders butIsraeli young peopleas well.Between May2009anc^ June 201°/ I methimfourtimes - twicein Israeland twice inFrance - and readorreread nearly a dozenof his booksin English, French, or in theoriginal Hebrew.Duringmysecondinterview withhim at his home in Mevasseret Zion, a suburbof Jerusalem perchedhighin thewooded heights oftheJudean Hills,I couldnothelpbutthink of themountainous forests ofCentral Europethat areprominent settings inmanyofhisworks. The questionalso occurred to me: Is 2009-2010 the yearofAharon Appelfeld? I hadcometodiscuss newEnglish andFrench translations oftwofairly recent Hebrewnovels,Etlafureur nes'estpasencore tue (2010; Heb. Veha-ZaKam Kodlo Nadam,2008) and Blooms ofDarkness (2010;Heb. Pirchei ha-Afela, 2006).While hegently answered allmyquestions aboutthetwobooks, hemodestly never revealed tomethen that hewasjustpublishing a newbook in Hebrew, Ha-lshshe-loPasak Lishon(2010; The manwhoneverstopped sleeping). I onlylearned ofthis when, lessthan a weeklater, alloftheliterarysupplements intheIsraeli newspapers carried lengthy andhighly laudatory reviews. Oneofthe reviewers humorously dubbed Appelfeld"the manwhonever stopped writing." Was this the year of AharonAppelfeld? My sensethatthismight be thecase has been reinforced by othermilestones ofthepastyear, markedby the appearanceof Aloma Halter's highlyacclaimedEnglishtranslation of Laish (2009) and ValérieZenatti'sFrenchrendering of PircheiHa-afela(La chambre de Mariana,2009), which wasawardedtheLucioles Prize. Atnotime sincethepublication and successofAppelfeld's riveting autobiography, Sippur Hayyim (1999; Eng. TheStory ofa Life, 2004),whichwas translated intonumerous languages andsparked a seriesof translations ofhisearlier works, had theveteran writer beenmoreprominent on thenational and international literary scene. Appelfeld drawshisstories andhisnumerous characters from hismany experiences asa survivor oftheShoah. Hewasborn in1932 into anassimilatedJewish family inCzernowitz (Bukovina), Romania ,now in Ukraine. His parents spokeGerman bychoiceinstead oftheYiddish ofhistraditional grandparents. His belovedmother was killedin 1940, whenhewasonly eight, andhewasfirst sent totheghetto withhisfather, thendeported to a concentration campand separated from him.He managed toescapeandlivedfor three years inthe forests ofPolandandUkraine, occasionally finding work andshelter with peasants, andevenfor a few months witha prostitute. (Hugo,theeleven-yearoldprotagonist inPirchei ha-Afela, is givenrefuge inthehomeoftheprostitute Marianna.) In1944 he joinedtheSovietarmy as a cookuntil theendof thewarin1945. After a fewmonths ofwandering inCentral Europewithother refugees, hearrived inItaly, andfrom there waseventually taken ona boattoMandatory Palestine. As Appelfeldconfidesin his autobiography , A Story ofa Life, he suffered from alienation 201WorldLiterature Today whileworking on thekibbutz and laterin the army becausespeaking anylanguageother than Hebrewwas proniDitea. tus tourspoKenlanguages ,whichhad helpedhimsurviveduring theHolocaust, did nothelphimintegrate in the Zionist Youth Movement orthearmy. He became almost mute, confiding onlyinhisdiary, inbrokensentences madeup ofa jumbleofwordsin different languages. InNurit Aviv'sdocumentary filmMi-Safale-Safa(2004; Eng. FromLanguageto Language, 2004)onIsraeli writers, actors, andsingerswhohaveadoptedHebrewas their language, Appelfeld recounts thedifficulties heencountered in mastering his adoptedtongue,in capturing le mot juste.Addingto his confusion, survivors wereenjoined to forget their lifein Europeand thetraumatic experience oftheShoah,tobecome oneofthenew,strong, bucolicJews idealizedat thetime. Until heentered theHebrewUniversity inJerusalem tostudy Hebrew andYiddish, hefelt "hewas neither from herenorthere." Gradually, with thehelpofhismentors, hefound hisidentity somewhere in between theancient and modern Jewish texts in thosetwolanguages. He triedto write abouthisnewlandbutstillfeltdistanced from theclimate, geography, ortheIsraeli"hero" ideology ofthetime.The discovery thata few famous Israeli writers wrote bothinHebrewand Yiddish, that language deemed obsolete andreminiscent ofthe"weak"Jews oftheDiaspora,and theadvicebyShmuelAgnonhimself that"with hisexperience, hehadmateriel for three writers," encouraged himtowrite aboutwhatheknew best. He first started writing poems,thenshort stories, thennovelsin whichtheHolocaustwas neverdirectly addressed butalwayshinted at.In marked contrast toPrimo Levi,whowrote about hisownpersonal experience inAuschwitz, Appelfeldprefers allegories and parablesto theexact depiction oftime, place,andhistorical facts, and setsalmost allofhisstories inthepre-orpostwar periods, reconstructing thepastoftheEuropean Jewsfrom memories ofhisown family. I asked himwhyhechosenottogivedetailsoftimeand placein mostofhisbooks,towhichhe replied: "As a boyofeight, whenwardestroyed myformerlifeand thatofmyrelatives, myexperience was notembeddedin factsbutin feelings and emotions. In theforests by myself, I was likea frightened animalsensingdangereverywhere whatwasessential wassurvival." Thisanswerprompted a question abouthis propensity fordepicting natureas a reflection ofthefearsand anxieties ofhis characters. The shadowsoftreesand thedifferent lightscould serveas omensofgood and evil,and yetas in Badenheim 1939 (1978;Eng. Badenheim 1939,1980), thecharacters wholikehisownparents arehighly assimilated German-speaking Jews neverseemto decipher thewarnings abouttheircomingfate, someofthem evendeluding themselves tothelast moment. To that, Appelfeld replied, "Itishuman natureto deludeoneself. Thisis an observation aboutpeople, nota judgment." While most ofAppelfeld's characters arefrom theassimilated German cultural milieu, and the settings arefrom justbefore orafter WorldWar H,thepeopleinLaish arepoorEastern European Jews making a long,slowpilgrimage totheHoly Land at theend ofthenineteenth century. The eponymous heroand narrator, however, is an orphan offourteen whohasbeenentrusted

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