Tag: Jewish fiction

The Testament by Elie Wiesel

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the testament

The Testament by Elie Wiesel

Jewish fiction

Translated by Marion Wiesel

original title – Le Testament d’un poète juif assassiné

Source review copy

Elie Wiesel is probably one of the best known Jewish names in the world .Born in Romania he grew up in a house speaking Yiddish.His father encouraged him to read and learn Hebrew .He was caught up in the war and end up in one of the Nazis Concentration camps he has the number 7713 , he was lucky to survive and since the war he has taught Hebrew and publish many books on his experience and Novels like this about the War and the Jewish experience in the war ,for his work in highlighting the holocaust he was awarded The Nobel Peace prize in 1986 as the committee said Elie Wiesel was ” A witness for truth and justice ” .This novel was published in 1980.

Grisch , my son

I am interuoting my Testament to write you this letter when you read it , you will be old enough to understand it and me .But will you read it ? Will you receive it ? .I fear not .Like all writing of prisoners it will rot in the secret archives . and yet … something in me tells me that a testament is never lost .Even if nobody reads it ,its content is transmitted

Paltiel writing at the start of the book to his son Grisch

The testament is a book that has an ambitious scope to it as Elie Wiesel has tried to capture in some way the changing face of Europe throughout the 20th century .The person describing this journey is A “mute poet ” Paltiel Kossover  ,he is Jewish and grew up in Russia before Lenin and Stalin took power .Now Paltiel has two things we should know about him the first is he believes in Communism ,this takes him some part to spain to fight in the civil war there .But he also like many writers in Stalin time ends up in Jail for his thoughts .But he is also Jews this brings him into conflict with the Nazis and leads him to go the holy land .This book is a letter or Testament to a son that he will never really know .We see the europe he saw unfold before us .

In my dream

my father

Asked me

if he is still

my father

 

I hold his hand

and I ache

I talk to him

and I ache

the First two verses of one of Paltiel Kosovers poems from the book .

Now any one that has read this blog for a while will know I have a real soft spot (is that the right term a needing to read ,learn and thus impart to others ) books about the war and Holocaust .Elie Wiesel is someone I had read years ago he alongside the likes of Levi is one of the strongest voices about what happened during the Holocaust  .So this novel thou not directly involving The concentration camps skirts the times ,Does show another Jewish life in the Europe off the time  and one that has equally had its ups and Downs the choice of a man who can not speak gives this story a feel have been written by an observer as Paltiel see ,hears but doesn’t speak it all .Elie has managed to capture how it felt to be some during the Russian revolution  fight in the Spanish war .Also the purges and dark times of Russia under Stalin this is one for anyone that like 20th century history .

Have you a favourite book that looks back on 20th century history ?

Oh Sweden ! Oh Israel ! by Stephan Mendel-Enk

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Oh-Sweden-Oh-Israel

Oh Sweden ! Oh Israel ! by Stephan Mendel-Enk

Swedish fiction

Translator – Michael Lundin

Original title – Tre Apor

Source – review copy

Stephan Mendel-Enk ,is a Swedish Journalist and writer ,he is best known in Sweden for his soccer Journalism ,were he writes for the leading Swedish Soccer magazine Offside .He has also published a non fiction book on Violence  and being male  .He has  also worked in Radio  and the leading Newspaper  ,Oh Sweden ,Oh Israel is his début novel .The original Title is three apes I wonder if this is a reference to the three monkeys hear no evil ,see no evil ,speak no evil and how this relates to Jacob the main character in this book .

Next to the sofa in the living room was a piano .The opposite wall was covered by a brown bookcase .There were hundreds of books on the shelves .Colour photo books from when Israel celebrated its twentieth ,twenty fifth ,thirtieth and thiry-five anniversaries .One self with titles such as The Arab -Israeli Conflict and the Arab Israel wars .

The shelf at his Grans house show how drawn they are to Israel .

Well Oh Sweden ,Oh Israel follows ,Jacob a boy  who is on the cusp of manhood and we follow his life in the run up to his Bar Mitzvah  ,this is a classic coming of age novel .But then throw in Jacob is Jewish and his parents are about to split we have another couple of angles to move this above the mundane everyday Coming of age fiction .So Jacob struggles with who he is like most teenagers ,but with the fact he is part of the small Jewish community in Gothenburg  ,to say the  least of this Community ,is quite traditional the elders in it are mainly people who had escaped the Nazi during world war two they tend traditional views ,so his parents spilt has caused sparks as his mother has started to see a Man who isn’t Jewish  .Then we hear of how they should be New York type Jews and this is all 1987 and the first Intifada is happening in Israel so Jacob is stuck in little old Sweden just wanting to be a normal teen with all this going on in the background this leads to may and laugh and revelation .

She was from the soviet Union.I thought Soviet Jews were exciting .They had to suffer forcible incarcerations in mental hospitals ,work camps and police violence ,For one year in Hebrew school we’d had the Jews of the Soviet Union as our theme .Bewfore we broke up for the summer hoildays we stage our interpretation of the Dymshits-Kuznetovs hijacking affair in the meeting hall .

Jacob like the Girl Zaddinsky ,she came from Russia to Sweden ?

Well this has a huge vein of Jewish humour through it ,I was remind I not got to this last week when I watched the Woody Allen Documentary on TV ,Allen’s great line on growing up was this “what did you want to be when young ? Old !”,that same irony and at time self loathing and worry is rich in Mendel-Enk words  that conjure up the small community with in the large city and also the troubled family  ,tales of a mess up Circumcision ,leads to woe to his forthcoming Bar Mitzvah celebration .The nearest English writer to him is early Jacobson one can see echoes of the Gothenburg of Jacob and the Manchester evoked in some Jacobson novels.What we have is more than a coming of age novel but also a culture clash novel he is caught between being Swedish and being Jewish ,torn between his parents also caught to whom he is as a person   .The book is short only 140 pages  and packs a good punch for such a short book .

Have you a favourite book by a Jewish writer ?