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LITERATURE AND WAR

Name: LITERATURE AND WAR
Author: Runo Isaksen
ISBN: 978-1-56656-730-5

CONVERSATIONS WITH ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN WRITERS

edited by Runo Isaksen and translated by Kari Dickson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2009

Can literature make peace? Judging by this book of interviews and profiles, it’s not likely, at least not in that region.

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Can writers put an end to war, or at least lessen ethnic and international strife?

Perhaps, answers Norwegian novelist and journalist Isaksen, adding, “Should this even be their task?” Following the lead of South African novelist André Brink, who averred that his fellow South African writers contributed to the collapse of the apartheid system merely by reading each other’s works, Isaksen takes the question to 15 Palestinian and Israeli writers. Depressingly, many of them answer to the effect that if it weren’t for the other guys then there would be no problem, as when novelist and Palestinian Minister of Culture Yahya Yakhlif declares, “The Israelis are our enemy!...But we don’t write about the Israelis as animals, in the way that the Israelis write about others.” Some of young writer Ghassan Zaqtan’s best friends are Jews, and he takes pains to acknowledge “the depth of Jewish culture,” adding, “but Israeli culture is completely different.” Poet Zakariyya Muhammad takes a broader view, remarking that fundamentalists cannot be good writers, at least about modern society—but again there are finger-pointing qualifications, as when he remarks, “I firmly believe that this insane version of Islam that we’re experiencing now is a product of the US and its allies.” On the Israeli side, many writers are battling among themselves, with Dorit Rabinyan protesting that she is not perceived as a real Israeli because she is a Mizrahi, “an Israeli of Iranian descent” whose Iranian component is an essential part of her self-identity. Yoram Kaniuk, an elderly novelist, is pessimistic about Israel’s chances against Islam, and unhappy that Israeli society is so oppressed by fundamentalists too. “We started out as a nation, then we were a religion, and now we’re a nation again,” he says. “And we still haven’t managed to resolve the relationship between the religious and the secular.” Other contributors include Etgar Keret, David Grossman, Amos Oz and Meir Shalev.

Can literature make peace? Judging by this book of interviews and profiles, it’s not likely, at least not in that region.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-1-56656-730-5

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Olive Branch/Interlink

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2008

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.