The first novel by an Israeli author I read in my life was "Murder on the Kibbutz" by Batya Gur. I read it in English, in an edition of Siruela happened to me Venezuelan writer Rubi Guerra, who in turn had received it from another great writer, José Balza. With all these illustrious and literary turn, I figured it was a great book, so I put in the trunk - despite its 429 pages and binding, and continued heavy course Israel. Did not read it right away. It was there, the book, waiting their turn. I started reading when I had some time living in the kibbutz in southern Israel. The novel, incidentally, takes place in a kibbutz south of that, so many times I felt in the very center of things, but without the murder, of course, heaven forbid!
I began to understand Israel from the hand of Batya Gur, through this book, the only one I read it. I also understood the kibbutz. But understand Israel from the hand of this writer may not be a fact even less Zionist teaching. Gur pen revels in the breaks of these alleged perfect societies closed, are idealized as kibbutzim, but also universities, classical orchestras, the world of television or psychoanalytical study circles. Rebellious and carefree, Gur dared to expose the society around her, showed inequalities and petty quarrels.
The alter ego of this writer is the protagonist of 5 of his novels, detective Michael Ojaion (sounds like I wrote it in Hebrew, although the English translations often write Michael Ohayon) Yes, Mrs. Gur was devoted to detective genre with such zeal that today is considered must for all lovers of this type of literature. Has been called the Israeli Agatha Christie. I would compare it with Patricia Hightsmith for his keen eye into the depths of the soul, the darkness of the collective unpresentable facets of society, and also for his narration agile, refined, perverse.
As Flaubert said, "I am Madame Bovary" just as Batya Gur said the four winds: "I am Michael Ojaion." Who said women can not enter the male psychology as truly as men in the female? Yes, it is an art. Ojaion Bovary and are as samples. This detective is the opposite of its creator: Jew of Sephardic origin, born in Morocco, while Gur was born in Tel-Aviv (in 1947), daughter of Holocaust survivors and parents of Ashkenazi origin. A graduate in history and literature, abandoning his career ends Ojaion to act as police detective. Gur, meanwhile, he also studied history and literature, but she taught school until she was devoted to writing, at age 39. In all his biographies suggest that Batya Gur published his first novel at a later age. I do not seem so late (and never too late when that comes, say ...) Since then did not stop writing until his early death at age 57. A brief life as a writer, just 18 years. But Batya Gur was also a literary critic and mother of the newspaper Ha'aretz.
The original title of "Murder on the kibbutz" is "Leina meshutefet" I venture to translate it as "Shared Hosting" and refers to the ancient custom of the kibbutzim of putting children to sleep together in "Homes for Children ", by one or two caregivers and not their parents. In the adventure recounted in this novel, the detective Ojaion enters the closed society par excellence is the kibbutz investigation into the death of one of its members. The crime has to do with the practice of separating children from their parents, but not tell you more. In some period at the end of the story, one character complains to her mother the fact it has been left abandoned in one of those houses, "How could you have the nerve to decide that the family unit was harmful to society ..." Then concludes: "I want to be me who my children syrup evening, those still in need. I hear them when they cough, in the next room, and when I have nightmares come to my bed and going to a phone system, or have to leave in the dark of night to find our room, tripping over stones thinking that every shadow is a monster ... "There's the germ of death investigation Ojaion, but also reflects his own personal drama, divorced with a son who sees less and less. And loser, like any good detective worthy of the name.
When I learned the true title of this novel, the story took another turn for me. Gur wrote a terrible review this procedure harmful - in my view - to separate parents and children towards work and productivity that until 20 years ago is still being practiced in some kibbutzim denied the change. Have submitted the story as a thriller, from the perspective of this man, let him the distance needed to not make this novel a tear gas canister and poke detective with magnifying glass the miseries of the systems that try to annul the individual. Lately there have been many reviews and reviews of the topic, as well as testimonies of children who grew up under this scheme. A documentary has much to talk about is "Ialdei hashemesh" (Children of the sun) Ram It premiered in 2007. But that is another matter.
The truth is that one book was enough to make me a fan of Batya Gur and one day I told myself that look. Surely she gave lectures, courses, present books. But before you find it, I had to fine-tune my Hebrew and that the only thing I could think of was to read some of his novels in their original language. How Michael Ojaion speak in the language of the Bible? - I wondered. In the library of the kibbutz where I live were all his books. I took one, the thinnest, there was no need to exaggerate, I knew I read this Semitic language would be hard work. That night
fresh
May 2005, I returned from the library, put the book on the kitchen table, turned on the TV to watch the news. At that same moment, the news anchor announced his death.
I began to understand Israel from the hand of Batya Gur, through this book, the only one I read it. I also understood the kibbutz. But understand Israel from the hand of this writer may not be a fact even less Zionist teaching. Gur pen revels in the breaks of these alleged perfect societies closed, are idealized as kibbutzim, but also universities, classical orchestras, the world of television or psychoanalytical study circles. Rebellious and carefree, Gur dared to expose the society around her, showed inequalities and petty quarrels.
The alter ego of this writer is the protagonist of 5 of his novels, detective Michael Ojaion (sounds like I wrote it in Hebrew, although the English translations often write Michael Ohayon) Yes, Mrs. Gur was devoted to detective genre with such zeal that today is considered must for all lovers of this type of literature. Has been called the Israeli Agatha Christie. I would compare it with Patricia Hightsmith for his keen eye into the depths of the soul, the darkness of the collective unpresentable facets of society, and also for his narration agile, refined, perverse.
As Flaubert said, "I am Madame Bovary" just as Batya Gur said the four winds: "I am Michael Ojaion." Who said women can not enter the male psychology as truly as men in the female? Yes, it is an art. Ojaion Bovary and are as samples. This detective is the opposite of its creator: Jew of Sephardic origin, born in Morocco, while Gur was born in Tel-Aviv (in 1947), daughter of Holocaust survivors and parents of Ashkenazi origin. A graduate in history and literature, abandoning his career ends Ojaion to act as police detective. Gur, meanwhile, he also studied history and literature, but she taught school until she was devoted to writing, at age 39. In all his biographies suggest that Batya Gur published his first novel at a later age. I do not seem so late (and never too late when that comes, say ...) Since then did not stop writing until his early death at age 57. A brief life as a writer, just 18 years. But Batya Gur was also a literary critic and mother of the newspaper Ha'aretz.
The original title of "Murder on the kibbutz" is "Leina meshutefet" I venture to translate it as "Shared Hosting" and refers to the ancient custom of the kibbutzim of putting children to sleep together in "Homes for Children ", by one or two caregivers and not their parents. In the adventure recounted in this novel, the detective Ojaion enters the closed society par excellence is the kibbutz investigation into the death of one of its members. The crime has to do with the practice of separating children from their parents, but not tell you more. In some period at the end of the story, one character complains to her mother the fact it has been left abandoned in one of those houses, "How could you have the nerve to decide that the family unit was harmful to society ..." Then concludes: "I want to be me who my children syrup evening, those still in need. I hear them when they cough, in the next room, and when I have nightmares come to my bed and going to a phone system, or have to leave in the dark of night to find our room, tripping over stones thinking that every shadow is a monster ... "There's the germ of death investigation Ojaion, but also reflects his own personal drama, divorced with a son who sees less and less. And loser, like any good detective worthy of the name.
When I learned the true title of this novel, the story took another turn for me. Gur wrote a terrible review this procedure harmful - in my view - to separate parents and children towards work and productivity that until 20 years ago is still being practiced in some kibbutzim denied the change. Have submitted the story as a thriller, from the perspective of this man, let him the distance needed to not make this novel a tear gas canister and poke detective with magnifying glass the miseries of the systems that try to annul the individual. Lately there have been many reviews and reviews of the topic, as well as testimonies of children who grew up under this scheme. A documentary has much to talk about is "Ialdei hashemesh" (Children of the sun) Ram It premiered in 2007. But that is another matter.
The truth is that one book was enough to make me a fan of Batya Gur and one day I told myself that look. Surely she gave lectures, courses, present books. But before you find it, I had to fine-tune my Hebrew and that the only thing I could think of was to read some of his novels in their original language. How Michael Ojaion speak in the language of the Bible? - I wondered. In the library of the kibbutz where I live were all his books. I took one, the thinnest, there was no need to exaggerate, I knew I read this Semitic language would be hard work. That night
fresh
May 2005, I returned from the library, put the book on the kitchen table, turned on the TV to watch the news. At that same moment, the news anchor announced his death.
( This article was published in the weekly Nuevo Mundo Israelita de Caracas )
