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Khirbet Khizeh (1949)

by S. Yizhar(Favorite Author)

4.03 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

9659012594 (ISBN13: 9789659012596)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Ibis Press

review 1: An interesting stream of consciousness narrative of an Israeli soldier in the 47-48 expelling Palestinians from their village (the title). While he has strong pangs of guilt, he is powerless in the face of his superiors who "have a job to do". In the end, he wonders how God would judge all their actions. Another one read for TAS class, so will be interested in hearing what the others have to say about this one.
review 2: What can I say? First of all, I absolutely loved the beautiful writing of the book and much preferred it over the frivolities of Amos Oz (my only point of reference so far). Second of all, my expectations were high. The hype was high. The braveness of writing it in 1949, the controversy, the "self-reflective classic" status, yappa da, yappa ... moredo, yappa di... In some respects, I wasn't disappointed: the writing conveys the spirit of the troops and the disillusionment of any war effort in a way that really pulls you into the story and makes you, if you'll permit the silliness of the hyperbole, smell the sand in the heat of the sun. Ultimately, though, in describing the destruction of a village and emptying it of its residents - admittedly something Israelis have never enjoyed admitting to doing in any great proportion - the writer treats the gruesomeness of the events with silken gloves, perhaps apart from the description of the soldiers' actions before actually entering the village. The issue of rape, for example, is alluded to with an oblique sentence or two (probably a sign of the writers' times) - so that nobody comes out looking too bad. This I would still be willing to accept and enjoy, as this was written in 1948-1989 and no later, if the critique of the events were done in a rather more literary way. The internal monologue about rights and wrongs and wanting to do something otherwise is a hammer where I would prefer a screwdriver. And as for the themes - the problem of exiles exiling others for apparent lack of options, the theoretical possibility of afflicting as little damage as possible - with such thorny issues under the microscope, maybe the book could have done with a bit more pages, and a bit more story. As it is though, it feels like a political pamphlet more than a piece of literary fiction. But a very beautifully written one at that. less

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