April 3, 2009
Aharon Appelfeld in N.Y. Times
Aharon Appelfeld's new novel, “Laish,” was reviewed last week in the New York Times by novelist Barry Unsworth. He apparently like the book, calling it “strikingly original,” and comparing it to some of the early work of Ernest Hemingway.
Here's the takeaway:
Appelfeld’s novel is a testament to human resilience, to the capacity of survival. But it is as much about release from the past as about endurance in the present or arrival in the future. And there is a certain sense in which this company of pilgrims doesn’t survive at all. To seek redress for wrongs by inflicting further wrongs is a doomed enterprise, as we have learned from the times we live in. When the remnants of the company reach the port, before they can embark for Jerusalem a deliberate and collective act of outrage on one of their number, old and blind and helpless, has to take place. It is the first time this has happened — before this, acts of violence have always been individual, thefts marked by stealth. So it is not the joy of departure or the excitement of anticipated arrival that we are left with in this remarkable novel but a face exhausted by weeping, an image of sorrow and violation.
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