Fire I recently read a friend of Abraham Yehoshua. In an intersecting of voices and characters in the book is about eight days in the life of a family in Tel Aviv. Not every day, but the eight-day festival of Hanukkah, the festival of lights, where every day is a candle lit at sunset. After thirty years of conjugal union, and Daniela Amotz separate. Daniela lost her sister and goes to Africa to visit his brother in law Yirmiyahu in an attempt to revive him with grief that it seemed that the hitherto muffled by distance. But the brother is no longer the man she knew about his life weighs another death unacceptable. That of his son Eyal was killed by "friendly fire" by his fellow soldiers during an ambush in a Palestinian village. The absurdity of this death results in an inexplicable Yirmiyahu total rejection of Israel and "Israelis".
"In Africa - the sister says - there is a memory that looms over the present and crushes it, no one pressed to decide who is jew, or perhaps Canaanite Israel, if Israel is a state more democratic or more Jewish, if he has any hope of surviving, or if it is come to an end. " In Africa, life is just, and he wants to live the life that remains.
Yirmiyahu not only wants to get rid of his past, but move away from history, language and identity in Israel.
For the man in Africa is primarily a vacuum: no synagogue, no traces or memories of the past. "Here there are ancient tombs, no floors of synagogues in ruins, there are museums with the remains of a burnt parochet no evidence of pogroms or the Holocaust is not diaspora or dispersal, there are reminiscences of a ' golden age, nor has there been a community ebraica che abbia contribuito ad arricchire la cultura mondiale” . Prima, però, di decidere di allontanarsi dal suo paese e dalla sua gente, vuole conoscere l'esatta dinamica dell'uccisione di Eyal. E nelle sue indagini gli capiterà di parlare con una ragazza palestinese che gli chiederà:
«Che è venuto a fare ancora qui? Cosa cerca un uomo, di notte, da chi lo odia? Perché importuna e spaventa mio padre? Che mostri pietà per suo figlio? Perché dovrei mostrare pietà per un soldato che si introduce a forza in un luogo che non gli appartiene, che non gliene importa niente di noi, chi siamo e cosa siamo, occupa il tetto di una famiglia per tendere un agguato a uno di noi e pensa che se ci farà un favore, se lascerà un secchio pulito e cancellerà i segni della sua paura, noi gli perdoneremo l´offesa, l´umiliazione?»
A quell'ostinato padre, distrutto dal dolore, non concede indulgenza, e racconta dell'esasperazione degli arabi, della loro rabbia per il rifiuto degli ebrei di integrarsi con loro. «Che cosa ci rimane da fare? - gli chiede - Odiarvi, e pregare che arrivi il momento che ve ne andiate. Questa non sarà mai la vostra patria se non saprete mescolarvi a tutto ciò che vi si trova» . Quelle parole toccano Yirmiyahu, non lo convincono ma lo fanno riflettere, non le liquida come the ravings of a future suicide bomber.
Those words pose the question that Israel faces every day, how to live without that its existence is simply the result of a power struggle.
"I feel - the writer says - that this sense of nausea Yirmiyahu, I started to analyze because of its character, is growing a lot in Israel. People are tired, do not watch the news more. The fate of the Jewish Holocaust, the wars in Israel, the Gaza Strip ...: the burden is too great. We are a people to whom history has never allowed a period of peace, never have lived in harmony with the world. People are beginning to believe that this will never end '"
And it is the fatigue test himself, he feels the desire sometimes too, to get rid of a story so complex and so difficult: the desire to be a man like any others, in a country where people can live in peace.
Yehoshua is often said that his greatest strength is the family. In particular, the mystery of conjugal love, with its obsessions and its failure - but also with the secret of his tenacity. The marriage of Daniel and Yaari lasted thirty years, but when she leaves for Africa to visit the widower of her sister, everything seems to jump. Even the certainties apparently common ground. The secret to why a marriage lasts, the writer says "is to preserve the condition of equality. In the years that one spouse tends to become stronger, and the other to assign to this superiority. Nothing is more dangerous: the two should continue to operate every man for himself, with respect for others. That marriage is a delicate balance, equality is a condition. And never take anything for granted, even after 40 years together, bursts boredom in marriage if your partner becomes so predictable that Guess what you will, say. The sharing of a cultural world can build a territory agreement that resists time. Having new projects together, such as the renovation of a bathroom, preventing the fall in repetition. Marriage is a musical duo (the subtitle of friendly fire): each spouse sings his part. "
literature helps you look into the problems with all your facets and nuances. Yehoshua, Oz, Grossman is a friend and longtime advocate for a peaceful solution to the Middle East, for the recognition of two states.
For Yehoshua is important that literature pays attention to moral issues because " have the tools to provide new perspectives on morality (...) You could say that every racconto e' un viaggio che agisce sul protagonista rendendolo diverso dal punto di partenza, un viaggio che rende diverso anche il lettore, mostrandogli possibilita' che non aveva mai preso in considerazione prima "
"Ma la cosa più importante per me e' suscitare curiosità morali. le opere letterarie possano servire come laboratorio di dilemmi morali. La nostra esperienza di vita e' comunque limitata e la letteratura ci consente di fare degli esperimenti morali contribuendo così all'affinarsi della nostra sensibilità morale” . E di sensibilità morale oggi abbiamo tutti bisogno.
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