AMOS OZ

A succinct introduction to the acclaimed Israeli writer.

Alter, a scholar of Hebrew and comparative literature offers an insightful, empathetic biography of writer and political activist Amos Oz (1939-2018), author of a dozen novels, several volumes of short fiction, three books for younger readers, and many works of nonfiction. Born in Jerusalem, the young Amos Klausner witnessed much violence after the U.N. decision to partition Israel and Palestine in 1947. His childhood was blighted by his mother’s descent into mental illness, culminating in her suicide when he was 12. The emotional wounds from that trauma, Alter asserts, “festered all his life.” For two years after his mother’s death, he lived with his increasingly morose father, but that relationship became so untenable that Amos separated from him at the age of 14. Rejecting his family’s right-wing Zionism, he joined a kibbutz. Although as a young boy he was not robust or athletic, by adolescence, he had become “extraordinarily good-looking” and “intellectually brilliant”—though not as muscular as he wished. Along with many other kibbutzniks who took a Hebraic surname, he changed the European Klausner to Oz, meaning strength in Hebrew. Alter offers sensitive readings of Oz’s fiction, which is deeply rooted in Israeli culture, society, and clashing ideologies. Oz was a staunch proponent of the two-state solution to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even after he and his family moved from their kibbutz to a home in the desert, Oz evinced “unflagging loyalty” to the kibbutz ideal. Alter’s friendship with Oz began in 1970 when he came to San Francisco on a book tour: A natural performer, Oz seemed buoyed by his audience’s attention. Many of his lectures argued for “the existential necessity for pluralism in Israel’s national life.” Alter deals judiciously with Oz’s negative critics, gossip, and his estrangement from one of his daughters.

A nuanced portrait of a complex man.