The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

"The Volunteer": Running Barefoot in the Fields | Israel today

2021-11-23T17:58:20.726Z


While evading stereotypes of the collective being, Netali Gvirt weaves a witty and sober novel, in which the pastoral background well hides horrible past deeds - and does not take a nostalgic approach


"When you can't find something, before you give up, it remains to try to discover it from the negative space created by its absence. The absence belongs to us, not to who it was and is not," writes Netali Gvirtz, author of the book "The Volunteer."

Out of the absence of her and her mother's lives, Mira Aberg embarks on a journey full of confrontations and confrontations.

Before she dies, in Sweden, her mother Vera tells her about events that took place about 40 years ago, and sends her to a kibbutz where she volunteered in her youth to perform an unconventional task: to find an answer to a question that had accompanied Vera for many years.

Throughout the plot, the essence of the same mission becomes clear in all its details, and they are disturbing at rest.

The pastoral background of the kibbutz's landscapes soon becomes clear, both to Mira and to us readers, as a deceptive backdrop to painful occurrences and horrific acts, over which silence and silence hover.


Most members of the kibbutz accept Mira with suspicion, wonder about a jar and even have difficulty at first recognizing her mother, Vera, from the many memories of tall and fair-haired volunteers who came to the kibbutz in their youth and made the heads of the men dizzy.

When they recall Vera, some of Mira's questions are very uncomfortable, and they become hostile to her.

Along with the great weight of the task assigned to her and the charged encounters in part with the locals, Mira also has to deal with her feelings towards one of the kibbutz members, with another love story, tangled and complex, and with unexpected events that befall her.

The vision of the volunteers in the kibbutz as one piece is also conveyed in the name of the book, which does not give a face and name to one specific woman, even though it deals with Vera and Mira.

The detachment of the volunteers from the kibbutz landscape is cleverly emphasized in the design of the cover, which shows an orchard with a sticker with the name of the book, like the one affixed to oranges, and it peels, sticks but not completely, since it does not really belong there.

Gvirtz jumps with admirable success over some literary hurdles that are not easy to cross.

First, it manages to evade as much as possible the stereotyping of the kibbutz and the kibbutzniks - a difficult task in Israeli culture, which often deals with the subject in literature, film and television.

As such, it is to be assumed that most readers come to the "volunteer" after having been exposed to a long line of representations and images of the kibbutz.

Therefore, Gvirtz had to lead the readers for the kibbutz society, and allow the characters to represent specific people, the society, the mood and the period, without falling into clichés and repeating familiar stereotypes.

Second, the book is witty and sharp, and it is evident that every word in it is carefully chosen, but the wit does not come at the expense of emotion, meaning and a well-developed plot - as sometimes happens in literature.

Similarly, the images, metaphors, and relish of language do not burden or overshadow the content.

For example: "Once the phones were tied to places, like guard dogs, and today they are tied to humans, like pet dogs," or "If you thought you stepped on a snake and jumped, maybe you screamed, then you discovered that this snake is not a snake at all, but an old and torn rope - you "You will not be able to panic again. The torn rope will never be a torn rope, and will not become a snake again."

The metaphors are many meanings and layers, some of which become clear later in the reading.

The author could easily have placed the objectification of the volunteers and the attitude of the men in the kibbutz towards them in the past, in Israel a few decades ago, and unfolded the story so that it would critique a chapter in Israeli society that no longer exists.

She was able to make do with turning the spotlight on something that was and is no longer there, and so we can only illuminate it in another way, present a narrative that contrasts with the nostalgic and indulgent one, which romantically paints the volunteers' stays in kibbutzim, especially in the 60s and 70s. Between them and the members of the kibbutz.

But it does not do so, but shows how perceptions from the past exist to some extent even today.

It would have been convenient for us as readers if a message of "how much the company has changed since then, how much better we are today" was conveyed between the lines, but Gvirtz does not choose the easy way to digest, which is evident in the choices she makes throughout the plot.

The reading is accompanied by whether the criticism presented in the book is towards kibbutzim in particular, or towards Israeli society in general.

The fabric of life in the kibbutz in the period described is very different from that of other types of localities, and the book has many references to this: the joint growth of boys and girls together, the cohesion shown, at least outwardly, suspicion of one who is not part of the kibbutz community and his view as "other". That in the book might have happened, in one way or another, in other forms of settlement as well.

Although the critical tone in "The Volunteer" is obvious, it seems to be mixed with love for the beautiful aspects of the kibbutz lifestyle and the place itself.

There is a considerable tension between the desire to present dark sides in the story of Vera and Mira and the need to show the good in the kibbutz.

In this complexity, such a story can arise and grow, which challenges us as readers to approach it with the variety of representations of the kibbutz we already have in mind, and open up to one more story, which is among the most interesting and important that has been published recently.

Netali Gvirtz / The Volunteer, Keter Publishing.

304 pages

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2021-11-23

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.