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"Joshua Kenz described life in an innovative and realistic way": Farewell to a great narrator

Many paid tribute to the writer Joshua Kenz after his death today.

His brother to Walla!

Culture: "I was very inspired by him. There was human love in him, he was for equality and against racism."

father.

Joshua: "Amos Oz and I did not understand his refusal to receive the Israel Prize"

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• Joshua Kenz

Sagi Ben Nun

Monday, 12 October 2020, 14:50

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"A great writer of the little details."

Joshua Kenz (Photo: Imagebank GettyImages)

Great sorrow befell Israel in general and the world of culture in particular with the death of Joshua Kenez, one of the greatest Hebrew writers, who also served as editor and translator, including the country's literary supplement in the past.

Kenz died tonight at the age of 83 from corona disease.

The funeral will take place today (Monday) at the Yarkon Cemetery at 6:30 p.m.

Hilik Glass, Kenz's younger brother, paid tribute to him in a conversation with Walla!

Culture: "He was an amazing person, everyone knows that. I got a lot of inspiration from him. He has always been a Dag Dagan brother, like Mother Poland. Every Thursday night he told me 'we'll talk tomorrow and become a Kalvat Shabbat', he said the word 'Kalvat .

President Reuven (Ruby) Rivlin paid tribute to a Twitter writer: "Joshua Kenez has left us and this is such a difficult parting of Israeli culture. A wonderful translator, wise editor and great writer of the small details, of simple humanity. 'It is true that this business of human beings is too difficult "I need silence," he once said. "Rest in peace and quiet, Mr. Kenz.

Minister of Culture Hili Troper praised him: "I deeply regretted the news of the death of the author Joshua Kenz as a result of the Corona virus. Kenz contributed greatly to the world of literature, including the masterpiece 'Stealth Individuals' he wrote and through his translation and editing work. . Of blessed memory".

More on Walla!

NEWS

Joshua Kenez, one of the greatest Hebrew writers, died of coronation at the age of 83

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Love man.

Joshua Kenez (Photo: Moti Kikion)

father.

Joshua paid tribute to him in a conversation with Walla!

Culture: "Joshua, who was born three months apart from me, was a beloved man, a beloved friend. He was lonely, single, kept in touch with women. And yet he was a bad man. When you approached him you got an immediate answer. He was a super complex. At first He seemed to be a writer of childhood stories and the stories of the colony, but slowly the important novel "Stealth Individuals" emerged, which divided Israeli society in its formative years, the years of great aliyah, and dealt with Israeli society, Mizrahis and non-Mizrahis, kibbutzniks and all this mixture. Through the novice base. "

"Then there was the marvelous novel 'On the Way to the Cats,' where through his mother's Alzheimer's, which he inherited from her, he knew these institutions of the elderly and those in need of relief. He was a meticulous translator and did brilliant work in translating 19th-century French literature. Which was very complex. To translate it into all its shades required immense knowledge and caution. He was associated with the great classics of French literature. Once in a while he sat in Paris, stockpiled himself for writing and devoured France. He was also an editor, and sometimes corrected me in Hebrew, was He has a very true and nice accuracy in the Hebrew language. "

"Besides, he was a leftist, although he did not express himself politically. He was a loyal soldier in leftist companies. He was a humble man, he did not want to receive the Israel Prize, out of modesty, fear of communication and exposure, not out of opposition to Israel. His Israeli identity was essential. "As much as Amos Oz and I tried to convince him to accept the prize offered to him, he refused. And it was an act that even we did not understand. He is one of the cornerstones of the state generation. I am a little jealous of him that he finished his shift."

"Segmented Israeli society in its formative years."

From the movie "Stealth Individuals" (Photo: Transfax)

Writer and journalist Benny Zipper, Kenz's friend, paid tribute to him in a conversation with Walla!

Culture: "Joshua belonged to the generation of AB Joshua and Amos Oz, he studied with them and was a friend of theirs, and was supposed to be influenced by them, but he was a strange chicken in the bunch of writers of the sixties. He evolved in a completely different direction. His whole gaze He had an external view of literature and life in Israel. He translated much of French literature, and he looked at the whole of Israeli life like a snob on the outside. He was not politically involved like Amos Oz and AB Yehoshua, it did not interest him. You will not find in any of his books even "One mention of the Holocaust, while the whole world is dealing with the Holocaust. He hated all the Israeli collective narratives and was completely individualistic. This is evident in his writing which was completely different from his friends. That is why it is so innovative."

"Kenz just wrote about the people as they are, without all that symbolism that other writers had," Zipper adds, "in his books you don't feel his characters represent anything. He describes life as it is, in the most realistic and cruel way. In the book 'On the Way to the Cats' "He describes the life of an old woman who falls, breaks her leg and moves to a geriatric institution. He describes life as it is, and it is a virtue that is almost unparalleled in Hebrew literature, writing without the sticky kitsch of other writers. In addition, he was unique in his style. He wrote. "Relative to other writers. What was important to him was the level of the individual sentence, that every sentence and sentence be precise and polished. He weighed every word. That was his greatness."

"Half of my life I lived with him," says Zipper, "he introduced me to the world of literature and editing. We worked together on writing and editing in Haaretz, he brought me out with an employee. He was my great source of inspiration. However, how close we were and good friends I am not. "I know nothing about him. I feel like I did not know him at all because he was a very closed person. A lot of secrets went with him to the grave."

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