Jews and Words, a Duet

Abstract

Jews and words, by the novelist Amos Oz and his daughter, historian Fania Oz-Salzberger, presents features that call attention to: a) Although the writer is the most prolific author in Hebrew, this book was written in English; b) Apart from a large fictional work, Amos has already published five books of essays, dealing with the Palestinian question, the difficulties of relations between Jews and Arabs, obstacles to peacemaking, problems between different groups of Jews in Israel; this book, which the authors refer to as an “essay,” is perhaps best referred to as a work of dissemination; c) If Amos had already published about thirty books, Fania had only two copyrighted works; d) Finally, the experience of co-authorship has provided them with a complex relationship, in which can be found “some residues of a dialogue” but also “intergenerational conflict, differing gender perspectives, or the subtle skirmishes of fiction and non-fiction.” This paper reflects on the work in focus, emphasizing the issues raised by co-authorship, seen as a duet, two voices that usually sound in unison, but sometimes dissociate and at other times converge. These outbursts appear in passages such as “The Web, as the historian among us keeps trying to persuade the novelist among us, [...]” or “For a long time, the historian among us thought that the novelist among us had invented this text-turning trick, this subversive little yod.” In this approach, we think that the authors describe the Jewish people as a kind of orchestra, with different voices, different timbres, different tunings, and one which does not have a conductor. Also worthy of attention is the relative weight of the authors’ contribution: the complexity of each voice’s score and the possibility of one voice stifling the other. In the simultaneity of several pairs, father-and-daughter, writer-and-historian, man-and-woman, what importance each relationship acquires vis-à-vis the others.