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JEWISH BOOK ANNUAL
to the mythic quality o f his writing, the range o f his work, the
variations o f reaction or the sensitivity with which he records per
sonal and family disintegration in face of the Scourge. Most o f all,
it misconstrues the source o f inexorability in Appelfeld’s fiction.
The Holocaust is inexorable according to Appelfeld because it is
a consequence o f a natural law. Anti-Semitism has become the
natural law o f the hun ter and hunted. Appelfeld uses this sym
bolism often, primarily in the stories in
Be-Komat Ha-Karka
(On
the First Floor). We also see this hunting imagery in
Tzili.
As
Hanna Yaoz has shown, the “trans-historical” fiction to which
Appelfeld’s work belongs sees the Holocaust rooted not exclu
sively in the Nazi rise to power but more basically, in the hun ter
nature of man, and the poison o f anti-Semitism in western civili
zation.13 This is at the root o f the inexorability o f events in
Appelfeld’s fiction.
Appelfeld’s approach is what has been justly called an arche
typal one. It is his technique for dealing with the horrendous ma
terials o f the Holocaust whereby he creates structures o f mind
and feeling that haunt us and transform our consciousness. Out
o f the silence o f his work arises a terrible awe. His method, too,
has its pitfalls, yet his books are among the most sensitive works
on the period.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Appelfeld is the author o f 11 Hebrew novels and short story
collections, as well as a book of Hebrew essays. His following
books have been translated into English:
In the Wilderness.
Stories. Trans. Tirza Sandbank and others. J e
rusalem: Ah’shav Publishing House, 1965.
Badenheim 1939 .
Trans. Dalya Bilu. Boston: D.R. Godine,
1980.
The Age o f Wonders.
Trans. Dalya Bilu. Boston: D.R. Godine,
1981.
Tzili: The Story o f a Life.
Trans. Dalya Bilu. New York: E.P.
Dutton, 1983.
The Retreat.
Trans. Dalya Bilu. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1984.
13 Op. cit., p. 181.