Fima

Rating:
Summary: For readers with very specific tastes
Review: Amos Oz's " Fima " talks about the daily life and thoughts
of a 54year-old Jewish grown up . While our central hero's life goes
on , the writer takes the chance to introduce us his character and
give us a clue of what is he like through various flashbacks. Some of
them include spicy trip campings in Greece , past discussions with his
father and memories of women he dumped and got dumped from . Fima
seems to be confused and quitte frankly , not really interested of
what he wants from life . He is obsessed though with politics . He
spents hours and hours talking about it with his friends , family and
collegues . The chaos in Fima's life seems somehow strangely connected
with all this mess in the Israeli state. Through insignificant ,only
on the surface ,chats like the one with the taxi driver , Oz is trying
to speak once again about the vital need for peace in the area . The
problem is that his book will bore someone who is not interested or
informed about the Middle East crisis and furthermore , it lacks a
certain plot to keep the reader entertained.


Rating:
Summary: Fima, a symbol of unfulfilled promise in the state of Israel
Review: Amos Oz's "Fima" as translated by Nicholas de Lange is the story of Efraim Nison, son of a cosmetics manufacturing industrialist, and an intellectual and poet whose life never quite gets off the ground. He spends half his time working as a lowly receptionist in a clinic and the other half struggling to stay in one piece, if not boring his friends to death pontificating about the dismal state of politics prevailing in the modern state of Israel. He engages his family and friends but is succoured by them. His relationships with various women including his ex-wife are also frankly ludicrous. But Efraim's incoherent and wasted life cannot be interpreted as anything other than Oz's metaphor for the moribund state of Israel's moral authority after securing its own nationhood. He questions the hardline Jewish approach to its Arab neighbours today by drawing parallels with the mentality of the Nazis in the 30s and 40s. The lurking blood hound in man is humourously but no less chillingly portrayed in the episode with the cockroach. Dimi's shattering confession to Efraim about the dog is equally poignant. Oz, though cynical about the lasting effects of positive action on future generations, ends on a quietly optimistic note. "Fima" isn't exactly an easy book to digest. The symbolism is a little heavyhanded in parts, but the undeniable sense of humour in Oz's writing carries the book. Oz is in fine form for most of the way but gets distracted and loses focus towards the last third. Still, "Fima" makes an intellectually stimulating read and is definitely worth checking out.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting Portrayal of the "Alzheimers of the Left"
Review: While Oz, the admirable peace activist, may have intended to symbolize the state of Israel with his loveable, yet senile protagonist, and while this symbolism rings true, he also succeeds in brilliantly depicting Israel's left or pro-Palestinian Jews as so seriously demented one wonders how society can fail to commit them to some type of institution, where, one hopes, treatment can be found.

Even if the reader has no sympathy for the plight of our neighbors, our cousins, the Palestinian people, no feeling of remorse for the degradation and cruelty inflicted upon them by the IDF, by the end of the story, some sympathy/remorse will emerge. As Amira Hass wrote recently in Haaretz, it is difficult for us to criticize, never mind condemn our soldiers, for they are our brothers, our sons, our friends, and we know their experiences. We know their fear. Yet Oz, by calling himself a demented lunatic who rightfully ought to be committed, wins us over, somewhat. Perhaps, out of fear, we do go too far. Perhaps Hass is right - for the Palestinian degraded by "routine" inspections, the soldier is Israel - and we choose to ignore and disregard the Palestinian perspective. Yet even most of us in the "right wing" know that the Palestinian is not our enemy. Their "government", their "system of education", their censored "media" and of course Hamas - these institutions and the people behind them are our enemies.

However, the Jewish left goes far beyond Amira Hass's reasonable suggestions. As Fima rightly understands, over ten years ago, even reasonable demands (such as an end to demolitions unless they've been proven in a court to have smuggling tunnels below them or to be homes that harbor terrorists, or an end to the degradation of Palestinians at checkpoints and an open door policy on anyone in need of medical assistance), demands most of us would otherwise be ready to agree to, fall to the wayside as our mouths hang agape, in shock at the absurdity that groups like B'Tselem churn out like McDonald's hamburgers - you know it's not kosher - in fact, you know that it's crap, but it's omnipresent. Fima argues with himself that if only the right knew that the left wouldn't go too far, wouldn't give it all away and leave us, again, with nothing, that we'd all give the Palestinians most of what they want (what Barak offered them) and that would be the end of it. And to some extent, he's right. But there would have to be some trust, and Israelis, well, we can't have any trust right now. Stop bombing our buses and cafes for a while, give us a chance to rebuild that trust. The interaction between Palestinians and Israelis does slowly build that faith, but when Barak offered up whole towns as "goodwill gestures" during Camp David and the Palestinians responded by bombing women and children, well, that trust evaporated and the warm area where it had grown froze over. Barghouti says that the Intifada arose from anger over "failed" Camp David accords mixed with indignation over the Temple Mount riots. Barghouti, get with the picture. We offered you everything you'll ever hope to get and you killed our children. An Intifada on Your Intifada. A massacre on your massacre. Do you know the Purim story, Barghouti? (Bush announced that there would be a war on Purim, this year) When the Persians thought they'd massacre us, we turned the tables on them. The same things happened to you. Do you think we don't know how many of us you'd kill, had you the power? Had you the "weapons of mass destruction"? We know, and that's why we don't ever want to let you have your own port, your own airport, your own direct path to importing the means of our total destruction. Take a lesson from Saddam's current experience, it's not a good idea to encourage suicide bombers. Now that such actions are condemned as "terrorism" and now that there's a "war on terrorism" - perhaps you should rethink your own dementia during the days of Ehud Barak and the Golden Opportunity. Your move to Intifada then makes George W.'s strategies seem pure genius. Your line of logic elevates Bush's to the level of Albert Einstein. Barghouti, Jewish Left, time to get some thinkers on your side. All you've got now is RainMan and the WaterBoy. So lost, like Fima, in distracted and disjointed thoughts on three thousand different topics that one coherent sentence seems like a miracle.

Yes, Oz, you've wrung some sympathy from my heart. Some for the Palestinians and yet far more for our Jewish Left, who can't get it together enough to form a sentence, and get us all to agree to what we've all been ready to give for a long, long time.

While the world is aware of how the Palestinian lack of a free press, lack of freedom of speech has resulted in a propaganda machine no more honest than your average reporting on al Jazeera, our Jewish Left swallows it whole and is blissfully oblivious. Like Fima, smiling widely while wandering aimlessly in the streets.