What Makes an Apple?
Six Conversations about Writing, Love, Guilt, and Other Pleasures
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Revelatory talks about art and life with internationally acclaimed Israeli novelist Amos Oz
In the last years of his life, the writer Amos Oz talked regularly with Shira Hadad, who worked closely with him as the editor of his final novel, Judas. These candid, uninhibited dialogues show a side of Oz that few ever saw. What Makes an Apple? presents the most revealing of these conversations in English for the first time, painting an illuminating and disarmingly intimate portrait of a towering literary figure.
In frank and open exchanges that are by turns buoyant, introspective, and argumentative, Oz explains what impels him to begin a story and shares his routines, habits, and challenges as a writer. He discusses the tectonic changes he experienced in his lifetime in relationships between women and men, and describes how his erotic coming of age shaped him not only as a man but also as an author. Oz reflects on his parents, his formative years on a kibbutz, and how he dealt with and learned from his critics, his students, and his fame. He talks about why there is more humor in his later books and gives his exceptional take on fear of death.
Resonating with Oz’s clear, honest, and humorous voice, What Makes an Apple? offers unique insights about Oz’s artistic and personal evolution, and enables readers to explore his work in new ways.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Six conversations between Israeli novelist Oz (1939–2018) (A Tale of Love and Darkness) and screenwriter Hadad come together in this pleasant if scattershot collection. Their chats touch on such topics as Oz's childhood ("I was an only child and I did not have any friends"), his adult relationships, writing habits ("My main ritual is to have everything in its place"), and the Israel-Palestine conflict (Oz calls "reality strikes" such as intifadas and bloodshed much more influential on how people see the situation than op-eds). Among the most memorable commentary is on the writer's craft; in reflecting on his writing, Oz says that "no writer... can write about a person more intelligent than him or her," nor can they persuasively depict someone with a better sense of humor than themselves. These two limitations notwithstanding, Oz suggests that he relishes writing about characters who are different from him. Though there are many such insightful comments, it's hard to tell what the point is—at times the only thing holding the conversations together is Oz's personality, which won't be enough for those not already enamored of the author's work. For his fans, though, this works as a quick fix.
