2019年1月文学琐记

  • 以色列作家阿莫斯·欧茨于2018年12月28日去世。享年79岁????
  • 前些天,接收某报纸邀请,加入了有关蒋方舟解读洛丽塔的讨论。现录下本人的观点如下:
    首先,我支持蒋方舟的观点。事实上,这样的观点,我早已经提出过,虽然视角稍有不同。我看到不少贬低蒋方舟的观点。我觉得很滑稽。文学的解读从来都是带有鲜明的个人色彩的。这也正是文学的魅力之所在。那种对别人的某种你不喜欢的解读抡棍子扣帽子的做法极其愚蠢可笑。有把小说看做是一种比喻的,那也是极端个体化解读的一种。以此拿来批评蒋方舟的观点也同样显得莽撞且可笑。
    我对纳博科夫的理解与蒋方舟的观点比较接近。多年前我也曾写过文章,阐述过相似的观点。
    想再补充两点:1)那些批评、指责甚至嘲笑蒋方舟观点的人身上其实都或多或少地有着纳博科夫所谴责的亨伯特·亨伯特的影子。2)纳博科夫对亨伯特·亨伯特的谴责并不孤立,相似的例子还有很多:如《国王·王后·小丑》《黑暗中的笑声》等长篇小说和多篇短篇小说。可以说,纳博科夫对于亨伯特所代表的这种恶的谴责是其小说创作的重要主题之一。
  • 美国著名诗人,普利策奖获得者玛丽·奥利弗(Mary Oliver)于2019年1月17日在其弗罗里达的家中去世,享年83岁。玛丽·奥利弗是一位非常高产的诗人。其一生诗作超过20卷。1984年,以其诗集《原始美国》(American Primitive)获得普利策奖;1992年,诗集《新诗选集》(New and Selected Poems)获得国家图书奖。

牛津词典2018“年度词”

TOXIC

根据牛津词典的研究,2018年,人们史无前例地开始使toxic来形容各种事物、情况、问题、和事件。不再仅仅指带有毒性的物质,越来越多的人用toxic来讨论社会健康和环境问题,比如空气、藻类、化学制品、塑料污染等等。除了具体的“毒”之外,toxic也被用来形容压力、文化、工作环境、人际关系等抽象概念。

除了toxic, 其他进入2018年度词汇名单的还有:
Big Dick Energy: 低调却笃定的自信;
Orbiting: “退出群聊”却“潜水”暗中观察;
Overtourism: 过度的旅游开发;
Techlash:对高科技公司的负面情绪;
Cakerism:蛋糕主义,只想要鱼和熊掌兼得;
Gammon:原指烟熏猪肉,现指中年男子表达观点时涨红脸;
Gaslighting:操纵别人的心理,使其接受歪曲的事实;
Incel(involuntary celibate的缩写):不情愿的独身主义。

——(来源《文汇报》,转引自《社会科学报》)

  • 李翊云新作《当理性不再》(Where Reasons End)出版。儿子自杀,但是母子的联系却没有中断,对话还在继续……
    2012年期间,李翊云本人曾经总是受到自杀念头的困扰。最终,她通过创作,通过治疗,克服了。然而,不幸的是,2017年,她16岁的儿子却通过自杀结束了自己年轻的生命。失去了儿子,沉浸在丧子之痛中的她便开始了这部新作的创作。《当理性不再》讲的就是母亲和儿子以及自杀的故事。
  • 传记作家戴安娜·阿西尔(Diana Athill)去世,享年101岁。她从40岁以后开始写传记,到91岁开始誉满全球。2008年,91岁的她出版了她的第六部自传《欲说再见》(Somewhere Towars the End)。这部传记给她赢得了荣誉,获得了英国科斯塔图书奖和美国国家图书奖批评家奖。此后,她继续出版了好几部自传。她的自传的一个最大特点就是站在女人的立场,对自己有关性的品味和欲求直言不讳,冷静客观。
《纽约时报》图书编辑评出2018年度北美10佳图书
2019,托尼·莫里森、伊恩·麦克尤恩等都会有新作推出。值得期待~ ​
  • 2018年度科斯塔传记文学奖(Costa Awards for Biography)颁给了巴特·凡·艾斯(Bart Van Es)的《被删除的女孩》(The Cut Out Girl)。该书讲述了二战期间,一个犹太小女孩被送到荷兰躲藏避难成长的故事。作者获得了3万英镑的奖金。颁奖典礼上,该传记的主人公,现年85岁的莲·德容也出席祝贺,并于作者拥抱庆祝。【那张小女孩的照片就是小时候的莲德容】

纪念查良铮(穆旦)诞辰百年暨诗歌翻译国际学术研讨会顺利召开

查良铮(穆旦)(1918.4.5—1977.2.26)是中国的杰出现代主义诗人、世界的卓越翻译家和南开的伟大校友。22岁西南联大毕业留校任教。24岁作为中国远征军翻译入缅甸抗日。29岁赴芝加哥大学英国文学系,获硕士学位。35岁回国任南开大学外文系副教授。59岁去世。中学开始诗歌创作,作品主要收于《探险者》(1945年)、《穆旦诗集》(1947年)和《旗》(1948年),饱含爱国情怀和民族忧患意识,为中国现代诗歌创作开辟了方向。精通英俄双语,代表译作有普希金《欧根·奥涅金》,雪莱《云雀》《雪莱抒情诗选》,拜伦《唐璜》《拜伦诗选》和济慈《济慈诗选》等。 20世纪90年代,戴定南总策划、王一川和张同道主编的《20世纪中国文学大师文库》突破传统诗评藩篱、把穆旦推为百年诗歌第一人。这位被历史怠慢的诗人在去世后约20年才渐受关注。即使是穆旦吟诗漫步的南开园,他的本名依然鲜为人知,只有图书馆中他白天打杂深夜翻译、苦心孤诣多年而为无数校友借阅的诗作,依稀可鉴他身为诗人、甚至是翻译家的锋芒。 为了如此艰难的纪念,致力翻译研究的王宏印教授来到南开任教,20年来拜访穆旦家人和同事,搜寻整理他的作品,希望他为诗活过的这一生不会太轻易被遗忘。 在2018年查良铮(穆旦)诞辰百年,鹿屯出版王宏印教授《不朽的诗魂——穆旦诗解析、英译与研究》,作为南开纪念活动的一部分,献给这位杰出校友和他倾注全部努力 的诗歌及翻译事业。 纪念查良铮(穆旦)诞辰百年暨诗歌翻译国际学术研讨会顺利召开

我冷眼向过去稍稍回顾,/ 只见它曲折灌溉的悲喜/ 都消失在一片亘古的荒漠,/ 这才知道我的全部努力/ 不过完成了普通的生活。——穆旦《冥想》

纪念穆旦先生是放在中华民族100年的历史里面来纪念。要学诗,就读读这样的诗,要学做人,就学习这样的人。——南开大学原校长龚克

我们不仅要缅怀穆旦,更要研究穆旦、学习穆旦,这是南开人的使命,更是中国学界的使命。——南开大学副校长朱光磊

父亲面对生命做过自己的选择,45年后在他曾经辛勤工作和生活过的地方,大家仍在研讨他曾全身投入的诗歌创作,我们感到无比欣慰。——查良铮长子查英传

一个伟大的诗人可以改变我们对时间和空间的概念。正如穆旦,那些不相干的时间、空间可能因为他而与我相接。——俄罗斯文学研究会会长刘文飞

我来南开的一个重要原因是想给穆旦写一部传记,向穆旦的夫人,我只许过一个诺言。——南开大学外国语学院教授王宏印

穆旦用诗歌彰显生命的力量,做文学翻译、诗歌翻译的人,自己也应该写诗。——翻译家谷羽

查良铮先生的译文不可超越,他把自己的情感诉诸其中。一是像孩子一样天真面对被污染的世界,二是内在的悲剧感。——南开大学文学院教授王志耕 纪念查良铮(穆旦)诞辰百年暨诗歌翻译国际学术研讨会顺利召开 纪念查良铮(穆旦)诞辰百年暨诗歌翻译国际学术研讨会顺利召开 纪念查良铮(穆旦)诞辰百年暨诗歌翻译国际学术研讨会顺利召开 纪念查良铮(穆旦)诞辰百年暨诗歌翻译国际学术研讨会顺利召开

“手不释卷“之扎迪·史密斯

Zadie Smith: By the Book

【野马絮语】《纽约时报》(The New York Times)“书评栏目”(Book Review)里的一个非常有意思的专栏“手不释卷”(By the Book:Writers on literature and literary life)。每期一位知名作家谈文学、阅读及其创作生涯。转载于此。分享给不便翻墙的文学爱好者们。

原文见:The New York Times >Nov. 17, 2016

The author, most recently, of “Swing Time” says the best gift book she ever received was from her dying father, who “gave me his copy of ‘Ulysses,’ along with the confession he had never read it.”

What books are on your night stand now?

I’m on a reading jag after a long period of only writing, so there’s a towering “to read” pile: “Sudden Death,” by Álvaro Enrigue; “Using Life,” a novel by the imprisoned Egyptian Ahmed Naje; “Homegoing,” by Yaa Gyasi; “Heroes of the Frontier,” by Dave Eggers; “The Underground Railroad,” by Colson Whitehead; “Diary of the Fall,” by Michel Laub; “The Good Immigrant,” edited by Nikesh Shukla; “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty,” by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson; “Birth of a Bridge,” by Maylis de Kerangal; “Known and Strange Things,” by Teju Cole; “The Little Communist Who Never Smiled,” by Lola Lafon; “The Fire This Time,” edited by Jesmyn Ward; “At the Existentialist Café,” by Sarah Bakewell; “Time Reborn,” by Lee Smolin; “Moonglow,” by Michael Chabon; and let’s say the last four or five novels by Marías, several by Krasznahorkai, and — as always — unfinished Proust. I much prefer reading to writing: I can’t wait.

What’s the last great book you read?

I’ve been unusually lucky recently; I’ve read quite a few. Obviously the final volume of Ferrante, then Ottessa Moshfegh’s razor-sharp short stories “Homesick for Another World,” and Alexandra Kleeman’s stunning “You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine.” I tore through two volumes of “The Arab of the Future,” by Riad Sattouf — it’s the most enjoyable graphic novel I’ve read in a while. I was moved, agitated and inspired by Kathleen Collins’s rediscovered “Whatever Happened to Interracial Love”; Hisham Matar’s “The Return”; an early manuscript of Hari Kunzru’s “White Tears”; and Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Here I Am.” I’ve been meaning to read Dana Spiotta for years, and I’m so glad I finally did: “Innocents and Others” is terrific. John Berger’s “Portraits” is among the greatest books on art I’ve ever read. I had a sort of spiritual experience with it. No, let’s not be coy — I did! It was totally spiritual! But if I have to choose only one, then it’s “Lincoln in the Bardo,” by George Saunders. A masterpiece.

Tell us about your favorite overlooked or underheralded writer.

A Jamaican writer called Andrew Salkey, who wrote a Y.A. novel called “Hurricane” before Y.A. was a term. I remember it as the book that made me want to write. He was the most wonderful writer for children. I just found what looks to be a sequel, “Earthquake,” on an old-books stall on West Third, and I intend to read it to my kids. He died in 1995.

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鲍勃·迪伦诺贝尔奖获奖致辞

Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

【野马絮语】2016年度的诺贝尔文学奖颁给以歌手身份闻名于世的鲍勃·迪伦。这一事实在文学及文学研究界引发了不小的震动。有人说,迪伦的获奖重新诠释了文学的界限。但是无论如何,人们对迪伦给人类文明所做出的贡献还是一致认可的。如人们所预料的,鲍勃·迪伦并未出席任何诺贝尔颁奖典礼活动。他只是发来了这份演讲辞,由人代读。我们一起来体味欣赏一下:

Bob Dylan has not attended any events in Stockholm related to the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Good evening, everyone. I extend my warmest greetings to the members of the Swedish Academy and to all of the other distinguished guests in attendance tonight.

I’m sorry I can’t be with you in person, but please know that I am most definitely with you in spirit and honored to be receiving such a prestigious prize. Being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature is something I never could have imagined or seen coming. From an early age, I’ve been familiar with and reading and absorbing the works of those who were deemed worthy of such a distinction: Kipling, Shaw, Thomas Mann, Pearl Buck, Albert Camus, Hemingway. These giants of literature whose works are taught in the schoolroom, housed in libraries around the world and spoken of in reverent tones have always made a deep impression. That I now join the names on such a list is truly beyond words.

I don’t know if these men and women ever thought of the Nobel honor for themselves, but I suppose that anyone writing a book, or a poem, or a play anywhere in the world might harbor that secret dream deep down inside. It’s probably buried so deep that they don’t even know it’s there.

If someone had ever told me that I had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel Prize, I would have to think that I’d have about the same odds as standing on the moon. In fact, during the year I was born and for a few years after, there wasn’t anyone in the world who was considered good enough to win this Nobel Prize. So, I recognize that I am in very rare company, to say the least.

I was out on the road when I received this surprising news, and it took me more than a few minutes to properly process it. I began to think about William Shakespeare, the great literary figure. I would reckon he thought of himself as a dramatist. The thought that he was writing literature couldn’t have entered his head. His words were written for the stage. Meant to be spoken, not read. When he was writing Hamlet, I’m sure he was thinking about a lot of different things: “Who’re the right actors for these roles?” “How should this be staged?” “Do I really want to set this in Denmark?” His creative vision and ambitions were no doubt at the forefront of his mind, but there were also more mundane matters to consider and deal with. “Is the financing in place?” “Are there enough good seats for my patrons?” “Where am I going to get a human skull?” I would bet that the farthest thing from Shakespeare’s mind was the question “Is this literature?”

When I started writing songs as a teenager, and even as I started to achieve some renown for my abilities, my aspirations for these songs only went so far. I thought they could be heard in coffeehouses or bars, maybe later in places like Carnegie Hall, the London Palladium. If I was really dreaming big, maybe I could imagine getting to make a record and then hearing my songs on the radio. That was really the big prize in my mind. Making records and hearing your songs on the radio meant that you were reaching a big audience and that you might get to keep doing what you had set out to do.

Well, I’ve been doing what I set out to do for a long time now. I’ve made dozens of records and played thousands of concerts all around the world. But it’s my songs that are at the vital center of almost everything I do. They seem to have found a place in the lives of many people throughout many different cultures, and I’m grateful for that.

But there’s one thing I must say. As a performer I’ve played for 50,000 people and I’ve played for 50 people and I can tell you that it is harder to play for 50 people. 50,000 people have a singular persona, not so with 50. Each person has an individual, separate identity, a world unto themselves. They can perceive things more clearly. Your honesty and how it relates to the depth of your talent is tried. The fact that the Nobel committee is so small is not lost on me.

But, like Shakespeare, I too am often occupied with the pursuit of my creative endeavors and dealing with all aspects of life’s mundane matters. “Who are the best musicians for these songs?” “Am I recording in the right studio?” “Is this song in the right key?” Some things never change, even in 400 years.

Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, “Are my songs literature?” So, I do thank the Swedish Academy, both for taking the time to consider that very question, and, ultimately, for providing such a wonderful answer.

My best wishes to you all, Bob Dylan.

“手不释卷”之安娜·肯德里克

Anna Kendrick: By the Book

【野马絮语】《纽约时报》(The New York Times)“书评栏目”(Book Review)里的一个非常有意思的专栏“手不释卷”(By the Book:Writers on literature and literary life)。每期一位知名作家谈文学、阅读及其创作生涯。转载于此。分享给不便翻墙的文学爱好者们。

原文见:The New York Times >Dec. 1, 2016

The actress, singer and author of “Scrappy Little Nobody” would love to be a bath reader, “but the Parisian charm wears off after five minutes, and then I just want to be dry.”

anna-kendrick-15944What books are currently on your night stand?

Taraji P. Henson’s memoir, “Around the Way Girl.” I was a little sneaky and asked my editor to get me a copy before it came out. I’m only a chapter in and I already love it.

Do you read self-help? What’s your favorite self-help book of all time?

I don’t read a lot of self-help books, but I buy a lot of them. I usually give up when the first chapter hasn’t magically transformed me into someone wonderful. The one exception is Gavin de Becker’s “The Gift of Fear.” It should be required reading for all women, and men for that matter. Maybe men would then get why we reject their advances in poorly lit parking lots — it’s not because we’re bitches, it’s because we don’t want to get murdered.

How and when do you read? Electronic or paper? Bath or bed?

I prefer paper. I wish I could claim that’s because I’m so delightfully old-fashioned, but it’s just because I keep forgetting how to use my electronic reader — wherever that thing is. I would also love to be a bath reader, but the Parisian charm wears off after five minutes, and then I just want to be dry.

How do you prefer to organize your books?

I put the most impressive ones where people are most likely to see them, AMIRITE?! (No, but I do do that.)

What do you like to read on the plane? On the set? On vacation?

On a plane I like to read something light and fluffy to counteract flying anxiety. On set, reading nonfiction is especially fun, because I get to share little factoids between takes (whether my co-workers like it or not). On vacation, I like books that are dark and engrossing, like “All Quiet on the Western Front” or Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” because the beach makes me feel too content and I don’t like it.

What book might people be surprised to find on your shelves?

Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations.” I kind of thrive on stress, so I’m almost embarrassed by how comforting I find this book. I don’t even agree with everything in it, but when philosophy is described in such practical language, it’s soothing.

The best book you’ve read about Hollywood?

“Writing Movies for Fun and Profit,” by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, is hilarious, but more than that, it’s insanely accurate — right down to what your parking assignment when visiting a studio “really” means.

What’s the last book that made you laugh out loud?

There’s a joke in “Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships,” by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá, about the commonly held belief that women choose their sexual partners based on a man’s ability to “provide.” Essentially the punch line is that Darwin thinks your mother is a whore. Anyway, the patriarchy, good stuff.

The last book you read that made you furious?

I only read “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood, very recently. On the night of the first presidential debate, Patton Oswalt tweeted, “We’re moments away from the prequel to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’” and I think I messaged him, “O.K., that is not funny!”

What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors stick with you most?

More serious than I am now. The year I turned 12, I read “The Crucible,” “Jane Eyre” and “The Great Gatsby,” and after I finished each one I was beside myself with rage. Abigail Williams and Daisy Buchanan never get their comeuppance, and Jane never gets to go off (Jerry Springer style) on the Reed family? I’m still mad about it.

If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?

“A History of the Wife,” by Marilyn Yalom. It’s one of those books that I read with a highlighter in hand, because there was so much great information in it. Maybe plenty of people already know all of this stuff, but it definitely wasn’t covered in my history classes.

If you could befriend any author, dead or alive, who would it be?

Steve Martin.

anna-kendrickWhom would you want to write your life story?

Jon Ronson. “The Psychopath Test” and “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” were both a great balance of horrifying and fun. However, the people he writes about are subjected to this super-perceptive honesty that I might not survive, so as long as this is my fantasy, I’d prefer he wait until I’m dead.

What do you want to read next?

My brother keeps going on about “Ready Player One,” by Ernest Cline, so I think I’d better read it before the holidays or I’ll end up in a headlock.

“手不释卷”之阿摩斯·奥茨

Amos Oz: By the Book

【野马絮语】《纽约时报》(The New York Times)“书评栏目”(Book Review)里的一个非常有意思的专栏“手不释卷”(By the Book:Writers on literature and literary life)。每期一位知名作家谈文学、阅读及其创作生涯。转载于此。分享给不便翻墙的文学爱好者们。

原文见:The New York Times >Nov. 23, 2016

The Israeli author, whose most recent novel is “Judas,” would like to meet Chekhov, if only to gossip with him. Gossip, after all, is “a distant cousin of stories and novels,” although they are “embarrassed by this member of their family.”

amos-ozTell us about some of your favorite writers.

You see, I don’t have a bookshelf with my eternal beloved ones on it. They come and go. A few of them come more often than the others: Chekhov, Cervantes, Faulkner, Agnon, Brener, Yizhar, Alterman, Bialik, Amichai, Lampedusa’s “Il Gattopardo,” Kafka and Borges, sometimes Thomas Mann and sometimes Elsa Morante and Natalia Ginzburg.

What moves you most in a work of literature?

The short answer is that when a work of literature suddenly makes the very familiar unfamiliar to me, or just the opposite, when a work of literature makes the unfamiliar almost intimately familiar, I am moved (moved to tears, or smiles, or anger, or gratitude, or many other, different, kinds of excitement).

What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors stick with you most?

Omnivorous, I read everything. Anything at all. I read the user’s manual of the electric heater, I read novels that were way above my grasp, I read poetry which could only offer me the music of its language while the meaning was still far from me. I read newspapers and magazines of all sorts, leaflets, ads, political manifestoes, dirty magazines, comics. Anything at all.

If you had to name one book that made you who you are today, what would it be?

Almost every good book changes me in a small way. But I may have not gathered the courage to send an early story to a literary editor were it not for what I learned from Sherwood Anderson’s “Winesburg, Ohio” and from Agnon’s “In the Prime of Her Life” and from M. Y. Berdyczewski’s short stories. “Winesburg, Ohio” taught me that sometimes the more provincial a story is, the more universal it may become. I wrote about these early literary epiphanies in “A Tale of Love and Darkness.”

What author, living or dead, would you most like to meet, and what would you like to know?

I would very much wish to spend half an hour with Anton Chekhov. I would buy him a drink. I would not discuss literary issues with him, not even bother to interview him or ask him for some useful tips, just chat about people. Even gossip with him. I love Chekhov’s unique blend of misanthropy and compassion. (And gossip — which is a mixture of both — is, after all, a distant cousin of stories and novels, although they don’t say hello to each other in the street, as novels and stories are embarrassed by this member of their family.)

What books are currently on your night stand?

A few weeks ago a beloved friend and colleague, the Israeli novelist A. B. Yehoshua lost his wife to an illness. Rivka Yehoshua was a leading psychoanalyst, and both of them were close friends for more than five decades. Thirty years ago, Yehoshua published “Five Seasons,” a wonderful novel about a delicate man losing his wife in the prime of their lives. “Five Seasons” describes the first year of the protagonist’s life as a widower. I am rereading it now with awe, in tears, and with admiration. I can’t help shuddering at the thought that rather often life imitates literature.

What are a few of the last great books you read?

I read “Lenin’s Kisses,” a fierce, funny, painful and playful novel by a great Chinese writer, Yan Lianke. It is much more than just a poignant, daring political parody: It is also a subtle study of evil and stupidity, misery and compassion. I reread Anita Shapira’s biography of David Ben-Gurion rediscovering the greatness of this founding father of Israel who, as early as the beginning of the 1930s, recognized the rise of Palestinian nationalism and its fierce resentment toward Zionism, and conducted a series of painstaking meetings with Palestinian leaders, trying in vain to formulate a far-reaching compromise between two legitimate national movements, both rightly claiming the same tiny homeland.

Who are some underappreciated or overlooked authors? Are there Israeli writers who aren’t as widely translated as they should be whom you’d recommend in particular?

Two great Israeli writers, S. Yizhar and Yehoshua Kenaz, are hardly known outside the realm of Hebrew. Yizhar’s work has an almost Joycean quality about it, while Kenaz at his heights makes you think of Marcel Proust.

What genres do you especially enjoy reading? And which do you avoid?

Recently, I’ve developed a growing addiction to well-written memoirs and biographies, whether they relate to artists, statesmen or failed eccentrics: “Stalin,” by Simon Sebag Montefiore; “Kafka,” by Reiner Stach; “Nikolai Gogol,” by Nabokov.

Do you have a favorite fictional hero or heroine? A favorite antihero or villain?

Don Quixote. The hero and the antihero of the first modern novel, which is also the first postmodern novel, and also the first deconstructionist novel. Don Quixote’s genes can be found in thousands and thousands of literary and cinematic figures created since. Maybe some of his genes are in every post-Quixotean human being.

amos-oz1If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be? The Israeli prime minister?

Unfortunately, there are many political leaders in today’s world, including my country, who would pleasantly surprise me if they read any book at all. To President Obama I would give, as a farewell present, with admiration, my “Tale of Love and Darkness.” Prime Minister Netanyahu may perhaps benefit from reading “Richard III.”

Whom would you want to write your life story?

All my children are very fine writers. Any one of them could tell my story with the right blend of kinship, empathy and irony.