Details

Mourning a Father Lost

A Kibbutz Childhood Remembered

von: Avraham Balaban
44,99 €
Verlag:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Format:	EPUB
Veröffentl.:	19.11.2003
ISBN/EAN:	9781461639411
Sprache:	englisch
Anzahl Seiten:	216

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Beschreibungen

Titelbeschreibung

Returning to the kibbutz of his childhood to attend his father's funeral, Avraham Balaban confronts his buried yet still intensely painful childhood memories. Comparing the kibbutz of today with that of his early years, the author weaves together two interrelated stories: a sensitive artist growing up in the intensely pragmatic world of Kibbutz Huldah and the rise and fall of a grand yet failed social experiment. As he moves through the seven days of sitting shivah for his father, Balaban experiences an expanding cycle of mourning—for self, family, the kibbutz, and Israel itself. With a poet's keen voice, Balaban pens a poignant, frank portrait of the emotional damage wrought by the kibbutz educational system, which separated children from their parents, hoping to establish a new kind of family, a nonbiological family. Indeed, he realizes that he is mourning not the physical death of his father, but the much earlier death of the father-child bond. Only the unwavering love of his remarkable mother rescued him. Readers will see the kibbutz movement, and Israel in general, with new eyes after finishing this book.
 
 In the process of unearthing his earliest memories, Balaban meditates on the mechanism of memory and the forces that shape it. Thus, he examines the varied layers—familial, societal, and national—that establish individual identity. During the shivah, he discovers the tremendous power of words in shaping one's world, on the one hand, and their redemptive power on the other.

Titelkurzbeschreibung

Returning to the kibbutz of his childhood to attend his father's funeral, Avraham Balaban confronts his still intensely painful childhood memories. With a poet's keen voice, the author weaves together two interrelated stories: a sensitive artist growing up in the intensely pragmatic world of Kibbutz Huldah and the rise and fall of a grand yet failed social experiment. As he moves through the seven days of sitting shivah for his father, Balaban experiences an expanding cycle of mourning-for self, family, the kibbutz, and Israel itself. He pens a poignant, frank portrait of the emotional damage wrought by the kibbutz educational system, which separated children from their parents. Indeed, he realizes that he is mourning not the physical death of his father, but the much earlier death of the father-child bond. Readers will see the kibbutz movement, and Israel in general, with new eyes after finishing this book.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1 Child of a Dream, Child of a Laboratory
 Part 2 Ten Opening Data
 Chapter 3 Broken Skies
 Chapter 4 Remembering a Lack
 Chapter 5 A Moment's Silence, Please
 Chapter 6 What Did You Learn in Kindergarten Today?
 Chapter 7 Gordonia Hulda
 Chapter 8 Four Eyes, Two Mouths
 Chapter 9 Crowding
 Chapter 10 Cultivators
 Chapter 11 Death in a Clown's Cap
 Chapter 12 Observing Hands—Possible Memories: A Note on First-Person Narratives
 Part 13 Words
 Chapter 14 Pampered Children—Nehemiah
 Chapter 15 A Decent Society
 Chapter 16 Words
 Chapter 17 A Lost War
 Chapter 18 A Wet Icicle
 Chapter 19 What Memory Recalls
 Chapter 20 Blue Bruises on the Flesh: Openings on Life
 Chapter 21 Pampered Children—Yossi
 Chapter 22 Singing and Weeping: Early Training
 Chapter 23 Pampered Children
 Chapter 24 Crowding: Hairstyles from Overseas
 Chapter 25 Pampered Children—Shlomo
 Chapter 26 Pampered Children: Sex is Little Moments of Love
 Chapter 27 Pampered Children—Batsheva
 Chapter 28 Singing and Crying: Homeland Songs
 Chapter 29 Coffee
 Chapter 30 A Dream
 Chapter 31 Parting
 Part 32 Completions
 Chapter 33 The Return Home
 Chapter 34 Early Days
 Chapter 35 Birth
 Chapter 36 What Have They Done to You?
 Chapter 37 A Miss
 Chapter 38 Laboratory Child, Laboratory Mother
 Chapter 39 Days of Crisis
 Chapter 40 Portrait of a Man as a Poet
 Chapter 41 A Walk: A Place
 Chapter 42 A Nocturnal Chat
 Chapter 43 Circles: Children's Stories
 Chapter 44 A Family Picture
 Chapter 45 A Will
 Chapter 46 Completions: Two Possible Stories
 Chapter 47 Crowding
 Chapter 48 The Wheel Turns
 Chapter 49 An Israeli Sorrow
 Chapter 50 Love
 Chapter 51 A Miss: A Possible Journey to Bendery
 Chapter 52 Dry Sobs
 Chapter 53
 Chapter 54