In search of some off the beaten track Israeli literature I stumbled across The Flying Camel and the Golden Hump by Aharon Megged written in Hebrew in 1982 and only recently translated into English and published by Toby Press in 2007. Aharon Megged literary editor, journalist, novelist and playwright whose writing ' reflects the complexities of Israeli society over the past fifty years.'
I'm not sure the camel has flown in here in the UK with much of a fanfare which is a crying shame because it deserves an audience, especially with any of the writers out there who stop by here.
I know writers have to take themselves seriously to get on but it must help to see the funny side of it all surely? This is one of the cleverest books I have read in a very long time, well at least since the last cleverest book.
A writer writing about a writer writing about writing, how much more self-reflexive can it all become? Aharon Megged has pulled off something very audacious.
In fact every writer should probably be prescribed this book to read especially if they have experienced any of the following symptoms during their writing life,
- self doubt
- loss of confidence
- low self esteem
- feelings of worthlessness
- envy
- jealousy
- obsessions about their writing and that of others
- a feeling they may never write the immortal words The End.
- constant feelings of rejection
- writer's block
- a hatred of literary critics
Especially for those who may have stood in a shop watching if anyone buys their book or trying to spot it being read, you will find solidarity and comfort in these pages, you are not alone.
Thinking about it, literary critics should also probably read The Flying Camel and the Golden Hump too especially if they have ever experienced any of the following symptoms
- arrogance
- misguided feelings of power
- hatred of writers
- a feeling that nobody loves them
- self doubt
- loss of confidence
- low self esteem
- feelings of worthlessness
- envy
- etc
When Professor Schatz, the legendary, feared and loathed literary critic moves into the flat above writer Kalman Keren in an apartment block in Tel Aviv who can tell what will happen next? This is the critic who breathes fire and
' would rather be considered a bastard than obsequious and hypocritical.'
Kalman has been living a peaceful life post-divorce, sitting at his desk writing his books and tending his rabbits in hutches up on the roof. The peace is shattered by the seemingly quiet arrival of Schatz and his wife Naomi. Schatz is already on Kalman's hit list for failing to review his last book and when Schatz starts pounding away on his typewriter, Atonement film style,
'with only a thin layer of poured concrete separating the soles of his shoes from my skull'
Kalman finds himself entering that dark night of the writer's soul, the dreaded writer's block.
'One never knows what calamities lie in wait, what obstacles will appear like the devil in one's path when all one wants to do is sit and write in peace. One has already managed, with great exertion, after days and nights of grunting and groaning, of straining the heart and stomach, to roll a heavy boulder of doubts and hesitations out of the path, and to set down the first sentence on the blank page. Now --- so it seems --- the pen will roll merrily along, light as a wheel when all of a sudden...'
With his concentration shot to pieces by the constant noise, beleagured and thwarted at every turn, it's time for Kalman to reflect on his writing life and he proceeds to dissect it bit by bit. Anyone who has been following Death of the Author debates around the blogs will love Kalman's take on the mess a literary critic's interpretations make of his books.There are a succession of fine moments in this book, allusions to other great literary works, the tenant's meeting, the episode of the poet brutalized by a review from Schatz. Blistering and excoriating doesn't come near, Schatz might as well use a flame gun, he knows how to peel off a writer's skin slowly, layer by layer leaving them stinging, flayed and humiliated in the corner.
It has to be heartening comfort reading for any writer, the maintaining of a perspective for those in receipt of such things, you'd be unlikely ever to get a review quite this bad.
For the reader drawn into Kalman's plight there are occasional authorial intrusions by Aharon Megged under the heading Caveat Lector (I'm plumping for Reader Beware, The Latin Teacher will be out with red pen) where he examines his own conceits and his reader's pre-conceptions with an occasional warning about jumping to conclusions.
As always I hunted for reviews after I'd read the book and had written my thoughts and I find one of the few is over at The Complete Review. It's always a relief to find a book you've loved gets an A over there, I'm usually satisfied if they've gone for a B+ , but with The Flying Camel and the Golden Hump it would seem we are in perfect agreement. Another in depth review here at Words Without Borders likewise enthuses. This incidentally a site I am visiting constantly at the moment.
Once you've read the introduction to this book you'll also know why I should have entitled this piece
'STUPENDOUSLY SUPERFLUOUS'
That Caveat Scriptor's risky too. Off on a frolic of my own with forty-years-out-of-date Latin, more red pen I expect. Thankfully the book is certainly stupendous and far from superfluous, in fact I fancy it could become every writer's essential thumb-sucking comfort blanket.
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