David Grossman speaks

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The newest issue of the Paris Review is just out and, among other things, it features an extended “Art of Fiction” interview with Israeli novelist David Grossman.

Talking to Jonathan Shainin, Grossman recalls his initiation into fiction; he also discusses his work as a news anchor for Kol Israel, the state radio station, as well as the three vivid works of journalism — “The Yellow Wind,” “Sleeping on a Wire” and “Death as a Way of Life” — in which he explored the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to the chagrin of many on the Israeli side.

Yet the most affecting material here has to do with Grossman’s youngest son, Uri, who was killed in August 2006 during the Israeli offensive in Lebanon. Grossman apologizes for not wanting to talk about this (“I need him to be private,” he says. “I’m sorry”), then goes on to excavate the territory of his grief:

“It’s a painful life now. It’s like hell in slow motion, all the time. I don’t try to escape grief. I face grief in an intense way in my writing, but not only in my writing. If I have to suffer, I want to understand my situation thoroughly. It’s not an easy place to be, but so be it. If I’m doomed to it, I want — it’s a human predicament, and I want to experience it. ...

“I’m always questioning what I observe. All the time I see the cracks, wherever I look — even before what happened to me. It’s a way of seeing, and I cannot say I chose it, but I surrendered to it quite happily because I think it’s an accurate view of the fragility of life. Anything that is calm and safe seems to me like an illusion.”

David L. Ulin