Only Yesterday: A NovelPrinceton University Press, 2019 M02 26 - 696 pages When Israeli Nobel Laureate S. Y. Agnon published the novel Only Yesterday in 1945, it quickly became recognized as a major work of world literature, not only for its vivid historical reconstruction of Israel's founding society. The book tells a seemingly simple tale about a man who immigrates to Palestine with the Second Aliya--the several hundred idealists who returned between 1904 and 1914 to work the Hebrew soil as in Biblical times and revive Hebrew culture. This epic novel also engages the reader in a fascinating network of meanings, contradictions, and paradoxes all leading to the question, what, if anything, controls human existence? |
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... woman, elusive and seductive. Unlike many modern novelists, Agnon writes decorously about sexuality. But he leaves no doubt that for Isaac, the product of a traditional upbringing, sex comes as a shock: “Never in his life had Isaac seen ...
... woman offering the man a drink of water—Rebecca from a well, Shifra from a glass: “A beautiful and pious lass entered and brought water and jam. She poured water for Isaac in a clean glass and said, May the gentleman please savor it ...
... woman, appeared. Isaac looked at them and was amazed, for he had thought there were no other Jews here but him. And they too were amazed, for they had thought there were no other Jews here but them. The old man took his pipe out of his ...
... woman mentioned her relatives, she started singing their praises. Isaac looked at her dismissively, These people the old woman was praising, who are they? They too came only to add dust to the dust of the Land of Israel. Isaac is an ...
... woman asked Isaac, How come we don't see here on the sea the big crocodiles that run after every ship to swallow it along with its passengers, and therefore sharp knives are attached to the ship to cut up the crocodiles so they won't ...