לכחול אין דרום

by Alex Epstein, אלכס אפשטיין

אלכם אפשטיין הוא אמן הסיפור הפילוסופי-הפיוטי הקצרצר והקצר, אחד המספרים הייחודיים ביותר הכותבים כיום בעברית. סיפוריו החדשניים מתכתבים עם מסורות ספרותיות גדולות של יוצרים כמו קפקא ובורחס, קאלווינו וצלקה.

לכחול אין דרום מכיל לא פחות ממאה ועשרים סיפורים: מקצרצרים בני שלוש שורות על אהבה ופרידה ועד נובלה מצחיקה עד דמעות על הגירה; סיפורים שמרכזם אמירה חברתית ופוליטית לצד כאלה המאירים זוויות מפתיעות בתולדות האומנות; סיפורים על מסעות במרחב התודעה והחלום ועל מסעות מכמירי לב במרחב הבית.
המגוון הזה מתלכד לכלל יצירה שלמה ומגובשת: כל סיפור בלכחול אין דרום הוא כן שילוח להמצאות מפתיעות של הדמיון, ולא אחת גם חממה לעכבות האישיים ביותר של הזיכרון ושל הרגש.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Israel, Poetry

215 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2005

About the author

Disambiguation

This author:
Alex^^Epstein

Other author with same name:
Alex^Epstein Alex Epstein

Alex Epstein (Hebrew: אלכס אפשטיין) is an Israeli writer, known for his micro stories.

Reviews

[Aidan Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this on breaks at work across the week, so it was a very fast read. I think the author has a firm grasp on what makes a flash fiction piece tick. Specifically, many of the images and sentences that close out pieces are very captivating and make you want to reread the whole piece again. As is the case in most story collections I've read, some are better than others, and in this case, the best of them are easily five stars, but the lesser pieces probably average around three stars. Four seems like a fair compromise.

[Lev · Rating 3 out of 5]

מאוד מאוד hit or miss, לסיפורים לפעמים אולי לא אמורה להיות פואנטה כי הסיפור עצמו הוא חלק מהקטע, ולמרות זאת יש רגעים מיוחדים בהחלט בספר הזה. יש בו הרים של מוזה אבל גם הרבה מאוד דברים בלתי מובנים שיש בהם מן החיים לטעמי, כמו slice of life, אבל לא יותר.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half of these stories were funny, and half went over my head.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Translated from Hebrew by Becka Mara McKay


I can't decide if these are short stories, lyric essays, or poems. In any case, Epstein has compiled little moments of mystery and romance, history and humor, into this slim volume from Clockroot Books. There are no dramatic flares, and no heartbreaking losses. Instead, the situations and events he describes in these short pieces are simple, personal, and honest. There is emotion, but the quiet kind endured by quiet people, an emotion that reads far more realistic than some authors can describe effectively.

In "Memory Card":

"In the winter they buy a digital camera as a surprise for the grandchildren, but they don't know how to connect it to the computer they bought the year before....the old couple takes pictures of each other. In March the woman dies in her sleep. Her husband finds the instruction manual that came with the camera and reads about pixels, about digital zoom, and jpeg and avi files, and other strange, miraculous concepts. In May he finishes the instruction manual, and removes from the camera the 1-gigabyte memory card. He places it in his deceased wife's jewelry box and closes the lid." The picture he has created in so few words reveals the enthusiasm of this couple to share with their grandchildren, the shock of death, and the quiet picture of a man diligently trying to figure out how to save her face. That he doesn't wish to share this "memory card" illuminates how deep his feelings are. I could easily picture him in a chair, trying to decipher the jargon and afraid of messing something up and losing the photos forever. Epstein puts all that into a deceptively simple little paragraph.

In "Another Way Out", he tells another picturesque story.
"A king once imprisoned a poet in a cellar and demanded he find the most beautiful word in the world. This legend has infinite endings. In one, the poet dreamed he carved the word on the cellar's ceiling. When he awoke, he didn't remember it-only that it was written in the font now called FrankRuehl.* In another, the poet doesn't discover (even in a dream) a hint of the word. All he manages, completely by accident, is to invent the game of chess." It has a fairy tale quality, dungeon and all, but the revelation of finding the most complicated game, the game of kings, in a search for beauty, is somehow exactly right.


Alex Epstein breathes life into a variety of topics in this collection: cosmonauts, lost cell phones, dreams, and an escaped elephant heading to another zoo in search of lost love. They are quirky and youthful but lack the sarcasm and edginess that sometimes settles into modern verse.

[joseph godoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epstein packs so much meaning and emotional work into the briefest of sentences. On first glance, Blue Has No South's lyrical, verse-like prose can easily be mistaken for poetry. The stories are short, sweet, and emotionally-charged. Give it a go -- you won't regret it.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read my review of New York Journal of Books: http://goo.gl/jvLqt

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over 100 flash and micro fictions from a young Israeli author. Quality varies, as is inevitable with so many examples of this almost "lyric" form, but the best are fine indeed.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's a blog post I wrote about Alex Epstein and his book after meeting him at a bilingual Hebrew/English reading: http://www.oychicago.com/article.aspx...

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over 100 stories in this book, which is actually 135 pages, not 224. About 90% gems.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Original writing, rather fabulous. Tends sometimes to a bit of sentimentality, but not often enough to be a big concern.

[Melissac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely unique micro-short stories that are somewhere between storytelling and poetry. These are both funny and philosophical. It is amazing how much can be told in one page.