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A poignant, heartbreaking new work by "one of the best novelists alive" (Irving Howe)--the story of a lonely older man and his devoted young caretaker who transform each other's lives in ways they could never have imagined.
Ernst is a gruff seventy-year-old Red Army veteran from Ukraine who landed, almost by accident, in Israel after World War II. A retired investment adviser, he lives alone (his first wife and baby daughter were killed by the Nazis; he divorced his shrewish second wife) and spends his time laboring over his unpublished novels. Irena, in her mid-thirties, is the unmarried daughter of Holocaust survivors who has been taking care of Ernst since his surgery two years earlier; she arrives every morning promptly at eight and usually leaves every afternoon at three. Quiet and shy, Irena is in awe of Ernst's intellect. And as the months pass, Ernst comes to depend on the gentle young woman who runs his house, listens to him read from his work, and occasionally offers a spirited commentary on it.
But Ernst's writing gives him no satisfaction, and he is haunted by his godless, Communist past. His health, already poor, begins to deteriorate even further; he becomes mired in depression and seems to lose the will to live. But this is something Irena will not allow. As she becomes an increasingly important part of his life--moving into his home, encouraging him in his work, easing his pain--Ernst not only regains his sense of self and discovers the path through which his writing can flow but he also discovers, to his amazement, that Irena is in love with him. And, even more astonishing, he realizes that he is in love with her, too.
"From the Hardcover edition."
Ernst is a gruff seventy-year-old Red Army veteran from Ukraine who landed, almost by accident, in Israel after World War II. A retired investment adviser, he lives alone (his first wife and baby daughter were killed by the Nazis; he divorced his shrewish second wife) and spends his time laboring over his unpublished novels. Irena, in her mid-thirties, is the unmarried daughter of Holocaust survivors who has been taking care of Ernst since his surgery two years earlier; she arrives every morning promptly at eight and usually leaves every afternoon at three. Quiet and shy, Irena is in awe of Ernst's intellect. And as the months pass, Ernst comes to depend on the gentle young woman who runs his house, listens to him read from his work, and occasionally offers a spirited commentary on it.
But Ernst's writing gives him no satisfaction, and he is haunted by his godless, Communist past. His health, already poor, begins to deteriorate even further; he becomes mired in depression and seems to lose the will to live. But this is something Irena will not allow. As she becomes an increasingly important part of his life--moving into his home, encouraging him in his work, easing his pain--Ernst not only regains his sense of self and discovers the path through which his writing can flow but he also discovers, to his amazement, that Irena is in love with him. And, even more astonishing, he realizes that he is in love with her, too.
"From the Hardcover edition."
214 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
22 people are currently reading
490 people want to read
About the author
Aharon Appelfeld
65 books199 followersAHARON APPELFELD is the author of more than forty works of fiction and nonfiction, including Until the Dawn's Light and The Iron Tracks (both winners of the National Jewish Book Award) and The Story of a Life (winner of the Prix Médicis Étranger). Other honors he has received include the Giovanni Bocaccio Literary Prize, the Nelly Sachs Prize, the Israel Prize, the Bialik Prize, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and the MLA Commonwealth Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received honorary degrees from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and Yeshiva University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
March 2, 2020
Ernest is a Red Army veteran, a former partisan and a communist who gave up his Jewish identity while fighting the Nazis. For him the Soviet army must have been a way to fight back, but during the war he also turned into a communist. This meant turning his back on his religion and identity. It is not a well known facts that communists persecuted Jews, suppressed their culture and demolished synagogues. Just because they had a common enemy, doesn't mean they were friends. This novel shows this through recollections of an old veteran whose health is falling.
When novel takes places, Ernst is a seventy year old man living in Israel. He is haunted by his past and tries to make things right labouring on his writing. However, he is desperately lonely. Suddenly, a gentle thirty something woman comes into his life. Like himself, Irina lost everyone she loved. Ernst's wife and child were killed by the Nazis, Irina lost her parents. They were Holocaust survivors so there is a link she shares with Ernst. Slowly, these two fill the void in each other life. With her help, Ernest learns a great deal. Irina learns to voice her opinions.
I absolutely loved these two. Their love story is so delicate and precious. I'm not much of a romantic, but I fell for it. When I find the time, I might even write something more about it. One of the most beautiful love stories I have read for sure. Suddenly, Love was the second book I've read by this author, the first was autobiography, this one is a novel. Somehow these two merged in my mind. I think there are definitely some autobiographical parts in this book, the author must have drawn on his experiences and it makes the book seem even more real. I do recommend it!
When novel takes places, Ernst is a seventy year old man living in Israel. He is haunted by his past and tries to make things right labouring on his writing. However, he is desperately lonely. Suddenly, a gentle thirty something woman comes into his life. Like himself, Irina lost everyone she loved. Ernst's wife and child were killed by the Nazis, Irina lost her parents. They were Holocaust survivors so there is a link she shares with Ernst. Slowly, these two fill the void in each other life. With her help, Ernest learns a great deal. Irina learns to voice her opinions.
I absolutely loved these two. Their love story is so delicate and precious. I'm not much of a romantic, but I fell for it. When I find the time, I might even write something more about it. One of the most beautiful love stories I have read for sure. Suddenly, Love was the second book I've read by this author, the first was autobiography, this one is a novel. Somehow these two merged in my mind. I think there are definitely some autobiographical parts in this book, the author must have drawn on his experiences and it makes the book seem even more real. I do recommend it!
March 19, 2014
I love this book cover, it exemplifies the story so well. This is a quiet and introspective book featuring two people that are so different. Ernst, who disclaimed his Jewish roots when he was young, was a veteran of the Red Army in the Ukraine. He was a communist who persecuted the Jews. Now at the age of seventy, in failing health, he is trying to write his memoirs, finding a way to come terms with his past behavior and beliefs. Seeking forgiveness from his now dead parents.
Irena is 36, her parents now also deceased were Holocaust survivors. She comes to take care of Ernst who often suffers from depression. Somehow these two unlikely souls, forge a bond and a relationship that is endearing and inspiring. A wonderful look at forgiveness and love, for oneself and for others.
Arc from publisher.
Irena is 36, her parents now also deceased were Holocaust survivors. She comes to take care of Ernst who often suffers from depression. Somehow these two unlikely souls, forge a bond and a relationship that is endearing and inspiring. A wonderful look at forgiveness and love, for oneself and for others.
Arc from publisher.
April 22, 2019
The title is misleading. Yes, this is a love story, but the love that develops between Ernst and Irena is not sudden nor is it romantic.
As he is dying, Ernst discovers “a reservoir of living water within him.”
Irena’s devotion to him is “the gateway to life.”
Observing her serenity... her living life as a prayer... he journeys back in time and comes to an understanding of his godless Communist past and, more importantly, to an appreciation of his parents and grandparents.
It is only in dying that Ernst is able to move from disdain of his Ukrainian Jewish parents and their silence to a recognition of the NOBILITY OF SILENCE.
“It was a silence born of nobility that extended back for many generations, generations (of Jews) that have TAUGHT THEMSELVES this silence.
They understood that life is short, incomprehensible, and ugly and that speaking didn’t necessarily add to understanding.”
So, too, is his appreciation of his grandparents deepened as he nears death. Remembering his observant Jewish grandfather in the Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe....
Grandfather said to me “Not everything has a reason. God keeps the reasons for some things from us. But what we see and feel is enough. Lots of talk won’t explain. It’s better just to OBSERVE WHAT WE’VE BEEN COMMANDED TO OBSERVE.
God’s thoughts don’t grow out of words but come from proper observation. A PERSON MUST BE ATTENTIVE TO HEAR WHAT GOD ASKS OF HIM.”
As he is dying, Ernst discovers “a reservoir of living water within him.”
Irena’s devotion to him is “the gateway to life.”
Observing her serenity... her living life as a prayer... he journeys back in time and comes to an understanding of his godless Communist past and, more importantly, to an appreciation of his parents and grandparents.
It is only in dying that Ernst is able to move from disdain of his Ukrainian Jewish parents and their silence to a recognition of the NOBILITY OF SILENCE.
“It was a silence born of nobility that extended back for many generations, generations (of Jews) that have TAUGHT THEMSELVES this silence.
They understood that life is short, incomprehensible, and ugly and that speaking didn’t necessarily add to understanding.”
So, too, is his appreciation of his grandparents deepened as he nears death. Remembering his observant Jewish grandfather in the Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe....
Grandfather said to me “Not everything has a reason. God keeps the reasons for some things from us. But what we see and feel is enough. Lots of talk won’t explain. It’s better just to OBSERVE WHAT WE’VE BEEN COMMANDED TO OBSERVE.
God’s thoughts don’t grow out of words but come from proper observation. A PERSON MUST BE ATTENTIVE TO HEAR WHAT GOD ASKS OF HIM.”
April 23, 2024
I misteri della vita assumono le spoglie di malattie che lasciano interdetti anche i medici
Essenziale sia nella scrittura che nella struttura. Essenziale non nel senso di scarnificato fino all'osso, bensì nel senso di "elementare": ma ha indiscutibilmente un suo stile, pertanto il tutto risulta piacevole. A un certo punto si fa molto lento, ed anche questa lentezza ha il suo lato piacevole perché si intona con i contenuti. L'Amore compare nel titolo ma con il contenuto c'entra poco o niente: questo sempre accade quando c'è l'Amore nel titolo (ad esempio, ricordo tanti anni fa le mie iniziali perplessità di fronte all'ottimo Elena, Elena amore mio di De Crescenzo; e poco tempo dopo mi ricordo benissimo di un tizio che per far "colpo" mi sfotteva vedendomi leggere Il vecchio che leggeva romanzi d'amore: ignorante perché non conosceva Sepúlveda; e ignorante due volte perché non si capisce in che modo uno possa arrivare a credere che, per attirare l'attenzione di una ragazzina quattordicenne, il metodo giusto sia di punzecchiarla e prenderla in giro. Già ho i miei dubbi che un tale metodo possa funzionare con una panterona maliziosona. Fine della digressione).
Dunque dicevo: il fatto che qui ci siano uno scrittore (anzi, aspirante scrittore) settantenne ed una trentaseienne che dovrebbe essere un qualcosa di simile alla badante, ed il fatto che i due vadano ad instaurare un rapporto speciale, è tutto un pretesto per parlar d'altro. La loro intimità sarà per lo più elegantemente sottaciuta e per lo più racchiusa nelle battute finali di ogni capitolo. Si evidenzia piuttosto una storia che parla di dolore, del male di vivere, della difficoltà di riconciliarsi con il passato - più in particolare con gli errori del passato - eppure è un racconto delicato ed elegante come una ballerina che danza sulle punte. Quel che accadrà - non proprio all'improvviso ma comunque quando lui non ci sperava più - sarà che il protagonista troverà una "strada di casa", cioè la via per riconciliarsi con i ricordi, con la sua famiglia, la sua cultura - nello specifico: una cultura arcaica, difficile ed a volte ingombrante come quella ebraica. In questo senso, l'Amore che compare nel titolo assomiglia molto molto da vicino a quello che c'è in Una storia d'amore di Guimarães Rosa: è l'amore per le proprie radici, per il proprio paese.
Oltre al tema della nostalgia e della riconciliazione con i propri fantasmi (soprattutto i fantasmi dei genitori e dei nonni, i primi seriosi ed enigmatici some sfingi, i secondi benevoli e superiori come un Tom Bombadil - mi si passi il paragone), della continuità e dell'identificazione tra nonni-genitori-figli quasi fossero parti diverse di un'unica entità; oltre a tutto questo si trovano tanti altri spunti interessanti: sull'attività dello scrittore descritta come un'attività faticosa, paragonata allo scavare pozzi nella roccia del passato alla ricerca di una fonte di acqua pura, ossia alla ricerca delle parole giuste. Si sottolinea l'importanza della scrittura elementare, priva di fronzoli e metafore e altre figure retoriche, vi si parla di eliminare persino gli aggettivi (e allora io, all'esame di Appelfeld, sono già bocciata!). Più nel dettaglio, a proposito dello scrivere del dolore: il protagonista (e con esso, evidentemente, anche l'autore) si chiede se sia oppure no possibile scrivere della Shoah, e se sia giusto oppure no farlo, se sia cosa doverosa oppure proibita. È uno spunto interessantissimo perché noi, oggi, tendiamo molto a dare per scontato che della Shoah più se ne parla meglio è, più si ricorda meglio è. Eppure, a furia di rappresentazioni e interpretazioni e fiction varie in cui, per carità, gli ebrei sono sempre i buoni e i nazisti (dell'Illinois) sono sempre i cattivi, a furia di calcare la mano a fin di bene, non si finisce per svilire e finanche per banalizzare e deflazionare il discorso? Questa immensa tragedia, questa inimmaginabile quantità di dolore non dovrebbe restare su un piano superiore rispetto tutti gli altri temi ed argomenti? In un passo qui il protagonista dice: "Tutti i testi del giorno della Shoah gli sembravano artefatti, privi di senso o, peggio ancora, grotteschi: una accolta di affaristi e politici che spendevano parole trite, portavano fiaccole e glorificavano i partigiani. Se questo è il modo di parlare della Shoah, allora io non posso proprio, si diceva. E in effetti osservava il silenzio." Poi, però, lo stesso autore, per tramite della protagonista, ci ricorda quanto essenziali siano le opere di alcuni autori, in primis Primo Levi: "La guerra è un capitolo misterioso nell'anima di Irena. Da quando ha letto i libri di Leib Ruchman e di Primo Levi, capisce perché i suoi genitori non le hanno raccontato di più. [...] Strano, dice Irena a sé stessa, per vedere mio padre e mia madre in quelle loro dure prove, devo leggere Primo Levi. Un ebreo italiano mi ha svelato quel che non mi hanno saputo dire i miei genitori".
I protagonisti sono entrambi amabili, si entra in empatia con loro e ci si può facilmente immedesimare nei loro comportamenti, nei pensieri e nei ricordi dell'uno e/o dell'altra. Particolarmente da apprezzare la costruzione della protagonista Irena: è una donna comunissima, ha sia pregi che difetti, anzi i suoi pregi si trovano proprio nascosti negli anfratti dei suoi difetti, porta con sé una sorta di lieve "magia" ma non è la classica wonderwoman come se ne trova nella stragrande maggioranza dei romanzi, un fenomeno che ormai imperversa sotto la bandiera di un femminismo un po' distorto e un po' tanto pinkwashing e che francamente io non sopporto più.
Dunque Appelfeld promosso a pieni voti. Se penso che l'ho acquistato a casaccio, solo perché attirata dalle sirene della promozione sui libri Guanda, mi dico che forse dovrei badare più spesso a certe promozioni.
Essenziale sia nella scrittura che nella struttura. Essenziale non nel senso di scarnificato fino all'osso, bensì nel senso di "elementare": ma ha indiscutibilmente un suo stile, pertanto il tutto risulta piacevole. A un certo punto si fa molto lento, ed anche questa lentezza ha il suo lato piacevole perché si intona con i contenuti. L'Amore compare nel titolo ma con il contenuto c'entra poco o niente: questo sempre accade quando c'è l'Amore nel titolo (ad esempio, ricordo tanti anni fa le mie iniziali perplessità di fronte all'ottimo Elena, Elena amore mio di De Crescenzo; e poco tempo dopo mi ricordo benissimo di un tizio che per far "colpo" mi sfotteva vedendomi leggere Il vecchio che leggeva romanzi d'amore: ignorante perché non conosceva Sepúlveda; e ignorante due volte perché non si capisce in che modo uno possa arrivare a credere che, per attirare l'attenzione di una ragazzina quattordicenne, il metodo giusto sia di punzecchiarla e prenderla in giro. Già ho i miei dubbi che un tale metodo possa funzionare con una panterona maliziosona. Fine della digressione).
Dunque dicevo: il fatto che qui ci siano uno scrittore (anzi, aspirante scrittore) settantenne ed una trentaseienne che dovrebbe essere un qualcosa di simile alla badante, ed il fatto che i due vadano ad instaurare un rapporto speciale, è tutto un pretesto per parlar d'altro. La loro intimità sarà per lo più elegantemente sottaciuta e per lo più racchiusa nelle battute finali di ogni capitolo. Si evidenzia piuttosto una storia che parla di dolore, del male di vivere, della difficoltà di riconciliarsi con il passato - più in particolare con gli errori del passato - eppure è un racconto delicato ed elegante come una ballerina che danza sulle punte. Quel che accadrà - non proprio all'improvviso ma comunque quando lui non ci sperava più - sarà che il protagonista troverà una "strada di casa", cioè la via per riconciliarsi con i ricordi, con la sua famiglia, la sua cultura - nello specifico: una cultura arcaica, difficile ed a volte ingombrante come quella ebraica. In questo senso, l'Amore che compare nel titolo assomiglia molto molto da vicino a quello che c'è in Una storia d'amore di Guimarães Rosa: è l'amore per le proprie radici, per il proprio paese.
Oltre al tema della nostalgia e della riconciliazione con i propri fantasmi (soprattutto i fantasmi dei genitori e dei nonni, i primi seriosi ed enigmatici some sfingi, i secondi benevoli e superiori come un Tom Bombadil - mi si passi il paragone), della continuità e dell'identificazione tra nonni-genitori-figli quasi fossero parti diverse di un'unica entità; oltre a tutto questo si trovano tanti altri spunti interessanti: sull'attività dello scrittore descritta come un'attività faticosa, paragonata allo scavare pozzi nella roccia del passato alla ricerca di una fonte di acqua pura, ossia alla ricerca delle parole giuste. Si sottolinea l'importanza della scrittura elementare, priva di fronzoli e metafore e altre figure retoriche, vi si parla di eliminare persino gli aggettivi (e allora io, all'esame di Appelfeld, sono già bocciata!). Più nel dettaglio, a proposito dello scrivere del dolore: il protagonista (e con esso, evidentemente, anche l'autore) si chiede se sia oppure no possibile scrivere della Shoah, e se sia giusto oppure no farlo, se sia cosa doverosa oppure proibita. È uno spunto interessantissimo perché noi, oggi, tendiamo molto a dare per scontato che della Shoah più se ne parla meglio è, più si ricorda meglio è. Eppure, a furia di rappresentazioni e interpretazioni e fiction varie in cui, per carità, gli ebrei sono sempre i buoni e i nazisti (dell'Illinois) sono sempre i cattivi, a furia di calcare la mano a fin di bene, non si finisce per svilire e finanche per banalizzare e deflazionare il discorso? Questa immensa tragedia, questa inimmaginabile quantità di dolore non dovrebbe restare su un piano superiore rispetto tutti gli altri temi ed argomenti? In un passo qui il protagonista dice: "Tutti i testi del giorno della Shoah gli sembravano artefatti, privi di senso o, peggio ancora, grotteschi: una accolta di affaristi e politici che spendevano parole trite, portavano fiaccole e glorificavano i partigiani. Se questo è il modo di parlare della Shoah, allora io non posso proprio, si diceva. E in effetti osservava il silenzio." Poi, però, lo stesso autore, per tramite della protagonista, ci ricorda quanto essenziali siano le opere di alcuni autori, in primis Primo Levi: "La guerra è un capitolo misterioso nell'anima di Irena. Da quando ha letto i libri di Leib Ruchman e di Primo Levi, capisce perché i suoi genitori non le hanno raccontato di più. [...] Strano, dice Irena a sé stessa, per vedere mio padre e mia madre in quelle loro dure prove, devo leggere Primo Levi. Un ebreo italiano mi ha svelato quel che non mi hanno saputo dire i miei genitori".
I protagonisti sono entrambi amabili, si entra in empatia con loro e ci si può facilmente immedesimare nei loro comportamenti, nei pensieri e nei ricordi dell'uno e/o dell'altra. Particolarmente da apprezzare la costruzione della protagonista Irena: è una donna comunissima, ha sia pregi che difetti, anzi i suoi pregi si trovano proprio nascosti negli anfratti dei suoi difetti, porta con sé una sorta di lieve "magia" ma non è la classica wonderwoman come se ne trova nella stragrande maggioranza dei romanzi, un fenomeno che ormai imperversa sotto la bandiera di un femminismo un po' distorto e un po' tanto pinkwashing e che francamente io non sopporto più.
Dunque Appelfeld promosso a pieni voti. Se penso che l'ho acquistato a casaccio, solo perché attirata dalle sirene della promozione sui libri Guanda, mi dico che forse dovrei badare più spesso a certe promozioni.
April 25, 2019
What makes this short novel special is its portrayal of a fresh sort of relationship, between two people — an educated man in his 70s and an uneducated woman in her 30s — with apparently opposite relationships with dead parents that have limited their lives in different ways. Their relationship brings both of them emotional healing, but again in very different ways and without the usual romance and conflicts. The simplicity of Appelfeld’s prose works well here. The only negative is that the pleasures of reading this novel are limited.
May 14, 2014
As I read this story I felt as if I was trespassing, a voyeur witnessing two souls find an accidental love. Their love is unspoken but understood, a silent intruder without premeditation. Every gesture is noted and understood, no interpretation required. Two people so dissimilar but so much a like. Their love is pure, genuine - it has no boundaries only to envelop the other in a positive way. A deep friendship set on fire, giving comfort, easing pain. Completely accepting of each other, unconditional love. One sees beauty in every thing, the other sees the beauty through the others eyes adding color to his previous dark world. Love is often stealth, entering your heart and world when least expected and often you find love with the most unlikeliest of persons. Love sees no color, no age, no religion, no ethnicity, it is blind and conquers all, most importantly - love chooses you. When you open your eyes and your heart allowing yourself to love and be loved is when you experience profound true love. So goes the story of
Suddenly, Love
"Irena is like not like other women. He learns this anew each day. There is a kind of solid innocence about her that one cannot easily shake."
Suddenly, Love is the story of bearish Ernst and his softhearted caregiver Irena whose world's entangle and their hearts silently entwine. A emotional story of love, forgiveness, devotion and friendship, all things beautiful.
"When Irena returns home, she realizes that the day spent in Ernst's company has filled her with emotion. Sometimes she sits at the table and is so moved that she weeps."
A copy was given in exchange for an honest review
"Irena is like not like other women. He learns this anew each day. There is a kind of solid innocence about her that one cannot easily shake."
Suddenly, Love is the story of bearish Ernst and his softhearted caregiver Irena whose world's entangle and their hearts silently entwine. A emotional story of love, forgiveness, devotion and friendship, all things beautiful.
"When Irena returns home, she realizes that the day spent in Ernst's company has filled her with emotion. Sometimes she sits at the table and is so moved that she weeps."
A copy was given in exchange for an honest review
October 22, 2020
This novel is written with few characters and a relatively spare setting. The effect is a tightly focused novel drawing subtle lessons and parallels.
Silence plays the role of shadow character, distilled into the shape and weight of human history. For some, silence is the language of the sorrowful. For others, it's the entrance to insight.
The bare narrative itself is a parallel to the nature of speech at its most essential. Too many descriptors can blunt the effect of starkly declared truths. Superlatives, similes, and excess metaphors must be stripped away, before any kind of spiritual transformation can occur. And, this transformation is, in turn, dependent on remembrance, not just of who we are, but where we come from. Our literal and spiritual ancestors are key to recovering Eden and reconnecting to the lost parts of ourselves.
Silence plays the role of shadow character, distilled into the shape and weight of human history. For some, silence is the language of the sorrowful. For others, it's the entrance to insight.
The bare narrative itself is a parallel to the nature of speech at its most essential. Too many descriptors can blunt the effect of starkly declared truths. Superlatives, similes, and excess metaphors must be stripped away, before any kind of spiritual transformation can occur. And, this transformation is, in turn, dependent on remembrance, not just of who we are, but where we come from. Our literal and spiritual ancestors are key to recovering Eden and reconnecting to the lost parts of ourselves.
March 14, 2015
Ernst is a 70-year old Jewish man, a refugee from Europe, living in Israel several decades after World War II. Back in the 1930’s in Romania, he was a strident young communist who had rejected his family and his heritage. As part of the revolutionary vanguard, he and his young comrades torched “bourgeois” businesses owned by local Jews. During the war he fought with distinction and bravery as an officer in the Red Army. Young Ernst’s wife and child parents perished in the war, as did his parents.
Ernst, who is divorced from his second wife, is depressed and stuck. For years now, particularly since his retirement, Ernst has been making literary efforts and then tearing most of them up.
As the book opens, following hospitalization for medical problems, Ernst now requires the services of a home care worker. Enter Irena, age 36, the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Irena has led a sheltered life, mostly taking care of her parents. Now that they have now passed away, she is seeking something to do, and ends up spending time daily doing household chores for Ernst.
Ernst is a displaced person in every sense of the word, and Irena has yet to connect with the world. Slowly at first, this novel describes how their relationship develops and how this growing connection contributes to a reawakening of a grounded identity for Ernst and the blossoming of Irena’s capacity for connection.
My reaction to this book is a mixed one. It moves very slowly at first and gradually builds momentum. The parts about Ernst’s youthful infatuation with Communism are very interesting from a historical perspective. Suddenly Love eventually becomes a touching story but perhaps an overly simplistic one, about a displaced person who, at the end of his life, reclaims a vital connection with a past that he had turned his back on years ago.
Interestingly, the Zionist pioneers who settled in Israel spurned their parents’ culture, religion and values in Europe and found their raison d’etre in rebuilding the Land of Israel as a Jewish Homeland. Ernst, who turned his back on his parents and their culture and religion long ago, never quite fit into Israeli society but now finds his vital connection from memories of his grandparents’ rural pious life in the Carpathian Mountains of Europe.
Ernst, who is divorced from his second wife, is depressed and stuck. For years now, particularly since his retirement, Ernst has been making literary efforts and then tearing most of them up.
As the book opens, following hospitalization for medical problems, Ernst now requires the services of a home care worker. Enter Irena, age 36, the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Irena has led a sheltered life, mostly taking care of her parents. Now that they have now passed away, she is seeking something to do, and ends up spending time daily doing household chores for Ernst.
Ernst is a displaced person in every sense of the word, and Irena has yet to connect with the world. Slowly at first, this novel describes how their relationship develops and how this growing connection contributes to a reawakening of a grounded identity for Ernst and the blossoming of Irena’s capacity for connection.
My reaction to this book is a mixed one. It moves very slowly at first and gradually builds momentum. The parts about Ernst’s youthful infatuation with Communism are very interesting from a historical perspective. Suddenly Love eventually becomes a touching story but perhaps an overly simplistic one, about a displaced person who, at the end of his life, reclaims a vital connection with a past that he had turned his back on years ago.
Interestingly, the Zionist pioneers who settled in Israel spurned their parents’ culture, religion and values in Europe and found their raison d’etre in rebuilding the Land of Israel as a Jewish Homeland. Ernst, who turned his back on his parents and their culture and religion long ago, never quite fit into Israeli society but now finds his vital connection from memories of his grandparents’ rural pious life in the Carpathian Mountains of Europe.
July 12, 2014
After I've read it again I might give it a 5th star.
I tried a previous book by Apelfeld and couldn't get into it. This I read in one sitting.
It is such a sympathetic laying out of the two characters-- a 36 year old maiden lady and the 70 something scholar for whom she keeps house. Their secrets are never revealed-- it would have been quite a different book if they had been-- but their actual escapades are not the subject of the story.
This book is about Irena and Ernst's failed connections with their parents, their coming to understand-- to a certain extent-- and their own relationship. This book is about LOVE even though the only place I noticed the word is in the title.
When I finished, I felt sad and empty-- the book is complete! But I was also full of delight in the graceful description of Irena and Ernst's growing together and their apparent unconsciousness of what is happening between them.
The translation was magisterial.
I tried a previous book by Apelfeld and couldn't get into it. This I read in one sitting.
It is such a sympathetic laying out of the two characters-- a 36 year old maiden lady and the 70 something scholar for whom she keeps house. Their secrets are never revealed-- it would have been quite a different book if they had been-- but their actual escapades are not the subject of the story.
This book is about Irena and Ernst's failed connections with their parents, their coming to understand-- to a certain extent-- and their own relationship. This book is about LOVE even though the only place I noticed the word is in the title.
When I finished, I felt sad and empty-- the book is complete! But I was also full of delight in the graceful description of Irena and Ernst's growing together and their apparent unconsciousness of what is happening between them.
The translation was magisterial.
November 16, 2014
This is the story of an older man, Ernst, and his young, simple, devoted caretaker, Irena, who helps him reconnect and make peace with his past. In all honesty, I hated--HATED--this book when I first started it. Both characters are incredibly extreme--Ernst in his ridiculously rigid way of viewing the world, and Irena in her total and complete submission to the task of caring for Ernst. Seriously, I almost put the book down after reading the nth description of Ernst expressing vehement disapproval over some pointless nothing and then Irena responding with awe and unquestioning devotion: "She wants to kneel at his feet, cover his hand with both of hers, and say, 'I'm so pleased that you allow me to serve you.'" Really?
On the one hand, I found these characters incredibly unlikable--inflexible and uncompromising (each in their own way) to the point of irritation. I just couldn't buy it. These people were totally unbelievable to me.
But something happened in the last third of the novel; as both characters began to heal and open themselves up to new life possibilities, I started to wonder if Suddenly, Love was really "just" a short little story about two discontent people falling in love, or if it was a parable of sorts, possibly a story to teach us about the importance of staying connected to our pasts and our people.
In the beginning, the reader knows that there is a part of Ernst's past that he doesn't want to deal with. We know that his relationship with his parents was an odd one, full of gloomy silence, distance, and despair, but there is clearly more to it. It isn't until Ernst realizes he is dying and then is forced to interact with the somewhat dense but very spiritually-connected Irena, that Ernst is able to call up those past memories. I fully expected those memories to be even more painful than his memories of his parents and his cold childhood, tragic stories about war or death or some other loss. But the memories that Ernst begins to remember are actually very positive ones, which surprised me. They are memories about time spent with his grandparents as a child. Like Ernst's parents, his grandparents didn't mince words; they were often quiet and used silence to demonstrate respect for God and the earth. But unlike Ernst's parents, his grandparents were still warm and full of life. Ernst felt they were accessible; they would talk to him, teach him, answer his questions. And though the word is never used, it is clear that they loved Ernst and that Ernst felt loved by them.
Appelfeld's message seems to be two-fold: first, that it is important to be connected to your past, to come to terms with it in order to live your present life as fully as possible; and second, that it is important to be connected to a LOVING past. This second part is obviously not something we have control over. In Ernst's case, his parents were wounded and unable to process their own pain. Because of this (and despite the fact that Ernst did have a loving relationship with his grandparents) they passed their coldness--their despair and self-loathing--down to their son...sins of the father and all that.
It wasn't until Ernst begins his relationship with Irena, that he is able to come to terms with his relationship with his parents and reconnect to the happiness he felt when he was with his grandparents. Irena isn't very intelligent, and though I still find her unquestioning submission to Ernst incredibly irritating in the story, I think maybe Appelfeld's point is that cold hard facts and uncompromising objectivity aren't necessarily the culmination of human consciousness and achievement. There is a very crucial place for love, admiration, acceptance, and connection--especially connection with the past--and these are the qualities that make a life feel whole and complete.
Whether this was the message that Appelfeld intended to convey or not, I can definitely say that this story is a lot less simple than it appears to be at first. There are layers here, and while this book still isn't a favorite of mine, I did ultimately end up enjoying it for what it is.
On the one hand, I found these characters incredibly unlikable--inflexible and uncompromising (each in their own way) to the point of irritation. I just couldn't buy it. These people were totally unbelievable to me.
But something happened in the last third of the novel; as both characters began to heal and open themselves up to new life possibilities, I started to wonder if Suddenly, Love was really "just" a short little story about two discontent people falling in love, or if it was a parable of sorts, possibly a story to teach us about the importance of staying connected to our pasts and our people.
In the beginning, the reader knows that there is a part of Ernst's past that he doesn't want to deal with. We know that his relationship with his parents was an odd one, full of gloomy silence, distance, and despair, but there is clearly more to it. It isn't until Ernst realizes he is dying and then is forced to interact with the somewhat dense but very spiritually-connected Irena, that Ernst is able to call up those past memories. I fully expected those memories to be even more painful than his memories of his parents and his cold childhood, tragic stories about war or death or some other loss. But the memories that Ernst begins to remember are actually very positive ones, which surprised me. They are memories about time spent with his grandparents as a child. Like Ernst's parents, his grandparents didn't mince words; they were often quiet and used silence to demonstrate respect for God and the earth. But unlike Ernst's parents, his grandparents were still warm and full of life. Ernst felt they were accessible; they would talk to him, teach him, answer his questions. And though the word is never used, it is clear that they loved Ernst and that Ernst felt loved by them.
Appelfeld's message seems to be two-fold: first, that it is important to be connected to your past, to come to terms with it in order to live your present life as fully as possible; and second, that it is important to be connected to a LOVING past. This second part is obviously not something we have control over. In Ernst's case, his parents were wounded and unable to process their own pain. Because of this (and despite the fact that Ernst did have a loving relationship with his grandparents) they passed their coldness--their despair and self-loathing--down to their son...sins of the father and all that.
It wasn't until Ernst begins his relationship with Irena, that he is able to come to terms with his relationship with his parents and reconnect to the happiness he felt when he was with his grandparents. Irena isn't very intelligent, and though I still find her unquestioning submission to Ernst incredibly irritating in the story, I think maybe Appelfeld's point is that cold hard facts and uncompromising objectivity aren't necessarily the culmination of human consciousness and achievement. There is a very crucial place for love, admiration, acceptance, and connection--especially connection with the past--and these are the qualities that make a life feel whole and complete.
Whether this was the message that Appelfeld intended to convey or not, I can definitely say that this story is a lot less simple than it appears to be at first. There are layers here, and while this book still isn't a favorite of mine, I did ultimately end up enjoying it for what it is.
May 5, 2014
BOOK REVIEW: 'Suddenly, Love': Love Really Does Conquer All
REVIEWED BY DAVID M. KINCHEN
Amor Vincit Omnia: Shortly before the start of the first millennium, the Roman poet Virgil (70 B.C.- 19 B.C. most famous as the author of the "Aeneid" ) wrote "love conquers all things; let us too surrender to Love."
* * *
Ernst, the let's- get-down-to-brass-tacks, just the facts protagonist of Aharon Appelfeld's "Suddenly, Love" (Schocken Books, a division of Random House, translated from the Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green, 240 pages, $25.00, also available as a Kindle e-book) is in serious need of love.
Appelfeld, one of Israel's greatest novelists, portrays Ernst as a gruff seventy-year-old Red Army veteran from Ukraine who landed, almost by accident, in Israel after World War II. As a teen-ager, he joined the Communists who attacked Jewish shop-keepers, even though his own Jewish family ran a grocery store. When World War II started in 1939, Ernst joined the Red Army fighting the Germans.
There is no indication of the time of the novel, but judging by Ernst's age, I'm guessing it's the early 1990s. That would make it about right for Ernst to be a teen-age Communist activist in Bukovina -- in what was then Romania, now part of Ukraine -- just before the start of World War II. (What's going on now in Ukraine is nothing new in Europe, where boundaries don't last long. See: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t... for the division of Appelfeld's native region of Bukovina between Romania and Ukraine). Appelfeld was born in Czernowitz, Bukovina, now part of Ukraine, in 1932.
Ernst is an aspiring author, a retired investment adviser who ives alone (his first wife and baby daughter were killed by the Nazis, drowned in the Bug River during the war). He's divorced from his second wife and spends his time laboring over his unpublished novels.
His caregiver -- he has serious medical problems and has been in and out of hospitals -- is Irena. She's in her mid-thirties, the unmarried daughter of Holocaust survivors who was born in a displaced persons (DP) camp in Europe. Irena has been taking care of Ernst since his surgery two years earlier; she arrives every morning promptly at eight and usually leaves every afternoon at three.
Irena is quiet and shy, in awe of Ernst’s intellect and does her best to encourage him. Whether she realizes it or not, she's falling in love with the old guy!
She's about as different from Ernst as it's possible to be. She's more or less religiously observant, unlike Ernst, who's antagonistic toward religion. And as the months pass, Ernst comes to depend on the gentle young woman who runs his house, listens to him read from his work, and occasionally offers a spirited commentary on it. Ernst also discovers religion, to his shock.
At first, the reader is led to believe that Irena is mild and shy -- which she is -- but we quickly learn that she's much stronger than she appears, showing signs of being what in some parts of the U.S. is known as a "steel magnolia." Along with the desserts she makes and he loves, she gives Ernst the will to live, to do battle with his demons, and won't take no for an answer as she helps him fight his ailments and his depression.
This is where the title kicks in: Ernst begins to realize that Irena is more than a cook and a house cleaner, although she excels in those areas. Ernst discovers that this woman half his age is in love with him -- and even more shocking -- that's he's in love with her, too.
"Suddenly, Love" is a wonderful look at something -- love -- we all need and we never get too much of. I was surprised that it was originally published in Israel 11 years ago, in 2003. It's taken this long for it to appear in the U.S. in English. If you don't read any other love story this year, make an exception for "Suddenly, Love."
REVIEWED BY DAVID M. KINCHEN
Amor Vincit Omnia: Shortly before the start of the first millennium, the Roman poet Virgil (70 B.C.- 19 B.C. most famous as the author of the "Aeneid" ) wrote "love conquers all things; let us too surrender to Love."
* * *
Ernst, the let's- get-down-to-brass-tacks, just the facts protagonist of Aharon Appelfeld's "Suddenly, Love" (Schocken Books, a division of Random House, translated from the Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green, 240 pages, $25.00, also available as a Kindle e-book) is in serious need of love.
Appelfeld, one of Israel's greatest novelists, portrays Ernst as a gruff seventy-year-old Red Army veteran from Ukraine who landed, almost by accident, in Israel after World War II. As a teen-ager, he joined the Communists who attacked Jewish shop-keepers, even though his own Jewish family ran a grocery store. When World War II started in 1939, Ernst joined the Red Army fighting the Germans.
There is no indication of the time of the novel, but judging by Ernst's age, I'm guessing it's the early 1990s. That would make it about right for Ernst to be a teen-age Communist activist in Bukovina -- in what was then Romania, now part of Ukraine -- just before the start of World War II. (What's going on now in Ukraine is nothing new in Europe, where boundaries don't last long. See: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t... for the division of Appelfeld's native region of Bukovina between Romania and Ukraine). Appelfeld was born in Czernowitz, Bukovina, now part of Ukraine, in 1932.
Ernst is an aspiring author, a retired investment adviser who ives alone (his first wife and baby daughter were killed by the Nazis, drowned in the Bug River during the war). He's divorced from his second wife and spends his time laboring over his unpublished novels.
His caregiver -- he has serious medical problems and has been in and out of hospitals -- is Irena. She's in her mid-thirties, the unmarried daughter of Holocaust survivors who was born in a displaced persons (DP) camp in Europe. Irena has been taking care of Ernst since his surgery two years earlier; she arrives every morning promptly at eight and usually leaves every afternoon at three.
Irena is quiet and shy, in awe of Ernst’s intellect and does her best to encourage him. Whether she realizes it or not, she's falling in love with the old guy!
She's about as different from Ernst as it's possible to be. She's more or less religiously observant, unlike Ernst, who's antagonistic toward religion. And as the months pass, Ernst comes to depend on the gentle young woman who runs his house, listens to him read from his work, and occasionally offers a spirited commentary on it. Ernst also discovers religion, to his shock.
At first, the reader is led to believe that Irena is mild and shy -- which she is -- but we quickly learn that she's much stronger than she appears, showing signs of being what in some parts of the U.S. is known as a "steel magnolia." Along with the desserts she makes and he loves, she gives Ernst the will to live, to do battle with his demons, and won't take no for an answer as she helps him fight his ailments and his depression.
This is where the title kicks in: Ernst begins to realize that Irena is more than a cook and a house cleaner, although she excels in those areas. Ernst discovers that this woman half his age is in love with him -- and even more shocking -- that's he's in love with her, too.
"Suddenly, Love" is a wonderful look at something -- love -- we all need and we never get too much of. I was surprised that it was originally published in Israel 11 years ago, in 2003. It's taken this long for it to appear in the U.S. in English. If you don't read any other love story this year, make an exception for "Suddenly, Love."
August 29, 2017
Ernst is an old man who needed a housekeeper and a nursemaid. Irena is a simple-minded woman in her 30s, with few thoughts of her own that did not come from her parents. Ernst needs Irena to take care of him, and Irena needs someone to take care of, which ends up being Ernst. That's the least complicated way to view this book.
It's not that simple, however. Ernst wasn't looking for a nursemaid at first; he just ended up needing one. And Irena spent most of her time before Ernst staying in her home communicating with her dead parents. Their togetherness helps Ernst to continue living in his home and writing all the things he needs to write, so he can regain the part of his soul he lost when he became a Communist as a teenager. Their togetherness helps Irena to start having some original thoughts of her own, and to recognize she has special qualities and abilities.
Throughout this all, there is constant contact and talking with deceased relatives. Not using Ouija boards or mediums, but simply believing they are there, and talking to them in one's mind. Irena especially believes she can communicate with her parents when they "appear" in her home, which was their home; and believes Ernst's parents will show up in his home, so he can make amends for the terrible way he treated them in his younger days. Mixed in with all of this are stories of persecution of Jews, and stories of concentration camps and other war atrocities. Nothing is too graphic, however. This is in many ways a very gentle book, with gentle hopes and dreams, including gentle beliefs of a future together for Ernst and Irena, that is in many ways an altered past.
(Note: I received a free ARC of this book from Amazon Vine.)
It's not that simple, however. Ernst wasn't looking for a nursemaid at first; he just ended up needing one. And Irena spent most of her time before Ernst staying in her home communicating with her dead parents. Their togetherness helps Ernst to continue living in his home and writing all the things he needs to write, so he can regain the part of his soul he lost when he became a Communist as a teenager. Their togetherness helps Irena to start having some original thoughts of her own, and to recognize she has special qualities and abilities.
Throughout this all, there is constant contact and talking with deceased relatives. Not using Ouija boards or mediums, but simply believing they are there, and talking to them in one's mind. Irena especially believes she can communicate with her parents when they "appear" in her home, which was their home; and believes Ernst's parents will show up in his home, so he can make amends for the terrible way he treated them in his younger days. Mixed in with all of this are stories of persecution of Jews, and stories of concentration camps and other war atrocities. Nothing is too graphic, however. This is in many ways a very gentle book, with gentle hopes and dreams, including gentle beliefs of a future together for Ernst and Irena, that is in many ways an altered past.
(Note: I received a free ARC of this book from Amazon Vine.)
September 11, 2014
I'd actually give this a 3 1/2 stars, but I'm inclined to round up here. This short novel of Ernst, a 70-something year old man being cared for by Irena, a thirty-something woman. They live in Israel, but Ernst was born in Ukraine and Irena in a displaced persons camp after the war. The novel is just about them: others appear through Ernst's writing (and, yes, a doctor or two show up), but the book is claustrophobic, concentrating so wholly on them.
Through Ernst's writing we see him as a young man, an officer in the Red Army, and the picture is well painted and disturbing. The story, for me, really comes to life when he discusses his childhood in the Carpathian Mountains with his grandparents. Such a vivid picture!
This book is also, in some ways, a critique on writing: Ernst constantly discusses what makes good writing--the sparse language, the focus--and this is the way that Appelfeld had structured his novel. It's a little thin for my tastes.
Irena as a character bothered me a bit, her simple-mindedness, her constant assertions that she is just a "simple" girl. It disturbed me how she latched on to Ernst and made him her entire life. She had so much potential and I was frustrated that she didn't grasp it, although I suppose it's a sign of good writing that she was real enough that I could get angry at her.
This is a quiet novel, a short one, and I enjoyed reading it if for no other reason that it's so different from the style of books I normally enjoy. A great character study.
Through Ernst's writing we see him as a young man, an officer in the Red Army, and the picture is well painted and disturbing. The story, for me, really comes to life when he discusses his childhood in the Carpathian Mountains with his grandparents. Such a vivid picture!
This book is also, in some ways, a critique on writing: Ernst constantly discusses what makes good writing--the sparse language, the focus--and this is the way that Appelfeld had structured his novel. It's a little thin for my tastes.
Irena as a character bothered me a bit, her simple-mindedness, her constant assertions that she is just a "simple" girl. It disturbed me how she latched on to Ernst and made him her entire life. She had so much potential and I was frustrated that she didn't grasp it, although I suppose it's a sign of good writing that she was real enough that I could get angry at her.
This is a quiet novel, a short one, and I enjoyed reading it if for no other reason that it's so different from the style of books I normally enjoy. A great character study.
September 3, 2014
Thankfully I do not base all my reading choices based on titles or I would never have picked up Suddenly, Love by Aharon Appelfeld, and I would have missed out on a masterfully told story unconditional love. The story takes place in Israel where the reader meets Ernst, a 70-year-old Red Army veteran from Ukraine, and thirty-six year old Irena, the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Irena has been caring for Ernst and his home for two years and finds is intellect fascinating, yet the two are so very different, Ernst twice married, his first wife and child were murdered by the Nazis, and his second wife he divorced, while Irena never married. Irena attempts to help Ernst with his work, but he is too tormented by his past and as his health rapidly deteriorates Irena steps in to help Ernst find a reason to live. Appelfeld has constructed a beautiful, poetic, and at times rather sorrowful book about two people, who meet by chance, both haunted by their pasts and learn to find small joys in the simple things in life, as well as heal the wounds of the past and in so doing, just possibly find forgiveness. Suddenly, Love is exceptionally well written and not to be missed, do not be fooled by the title. I would recommend this book to everyone, but especially book discussion groups.
September 20, 2015
I really enjoyed this book. I read it for a book group. I enjoyed this book more than his other books. It is set in Jerusalem in modern times. I liked it because it had a more personal feel than his other books. It is the story of an elderly man and his housekeeper. The man has had his memories of his past lives in Europe locked inside of him. Through his relationship with Irena, his housekeeper he is able to unlock the secret parts of his past and his identity and strangely find love at the end of his life. The book is about the power of embracing your past and also coming to terms with the past and finding peace and wholeness at the end of a life.
September 25, 2016
I loved this book. I loved how the storyline wove from Israel to the Carpathian Mountains in the Ukraine. A grumpy author living in Israel, Ernst has spent the past 20 year attempting to write books unsuccessfully. He had avoided looking back at his life living in the Carpathian Mountains especially with his grandparents who were religious jews. After becoming ill, a caretaker a lovely gentle woman Irena affects his life and suddenly he is writing something that is pouring out of his heart. The pace is slow, the writing is beautiful and I could not help but become attached to the characters.
October 21, 2014
A wonderful book, well written. Follows the relationship between a retired, Jewish, Russian Red Army soldier who now lives in Israel. He tries to expiate his youthful anti-Semitic activities through writing as his health fails. He is cared for by a young, uncultured woman who doesn't understand his past but accepts him fully. They grow closer through out the story. A story of love and forgiveness.
April 22, 2016
An intimate story about an old man, Ernst, who wants to write and who gets seriously ill! Irene helps him in the household but even more in him finding the way, by writing, to his early days in the Carpathian, his family and his regrettable choices as a young man! More than a book about love, it is a book about family ties, about finding peace with one self as death approaches and how other can help you in that!
July 22, 2014
Has a wonderful emotional atmosphere. Part of tis is about the powers of silence and carefully considered words. Part is a lovely love story betweeen a sick elderly writer and the young, simple woman who cares for him . How they both are awakened by the relationship is beautifully rendered. Self forgiveness, the compelling force of one's heritage are all touched upon. Found this very compelling.
March 19, 2016
As a Gerontologist, I really wanted to love this book. I respect the historical fiction woven into the storyline. I did not like the characters of the book. The female lead had no substance and her love was more of subservience to Ernst than it was a real boundary breaking love I was expecting. Highly disappointed. Very hard to finish this book.
July 5, 2014
A magical book - so simply told, almost childlike, predictable, but surprising as it lures you into a world almost biblical when a holy spirit infused all of life and one's most vital effort was to maintain mindfulness
November 13, 2015
A great story to show the deeper understanding of characters. I kept reading to find out more. A little disappointed at the sudden ending.
May 12, 2018
“The purpose of writing is to rescue things from oblivion” ...”The truth has to be cloaked in the right words. Otherwise it will sound counterfeit or, worse than that, pretentious or hypocritical”
April 8, 2024
Suddenly, Love is one of the most beautiful books I've read in years. We follow about a year in the life of two lonely souls in Jerusalem. I think the story takes place in the 1990s, but I could be wrong. Irena is a 34 year old woman whose parents have passed into the next world, but whose connections to them lingers. Ernst is the writer who is a Shoah survivor, is in failing health, and who longs to complete a magnum opus before his death. He feels his writing is rubbish, his broken marriage was rubbish...he has very little reason to go. When Irena is hired as his housekeeper, the two of them connect and healing takes place for them both. SO SO BEAUTIFUL.
June 28, 2023
Ratings:
Writing 5
Story line 4
Characters 5
Impact 4
Overall rating 4.5
Writing 5
Story line 4
Characters 5
Impact 4
Overall rating 4.5
July 14, 2016
Returning Home
The concept is simple, even beautiful. An ailing man, aged seventy, engages a housekeeper half his age to look after him while he maintains his daily ritual of going to the cafe in the morning, walking in the afternoon, and writing pages and pages that he later disavows. It is Jerusalem in the 1980s. Irena, the housekeeper, has been housebound since the death of her parents, maintaining their apartment exactly as they left it, and communing from time to time with their ghosts; this new job at least gets her out of the house. In a way, she loves Ernst, her employer. But he is difficult. "In my youth love was uprooted from within me!" he exclaims. Irena answers, but only in her mind: "I'll give you all the love that I've gathered up."
The title is misleading; there is nothing sudden about this—except that thaw is always surprising when it comes after so many icebound years. And the reawakening of the power to love is more important than the love itself, although that is real also. The two people could not be more different. She is a high-school drop-out, born in a camp for displaced persons after the war, and moderately religious. He was a star pupil at his school in Czernowitz in Galicia, but was seduced by the Communist party into persecuting his own people. When war came, he joined the Red Army and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, further embittered by the loss of his young wife and daughter to the Nazis. He has come to Israel largely by accident; his Judaism is almost entirely secular. Yet he is challenged by her quiet faith, and begins rereading Genesis to get in touch with the simple lives of the old patriarchs. Soon his writing too takes on new purpose, as he recalls the long summer holidays spent with his grandparents in the Carpathian Mountains, which he comes to see as another Eden, the sanctuary of what he calls the Jews of Heaven. As his illness takes hold, he relies on Irena more and more, and she gives him the loving care he would never have received from his hateful ex-wife. Once more, his apartment becomes a home, even as in his mind he returns to another home.
As I say, the concept is beautiful. But I was less moved than I might have been. Partly this is because the present-tense style is so bare, so expository. This is true of Ernst's writing also:
The concept is simple, even beautiful. An ailing man, aged seventy, engages a housekeeper half his age to look after him while he maintains his daily ritual of going to the cafe in the morning, walking in the afternoon, and writing pages and pages that he later disavows. It is Jerusalem in the 1980s. Irena, the housekeeper, has been housebound since the death of her parents, maintaining their apartment exactly as they left it, and communing from time to time with their ghosts; this new job at least gets her out of the house. In a way, she loves Ernst, her employer. But he is difficult. "In my youth love was uprooted from within me!" he exclaims. Irena answers, but only in her mind: "I'll give you all the love that I've gathered up."
The title is misleading; there is nothing sudden about this—except that thaw is always surprising when it comes after so many icebound years. And the reawakening of the power to love is more important than the love itself, although that is real also. The two people could not be more different. She is a high-school drop-out, born in a camp for displaced persons after the war, and moderately religious. He was a star pupil at his school in Czernowitz in Galicia, but was seduced by the Communist party into persecuting his own people. When war came, he joined the Red Army and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, further embittered by the loss of his young wife and daughter to the Nazis. He has come to Israel largely by accident; his Judaism is almost entirely secular. Yet he is challenged by her quiet faith, and begins rereading Genesis to get in touch with the simple lives of the old patriarchs. Soon his writing too takes on new purpose, as he recalls the long summer holidays spent with his grandparents in the Carpathian Mountains, which he comes to see as another Eden, the sanctuary of what he calls the Jews of Heaven. As his illness takes hold, he relies on Irena more and more, and she gives him the loving care he would never have received from his hateful ex-wife. Once more, his apartment becomes a home, even as in his mind he returns to another home.
As I say, the concept is beautiful. But I was less moved than I might have been. Partly this is because the present-tense style is so bare, so expository. This is true of Ernst's writing also:
Years earlier he used to embellish the paragraphs with metaphors. Now he is striving for short sentences, factual, without adjectives. He has declared war against adjectives. Every time he encounters one, he uproots it.When he reads Irena passages that he has written (as he does with increasing frequency), we do learn about those happy summers of his childhood, we see his grandfather through his eyes as a secular saint, we hear what he felt about it all—but we do not necessarily feel it ourselves. The surprising simplicity of the ending had me saying "That's really moving." But only in my mind; there were no tears in my eyes.
July 4, 2016
Read my full review in New York Journal of Books. For a shorter synopsis of the novel see an article that appeared in a different and now defunct publication and begins with the next paragraph.
Jewish books: Suddenly, Love: Aharon Appelfeld's tale of emotional healing
Suddenly, Love, Israeli novelist Aharon Appelfeld’s twentieth book to appear in an English translation was published yesterday by Schocken Books, a division of New York publisher Random House. In Appelfeld’s fiction the Shoah casts a long shadow in the lives of his European Jewish characters, and that is also the case in this new novel, but this time the setting is 1980s Jerusalem rather than the diaspora.
The two characters in Suddenly, Love are Ernst, an elderly writer in frail health, and Irena, his home health attendant who is half his age. He is a Holocaust survivor, and she is the child of survivors; he is highly educated and has a modern, skeptical outlook, while she is a high school dropout from a religiously traditional home; he is emotionally distant from his family of origin, while she is overly attached to her deceased parents.
The socio-economic differences notwithstanding, unlike Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion Ernst does not transform Irena into a cosmopolitan upper-middle class secular Israeli. Instead the two help each other emotionally heal and grow even as Ernst’s physical health falters.
Appelfeld’s prose style has been compared to Earnest Hemingway’s for its direct simplicity, though Appelfeld cites the Hebrew Bible’s terseness as his primary stylistic influence. In my New York Journal of Books review I write, “Though not Appelfeld’s best work, Suddenly, Love despite its deceptive simplicity offers much food for thought and would be a good choice for book groups.” See that review for a fuller discussion of the novel.
Jewish books: Suddenly, Love: Aharon Appelfeld's tale of emotional healing
Suddenly, Love, Israeli novelist Aharon Appelfeld’s twentieth book to appear in an English translation was published yesterday by Schocken Books, a division of New York publisher Random House. In Appelfeld’s fiction the Shoah casts a long shadow in the lives of his European Jewish characters, and that is also the case in this new novel, but this time the setting is 1980s Jerusalem rather than the diaspora.
The two characters in Suddenly, Love are Ernst, an elderly writer in frail health, and Irena, his home health attendant who is half his age. He is a Holocaust survivor, and she is the child of survivors; he is highly educated and has a modern, skeptical outlook, while she is a high school dropout from a religiously traditional home; he is emotionally distant from his family of origin, while she is overly attached to her deceased parents.
The socio-economic differences notwithstanding, unlike Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion Ernst does not transform Irena into a cosmopolitan upper-middle class secular Israeli. Instead the two help each other emotionally heal and grow even as Ernst’s physical health falters.
Appelfeld’s prose style has been compared to Earnest Hemingway’s for its direct simplicity, though Appelfeld cites the Hebrew Bible’s terseness as his primary stylistic influence. In my New York Journal of Books review I write, “Though not Appelfeld’s best work, Suddenly, Love despite its deceptive simplicity offers much food for thought and would be a good choice for book groups.” See that review for a fuller discussion of the novel.
January 28, 2020
Coming to grips with the past
The main character of this book lives in Israel. He reflects on his past life as a communist in the Ukraine and a non practicing Jew.
The main character of this book lives in Israel. He reflects on his past life as a communist in the Ukraine and a non practicing Jew.
October 19, 2014
I admire how this author uses the story within the story to explain how the character has arrived at this point. And I just wish Irena had a bit more depth. I get that she is a simple woman, but it can be exhausting to read how much she lives for others - first her parents and then Ernst - all the while berating herself for being less than those around her. That said, the book is beautiful in its streamlined style. A window into a co-dependent relationship. It takes a great deal of still to advance a novel with so little action, particularly when the protagonists are so chaste and set in their peculiar ways.
June 27, 2017
Beautifully written story of a young woman and an older man who find love with each other. It is not the torrid passion of youth but sweet, lovely and really sneaks up on them. Some stories of this nature would have a "cute" factor. This does not. I especially enjoyed the historical component of this book.
Is it historical fiction? Is it a love story? Hard to categorize.
I would definitely read another book by Mr. Appelfeld.
Is it historical fiction? Is it a love story? Hard to categorize.
I would definitely read another book by Mr. Appelfeld.
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