When I was living in Buenos Aires years ago I used to spend a lot of time in all the bookstores that you can find throughout Cabildo Avenue. I was totally fascinated by them because you wouldn’t find so many interesting and rare books back in my country (I was born and raised in Paraguay). I started in the world of literature reading all the books that I found in my father’s bookshelves. Some books were gold for a young boy, but must of them were cheap books, ancient books or merely bad literature since my father wasn’t keen on reading, really. But those books helped me to develop a hunger for books that never left me after. In other words, I became a bookworm. So imagine how I felt when I first entered El Ateneo Grand Splendid, the largest and most magnificent library in Buenos Aires. For me, it was the ultimate expression of Borges’ idea of Paradise.
I was recalling those days because in those bookstores I had a couple of encounters with David Grossman’s books. The first book of his that caught my attention was The Book of Intimate Grammar and I was about to buy it if it weren’t for the fact that I wanted other books from authors that I actually knew. Then I came across See under: Love and The End of the Land. Thus, David Grossman became part of my list of Authors that I’d love to read if there weren’t so many other good authors to read for years.
Why did I feel so interested in his books? David Grossman wasn’t quite a well-known writer after all and I hadn’t read any review about his work at that time. Add to this the fact that I had a slight prejudice towards writers from the Middle East since Orhan Pamuk disappointed me with his novel The New Life, too pretentiously lyrical, sentimental and mystical for my taste (and I’m not even mentioning Salman Rushdie and his overwhelming novel Midnight Children). Call it an intuition, something about the cover of his books or the titles that attracted me, I don’t know exactly. Who can really tell why we feel curiosity toward a book we don’t know nothing about? I guess they simply call us and we answer to that call as naturally as we answer to someone who gave us a really good first impression and we don’t need to rationalize it that much. Well, that happened me with David Grossman.
But, truth be told, the first book that I actually read by him wasn’t a novel, but a little book of essays on Literature and Politics called Writing in the Dark. A powerful and touching testimony of what it means to be a writer in a country of constant conflicts and crises like Israel; an unstable place, surrounded by enemies and unable to bear the weight of its turbulent and excessive history. Reading this book you’ll also realize that the writer’s craft isn’t just about being good at telling a story or mastering the tools of language to create something. It’s a visceral work of self-discovering and a spiritual journey in which we struggle to understand the Otherness; thoughts, feelings or a worldview that isn’t ours. David Grossman state that, through our imagination and empathy, we are able to get into the skin of our characters and become another. “I invent characters. At times I feel as if I am digging up people from the ice in which reality enshrouded them, but maybe, more than anything else, it is myself that I am now digging up”.
So after I devoured that book, I decided it was time to read a novel written by him. The first book that came to mind was See Under: Love but I decided to start with Someone to Run With after reading its compelling blurb. It tells the story of Assaf and Tamar; two young people separated by social status and the kind of life they lead. Assaf is extremely shy and introvert and he tries to have a normal life like any other teenager of his age, but at the same time he grows tired of those people that pretend to be their friends. Tamar’s life, in the other hand, is much more thrilling and dangerous than Assaf’s in such a way that, at a first glance, one believes that it’s impossible to relate them in any way. She comes from a wealthy family, she’s outgoing and wants to become a singer. The thing that they share in common is that they’re both capable of leaving everything behind and go into hell itself for the people they care about. How to bring these seemingly antithetical characters together? Here’s where David Grossman uses man’s best friend: a dog called Dinka, Tamar’s closest friend, whose role in the story is vital.
Assaf is entrusted with the task of looking for Dinka’s owner by the town hall where he’s working temporarily. Tamar escapes from the comfort of her home and begins a search of her brother, a talented guitar player who is lost in the abyss of drugs and has been forgotten by his own parents. She starts a life as a street singer and elaborates a meticulous plan in order to save her brother from the bad people who enslave him. Thus begins a thrilling adventure full of dangers and uncertainties but also of learning and growth where both, Assaf and Tamar, will discover how fucked up the world really is and the unsuspected strength they had to fight against it. They will be forced by circumstances to become adults at a very young age.
David Grossman wrote: “When I invent a character, I want to know, feel and live, as much as possible, their mood, even those things to which it is difficult to give a name (…) I experience one of the greatest pleasures of writing: the possibility of allowing my characters to be themselves inside of me.” The author really meant it since you’ll feel Assaf and Tamar breathing through the pages, running across the streets of Jerusalem, going towards the unknown on perilous lands to that light of hope that shines beyond the horizon. That light will make their paths converge and link their fates.
I’ve shed some tears, I’ve felt Tamar's fear and insecurity when she had to sing for the first time in the streets or when Assaf had to fight against some vandals for something he believed was right. I’ve felt a fierce rage against Pesaj and his henchmen and the way they play with the lives of low-income artists as if they were merchandise and an indescribable joy when our two protagonists finally met and found the support they needed. I cursed the author for the situations in which he submitted his characters and I've loved him for conveying me so vividly what they felt. So I can only say thank you, Mister David Grossman, thank you for your truthful and powerful pen and for writing a book like few that has reminded me why I love literature and why there is always hope even in the darkest places of the human condition.