A New Retrospective by A.B. Yehoshua
THE RETROSPECTIVE by A.B. Yehoshua
Translated into English for the first time, A.B. Yehoshua’s novel The Retrospective is a tale of loyalty, allegiance and redemption to be compared with classics from Steinbeck, Faulkner and other great names in literature. Already the winner of the National Jewish Book Award and the Israel Prize, among others recognitions, it’s about time American audiences are getting a chance to read this gripping story.
The story starts off with Moses, an elderly film director, and the lead actress in the majority of his films, Ruth, arriving in Spain for a three-day retrospective of his films to be held at Santiago de Compostela. Moses is apprehensive as to the turnout, what kind of a reception his esoteric, Kafka-esque films will draw among this foreign crowd, and as always, concerned about Ruth, the woman he meet when she was barely more than a child, now a trouble yet still beautiful woman in her fifties.
As the retrospective begins, with one of Moses’ earliest films, created back when he was still working with the writer, producer and creative mind Trigano, a man who was also Ruth’s former lover, Moses is forced to rework his work in a foreign tongue – they are, after all, dubbed in Spanish for the audience – and focus on the character, the shots and his own direction. It’s unsettling for the director to look back at this early film and she all the handiwork of his former partner, to see the ways in which Ruth has changed since that time, and to see the gaps in which he could have / should have capitalized on the moment just a pinch longer or more in depth.
It’s this looking back that causes Moses to contemplate about the very reasons he and Trigano spilt at all. As it turns out, the fallout was over one especially explicit scene with Ruth, centering on the concept of Roman Charity: a young woman, a new mother who has just lost a child for whatever the reason, nurses an eldery man, sometimes a criminal with his hands tied behind his back, sometimes a simple beggar in the streets. It’s a concept Moses discovers for the first time here in Spain as a theme in art rather than a simply perversion of Trigano’s mind. He begins to think about the importance of the concept and reflect back on the reasons why he cut the scene from his own film – Ruth, young and on the edge of a break with Trigano was in tears, begging both men not to make her do the scene. Moses took pity on the actress, cut the scene, and ultimately caused the breakup of Ruth and Trigano as well as the break of his and Trigano’s creative partnership.
As the retrospective continues, Moses begins to feel the power of Trigano’s hand is involved, both in the translations of the Spanish dubbings as well as the choice of the films shown throughout the days, all of which are his early works on which Trigano was the most invested or fought the most over how the scenes played out. Unsurprisingly, at the end of the retrospective as he digs deeper to find the reasons why it was even held in the first place, why the films chosen were the only ones of his career selected, Moses finds that Trigano was in fact behind the event after all. It’s with this knowledge that Moses returns to his home in Israel, eager to find and confront his former partner once and for all, to put the past behind if at all possible.
The Retrospective reads so personal, it’s hard not to be in the head of Moses, to feel his remorse and understand his choices. It’s a choice to look onto the past, to rethink about the things that you once felt so sure, to see them through another light.
Like I said earlier, it’s about time this book is reaching American audiences. It’s a great read.
