Hold on to the Sun (Reuben/Rifkin Jewish Women Writers

by Michal Govrin, Judith G. Miller (Editor)

The Israeli author’s poetry, essays, and stories on the haunting legacy of WWII “swirl mystically out of history and into dazzling floods of wonder” (Don DeLillo, author of White Noise ). In this portrait of the artist as a young woman, one of Israel’s most acclaimed contemporary writers weaves together a kaleidoscope of fiction, poetry, and essays. Populated by both fictional and real people, each tale is in some way a search for meaning in a post-Holocaust world. Reminiscent of W.G. Sebald, characters irrationally and humanely find reason for hope in a world that offers little. Essays describe Govrin’s visits to Poland as a young adult, where her mother had survived a death camp, but had lost her husband and their child, Govrin’s half-brother. Capturing the depths of denial and the exuberance of youth in a multiplicity of voices, this haunting collection “joins the few serious books that try through artistic means to face the unspeakable” (Aharon Appelfield, author of Badenheim 1939 ).

Genres: Short Stories, Poetry, Essays

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

Born in Tel Aviv, MICHAL GOVRIN (Hebrew: מיכל גוברין) is the daughter of an Israeli pioneer father and a mother who survived the Holocaust. Working as a novelist, poet, and theater director, Govrin has published nine books of poetry and fiction. In 2010, she was named one of the thirty most important modern writers by the Salon du Livre. Among her novels, The Name received the Kugel Literary Prize in Israel and was nominated for the Koret Jewish Book Award. Snapshots was awarded the 2003 Acum Prize for the Best Literary Achievement of the Year. Govrin received the Israel Prime Minister's Prize in 1998. Among the pioneers of Jewish experimental theatre, Govrin has directed award-winning performances in all the major theatres in Israel.

Now residing in Jerusalem, Govrin teaches at the School of Visual Theater and is the academic chair of the Theater Department of Emunah College, both in Jerusalem. She has taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, presents an annual lecture at The Cooper Union School of Architecture in New York, and is a former Writer in Residence and Aresty Senior Visiting Fellow at the Center for the Study of Jewish Life at Rutgers University.
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Reviews

[Jose Kilbride]

From my review on www.forbookssake.net

Michal Govrin‘s Hold On to the Sun is her first collection of short stories and essays. Govrin was born in Israel and has published numerous books of fiction and poetry, winning the Kugel Literary Prize and Acum Prize for her novels The Name and Snapshots respectively.


She is a poet and an award winning theatre director and has been named as one of the most influential literary figures of the last thirty years by the Salon du Livre.

Hold On to the Sun opens with the exquisitely emotive poem Won’t You See, before flowing into an essay, The Journey to Poland. It is here we begin to understand the emergent impact of the Holocaust on a young and gifted writer, her letter to her parents juxtaposing the slow realisation and knowledge of her mother surviving the death camp of Auschwitz against her own sudden and desperate need to visit her family’s former home in Poland.

Govrin’s prose is detailed and expressive, conveying with almost bewildering detail the unravelling of her mother’s tale, and her own growing sense of loss and confusion as she walks the streets of Wroclaw searching for clues to her family’s past.

Short stories follow, the triptych of La Promenade bringing a small group of characters wonderfully to life, working into the narrative of this seaside tale the ripples of the Holocaust in the fragmented stories of each of the individuals present.

Here Govrin shows real skill, detailing and painting each character vividly with the simplest of nuances, lending rich histories that are barely hinted at within the context of the tale, even if, on reflection, they are all a little clichéd.

Between Two and Four is short and unsettling, flowing from the mundane to eerie threat with consummate and chilling ease. Evening Ride reinforces Govrin’s ability to paint more with less, evoking and inferring far more than is written, painting a muted past and a vivid present in the constant turn of a pedal.

And yet Elijah’s Sabbath Day feels vaguely pointless, seemingly more of a character piece than a short story no matter how beautifully written, lacking depth for all its detail. Against this, The Dance of The Pythia is imaginative and strange, the landscape of the imagination given free rein by Govrin’s ability with words.

This is echoed in part by the lesser The Thinker, although this too ends oddly, leaving me vaguely unsatisfied and unclear as to it’s purpose.

The book ends with an interview between author and editor; interesting yet somehow cold and uninspiring after the prose and essays that preceded it.

Perhaps the most powerful piece here is the essay Facing Evil, in which Govrin visits Auschwitz with her eldest daughter, reflecting on the impact and legacy of the Holocaust, encapsulated in this monument to that event. Here the emotive mixes with the intellectual, transitioning between her own personal horror and thoughts of what Auschwitz stands for as they wander its confines.

Hold On to the Sun is deeply thoughtful and imaginative, showcasing Govrin’s skills as a writer and an essayist, both in her formative years (the short stories are from the 60’s and 70’s) and beyond. As such it could have been stronger and yet the essays and the short stories highlighted above make this a more than worthwhile read to anyone interested in fiction or the Holocaust

[Lizzytish]

I won this in a Goodreads giveaway. A collection of short stories that search for meaning in a post Holocaust world. I found them to be deep and reflective. The author's mother was a Holocaust survivor and the stories are voices reaching out and showing the way different people respond. I enjoyed the interview at the end with the interpreter as it helped me to understand more of the meanings in her stories. I like to think of this book as an art gallery where there are many paintings. Each viewer will see something different in the painting. I came away with the thought that there is always hope.

[For Books' Sake]

Hold On to the Sun is deeply thoughtful and imaginative, showcasing Govrin’s skills as a writer and an essayist, both in her formative years (the short stories are from the 60’s and 70’s) and beyond. As such it could have been stronger and yet the essays and the short stories highlighted above make this a more than worthwhile read to anyone interested in fiction or the Holocaust.

(Excerpt from full review of Hold On to the Sun at For Books' Sake)

[Lorri]

My actual rating is 3.5

[Sonia Engelman]

I read this wonderful book with emotion and gratitude