New Yorker Fiction Review #216: "All Rivers" by Amos Oz



Review of a short story from the Jan. 14, 2019 issue of The New Yorker...

The late Israeli writer Amos Oz must have invented the so-called "manic pixie dream girl" back in 1963 when he wrote the short story "All Rivers," about a stamp collector who meets a darkly mysterious, and tubercular, poet named Tova at a coffee shop. The two have a fraught, touchy, intellectual sort of one-day love affair in which they discuss metaphors, poetry, rivers, debate getting married, and in which Tova tells the main character she loves him, before they part strangely, never to meet again.

If you've never heard of the manic pixie dream girl (MPDG) you've doubtless seen her onscreen. She's the adorable, hipster female character in the film (think Zoe Deschanel; I'm thinking of 500 Days of Summer but there are probably better examples) whose quirky, free-spiritedness is hopelessly enchanting to the male main character leading him to discover something new about himself. Ultimately, however, happiness with the MPDG is usually unattainable, as whatever it is that makes the MPDG so quirky and enthralling usually makes her bad relationship material. I think Amos Oz may have invented this trope because the Tova character seems to fit the bill pretty closely.

I've always enjoyed short stories from the few Israeli writers I've read in The New Yorker (see: Etgar Keret). They tend to have a frank, dark, unassuming and self-effacing kind of wit that always seems very contemporary and intelligent (if a bit nihilistic) no matter in what time period the story was written. If you hadn't told me "All Rivers" was written in 1963 (and minus a few context clues from the story) I'd never have known it was not written in modern day.

I wonder if I'm making a sweeping generalization about Israeli writers? Perhaps it's merely that the ones who make it into The New Yorker have this kind of darkly humorous, nihilistic bent? Anyway, generalizations are only problematic if they're negative, right? Either way, it's tempting to read some more stories by Israeli's and see if I connect even more with them.

Comments

Unknown said…
I have tried and failed to identify the stamp in this story. Has anybody had success in this? I think it is important to use a real stamp, even if it is a work of fiction.

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