Mendel, a survivor of Auschwitz who lives in Israel, remains silent for forty years after his traumatic experiences. However, Mendel, for no reason that his daughter Bella, also a survivor, can discern, begins to test...Mendel, a survivor of Auschwitz who lives in Israel, remains silent for forty years after his traumatic experiences. However, Mendel, for no reason that his daughter Bella, also a survivor, can discern, begins to testify to his horrific ordeals during the Holocaust at putatively inopportune times, such as religious holidays and family celebrations. When his granddaughter Hayuta plans an engagement party, the social and historical incongruities of the Holocaust in the context of contemporary Israeli society become apparent. Ordinary pleasures are matters of moral obloquy in the face of the unfathomable black hole of the Holocaust. While critics have charged Mendel＇s daughter with preoccupation with invidious social climbing and his granddaughter Hayuta with moral reprehensible compartmentalization of her historical and familial existences, Liebrecht unwittingly implies that historical trauma has very diverse and inexplicable effects on different family members： Some, like the daughter Bella, eventually wish to hear more about the experiences of her father （while feeling that his words will ＂＇ruin＂ her social life）, while Hayuta and Shifra his daughter-in-law react by shunning the speech of Mendel, which they experience as destroying their quotidian happiness.展开更多
文摘Mendel, a survivor of Auschwitz who lives in Israel, remains silent for forty years after his traumatic experiences. However, Mendel, for no reason that his daughter Bella, also a survivor, can discern, begins to testify to his horrific ordeals during the Holocaust at putatively inopportune times, such as religious holidays and family celebrations. When his granddaughter Hayuta plans an engagement party, the social and historical incongruities of the Holocaust in the context of contemporary Israeli society become apparent. Ordinary pleasures are matters of moral obloquy in the face of the unfathomable black hole of the Holocaust. While critics have charged Mendel＇s daughter with preoccupation with invidious social climbing and his granddaughter Hayuta with moral reprehensible compartmentalization of her historical and familial existences, Liebrecht unwittingly implies that historical trauma has very diverse and inexplicable effects on different family members： Some, like the daughter Bella, eventually wish to hear more about the experiences of her father （while feeling that his words will ＂＇ruin＂ her social life）, while Hayuta and Shifra his daughter-in-law react by shunning the speech of Mendel, which they experience as destroying their quotidian happiness.
