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February 06, 2008

NO ATHEISTS IN HOSPITALS

We met Arnon Grunberg a few years ago at BEA and found him ... very interesting, indeed.  And there's nothing in this new Nextbook interview to change our impression.

The tension between realism and surrealism, which has always existed in your work, seems to me to be even stronger in The Jewish Messiah. Some of the episodes (the relationship between Xavier and Awromele, for instance) are portrayed very realistically, but towards the end the novel veers off into complete fantasy (Xavier becoming the crazed prime minister of Israel who sells nuclear weapons to Hamas). Can you explain what you were trying to do?

To me, Xavier, to a certain degree, is very realistic. I have done many readings in Germany, and there is still this type of often second- or third-generation Germans who seems to be obsessed with Judaism and Jews. Sometimes this obsession can lead into unhealthy territory. I’ve heard of people converting to Judaism and undergoing circumcision. But, more often than not, at the hospital.

Posted at 01:45 PM in Interviews |

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