by dan pine
staff writer
They say mighty oaks from little acorns grow. The metaphor holds when it comes to “A Pigeon and a Boy,” the new novel from Israeli author Meir Shalev.
Shalev got the idea for this sweeping, multi-generational love story following a remodel of his house in Israel’s Jezreel Valley.
“I remember driving from Jerusalem to Jezreel with my wife,” he said. “I told her how deeply I felt to build this place. I told her I was going to write a novel about this house. That was the start: about the relationship one has to one’s home and place. Then I thought about pigeons as a metaphor for home-loving.”
He’s referring to homing pigeons, the unsung heroes of wars past, when the graceful birds delivered urgent dispatches to and from the front. In Shalev’s novel, a Jewish pigeon handler dies in Israel’s War of Independence, a final message of love strapped to the leg of his faithful bird.
The story is told from the perspective of Yair, who alternately addresses both the reader and his late mother. Aside from a subplot about the home remodel, Shalev maintains the story is pure fiction.
“There’s nothing autobiographical about it,” he said from his home in Israel. “The battle described is a real battle. There were homing pigeons used in 1948 by the Israeli forces, and I personally did buy and rebuild a villa. But I did not have an affair with my contractor.”
Along with Amos Oz and David Grossman, Shalev, 59, ranks among the most popular Israeli novelists. The son of famed poet Yitzchak Shalev, he came to fiction late in life, having worked in Israeli television for many years. But once he picked up the pen, he never let it go.
Like most of his fellow Israelis, Shalev holds passionate political opinions and has been highly critical of Israel’s policy in the occupied territories. But he remains strongly patriotic.
“I was born in 1948 and wounded in [the Six-Day War],” he said. “My own history is woven with the history of Israel. The place is so small, one knows every corner of the country. Sometimes I’m angry at her, and she’s angry at me, but Israel is home. I could never live or write in another place.”
Among his best-received novels are “The Blue Mountain,” “Esau” and “Fontanelle.” The latest makes six, but Shalev isn’t worried about finding material for the next six.
“I have a very large family full of stories. Sometimes all I have to do is bend and pick up a story from the kitchen floor.”
Meir Shalev will appear 5:15 p.m. Sunday. Nov. 4, at the JCCSF, 3200 California Street, S.F. Pre-registration required: (415) 292-1233 or online at www.jccsf.org. He will also speak 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, at Kresge Auditorium at Stanford University, Palo Alto. Information: (650) 725-2789.
“A Pigeon and a Boy” by Meir Shalev (320 pages, Random House, $25)
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California