Amos Oz

Amos Oz, original name Amos Klausner (b.
May 4, 1939, Jerusalem), Israeli
novelist, short-story writer, and
essayist in whose works Israeli society
is unapologetically scrutinized.
Oz was
educated at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem and at the University of
Oxford. He served in the Israeli army
(1957–60, 1967, and 1973). After the
Six-Day War in 1967, he became active in
the Israeli peace movement and with
organizations that advocated a two-state
solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. In addition to writing, he
worked as a part-time schoolteacher and
labourer.
Oz’s
symbolic, poetic novels reflect the
splits and strains in Israeli culture.
Locked in conflict are the traditions of
intellect and the demands of the flesh,
reality and fantasy, rural Zionism and
the longing for European urbanity, and
the values of the founding settlers and
the perceptions of their skeptical
offspring. Oz felt himself unable to
share the optimistic outlook and
ideological certainties of Israel’s
founding generation, and his writings
present an ironic view of life in
Israel.
His
works of fiction include Artsot ha-tan
(1965; Where the Jackals Howl, and Other
Stories), Mikhaʾel sheli (1968; My
Michael), La-gaʿat ba-mayim, la-gaʿat
ba-ruaḥ (1973; Touch the Water, Touch
the Wind), Kufsah sheḥora (1987; Black
Box), and Matsav ha-shelishi (1991; The
Third State). Oto ha-yam (1999; The Same
Sea) is a novel in verse. The memoir
Sipur ʿal ahavah ve-ḥoshekh (2002; A
Tale of Love and Darkness) drew wide
critical acclaim.
Oz was
among the editors of Siaḥ loḥamim (1968;
The Seventh Day), a collection of
soldiers’ reflections on the Six-Day
War. His political essays are collected
in such volumes as Be-or ha-tekhelet
ha-ʿazah (1979; Under This Blazing
Light) and Be-ʿetsem yesh kan shete
milḥamot (2002; “But These Are Two
Different Wars”). How to Cure a Fanatic
(2006) is an English-language collection
of two essays by Oz and an interview
with him.