In what he jokingly compared to a "memorial service," renowned Israeli author and peace advocate Amos Oz sat and listened as leading scholars from the Middle East, Europe and North America analyzed his new autobiography, A Tale of Love and Darkness.
In a collaborative venture between Penn and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev -- an institution in Israel -- the four-day Amos Oz International Conference was held at Penn because of the University's commitment to Jewish studies, according to Associate Dean for Arts and Letters Joseph Farrell.
After two days of discussion and sometimes heated debate about his writing, the 65-year-old Oz finally took the podium last night amid excited murmurs from over 300 people packed into Houston Hall's Bodek Lounge.
"I was almost expecting a cold, 'I'm a big author' feel, but he instead expressed who he was and it was very personal," College sophomore Livia Levine said.
The author of almost 20 books and 500 essays and articles spoke candidly about his most recent work.
"I'll tell you a secret," Oz said in accented English. "The radioactive core of my work is a certain enigma -- how could two good people, my mother and father, produce together such a monumental tragedy? Not only have I not solved this enigma, but in the process of writing this book, I lost interest in resolving it."
Oz said that his book -- which he views as a story rather than an autobiography -- is about the "infinitesimal trajectory deviation that can make ordinary family life go dramatically off course." Oz attributed the intricate detailing of his "tragic but not unhappy" childhood in the novel to an attempt to unveil the nature of the deviation.
Though Oz was born in Jerusalem, his parents and grandparents were native Europeans who never forgot their hostile treatment there. For his parents and other European Jews, Palestine had been a "life raft" in a period when no other country wanted them.
His parents' emotional scars shaped his home environment. His mother, who suffered from depression, only spoke to him in "veiled allegories" and eventually committed suicide. His father talked to him endlessly about politics and more mundane matters, but never mentioned emotions. He became less a part of Oz's life after his mother died.
Left virtually on his own, Oz for many years was filled with anger, alternately blaming himself and his parents for his hardships. Once Oz was old enough to view his childhood with greater emotional distance, he had an epiphany.
"I realized that I needed to invite the dead to my house to have a party," Oz said. "I needed to sit my parents, grandparents, even the entire country down for some coffee, and I needed to have the talks that I never had. I told them that they couldn't stay in my house, but that they could drop by from time to time."
The author stressed that, though his story contains many historical elements, these should not be considered merely a backdrop. "For Israelis, for Jews," he said, "history is a shadow, a ghost that goes to bed with us every night."
Many in the crowd seemed enchanted by the writer.
"I loved the way in which his writing was both intensely personal, yet readily accessible despite your background," College sophomore Aaron Rock said.
