THE SEVEN GOOD YEARS

Author: Etgar Keret
Year: 2018 (2015)
Publisher: Brombergs Förlag
Language: Swedish (translator Kristian Wikström)

In an earlier blog post, I compared some books to shiny pearls (see Convenience Store Woman from January 2023). This is how I think of books that appear leaner and less conspicuous than the bombastic classics that tower over the literary realm like mighty sphinxes, yet in all their unpretentious beauty and grace still offer the readers a sublime reading experience, gently ushering them into intellectual or emotional areas previously unexplored. Etgar Keret’s collection of short stories “De sju goda åren” (“The Seven Good Years”) is another such pearl. Across 36 short stories, most of which are only a few pages long, Keret picks out some nuggets from the time period between the moment his son Lev is born up until his father passes away seven years later.

Keret is a true Master of the short story format. Each text is a snapshot from reality to which he adds not only colour and context but moreover an additional dimension, a way of thinking and responding to the situations described in an innovative, analytical, and highly entertaining way. Some of his contemplations are deeply sensitive and personal. Others, laugh-out-loud hilarious bordering on the ridiculous.

Many of the themes are universal. The challenges of family, friendship, money, time, and a hot summer day are things we can all relate to. Other themes are specifically Jewish and provide peepholes into the world of a Jew, both in Israel and abroad, from a perspective that is rarely encountered in other literature, even that written by other Jews. Keret’s Jewish perspective is not that of a victim. It is that of an introspective observer studying his field from an emic point of view, starting with himself.   

In the very first text, his son is born, while all the medical staff at the hospital is scrambling to respond to a Palestinian missile attack. He comes into a world full of anger, conflict, hatred, and vindictiveness. In another, Keret examines domination techniques and phone salesmen, and how his own ability to see things from the perspective of others is abused by people for their own gains, as symbolised by the telemarketers. Year two opens with one of the funniest texts I have ready this year as Keret tries to be creative with how he dedicates his books during signing events. He also shares his experiences with a wealth manager on the Channel Islands, which certainly resonates with This Banker. In year three, he accounts for his participation in the Gothenburg book fair during a diplomatic row between Sweden and Israel. The fourth year begins with the threat of nuclear war between Israel and Iran and proceeds to discuss courtesy in a taxi as well as the challenges of seeing ones sister turn into a religious zealot. In year five, Keret discusses his identity as an Israeli of Polish heritage and what Warsaw, which is where his mother grew up and had to flee from, means for him and his understanding of himself in the world. He also dwells on his role as a writer and his decision to write. During the sixth year, Keret’s father is finally given his death sentence in the form of a cancer diagnosis. How Keret handles this is the theme until the end of the book. The seventh and final year is where Keret’s father passes away. The year ends with another missile attack on Israel. This time, his son is old enough to ask questions.  

Keret brilliantly finds way to tie two or three observations together into one unified reflection that draws on one experience to examine or explain another. It is almost as if he is capable of stopping the clock to show us a scene frozen in time, and reveal to us the vulnerability, imperfection, angst, and self-repression of the people in it and put it in the context of a carefully delimited cultural or historical superstructure.

Etgar Keret may not be a journalist and he is certainly no philosopher, but he is an observer and a highly intelligent thinker, and he is very acutely aware of his surroundings. This together with his sense of humour and charm will render most readers defenceless. While every short story is a gem, the collection as such is a well-filled pouch of precious pearls. He will not win the Nobel Prize for his writing, but he will win many hearts.