The Israeli author David Grossman was in the midst of writing a novel about the anxieties of parents of soldiers when his own son was killed at the end of the Second Lebanon War. To the End of the Land balances a sobering dissection of the pervasive effects of trauma with an empathic meditation on the love and sacrifice that bind families together. Prof. Mintz will discuss how Grossman offers Americans, insulated from the dangers faced by Israeli families, a key insight into an existential situation often glimpsed from afar.
Alan Mintz is the Chana Kekst Professor of Hebrew Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He was the founder and co-editor of Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History for 25 years. His books include, Hurban: Responses to Catastrophe in Hebrew Literature, ‘Banished from their Father’s Table’: Loss of Faith and Hebrew Autobiography, and Sanctuary in the Wilderness: A Critical Introduction of American Hebrew Poetry, which will appear later this year.
