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Home (Inbari novel)
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Wikipedia article
'Home' (, 'habyta') is the first novel by Israeli author Assaf Inbari. It was published in 2009 in Hebrew. It has not yet appeared in English translation.
It is composed of documentary materials, including passages from speeches, letters, kibbutz newsletter articles, minutes of meetings, and diaries.
Plot
'Home' relates the history of Kibbutz Afikim over three generations, from its founding in the Jordan Valley in the early 1930s by members of the socialist–Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair, through its growth and development, to its present form, beset by privatization and individualism.
Reception
The novel was awarded the 2010 Israel Book Publishers Association's Platinum PrizeInstitute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature, [http://www.ithl.org.il/page_14048 "Assaf Inbari"], accessed August 6, 2020. and was on the shortlist of finalists for the Sapir Prize for Literature.Greer Fay Cashman (25 March 2011), [http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=213771 "Yoram Kaniuk's War of Independence memoir wins Sapir Prize"], 'The Jerusalem Post' (retrieved 17 November 2012).
'Maariv' called the novel "impressive" and said the author "has invented a new genre: the biography of a place, and the kibbutz is a character whose history we follow."'Eretz Acheret' hailed Inbari's debut as "an impressive literary achievement" and likened the book's narrative voice to a "brilliant soloist": "A book like this could never have been written by a kibbutz community. The solitariness of that voice is a heroic revolt against the choir as it memorializes the choir in a literary work."Be'eri Zimmerman (17 June 2010), [https://archive.today/20130107203612/http://www.acheret.co.il/en/http//?cmd=articles.392&act=read&id=2283 "An experiment that failed and succeeded"], 'Eretz Acheret' (retrieved 17 November 2012). 'Haaretz' was more reserved, noting that Inbari failed to penetrate the inner lives of his subjects and that "in most cases they remain cardboard characters who advance the overall plot but are not sufficiently fleshed out."Avraham Balaban (18 June 2009), [http://www.haaretz.com/culture/arts-leisure/israeli-history-clowns-in-the-dining-room-1.278373 "Israeli History / Clowns in the Dining Room"], 'Haaretz' (retrieved 17 November 2012). On the other hand, another writer for 'Haaretz', who grew up on nearby Ashdot Ya'akov, felt that the description of Afikim in 'Home' rang true as "a kind of distilled and intense precis" of life on a kibbutz.Tal Niv (18 June 2009), [http://www.haaretz.com/culture/arts-leisure/like-reading-my-diary-1.278374 "Like reading my diary"], 'Haaretz' (retrieved 17 November 2012).
Writing in the academic journal 'Hebrew Studies', Shula Keshet argued at length that Inbari's "transformation of documentary material, and his sophisticated use of the collective voice, which is also simultaneously personal, makes this novel an innovative and complex work of art."Shula Keshet, [http://www.readperiodicals.com/201101/2547414611.html "Producing the (Eretz-) Israeli Place: On the Documentary Urge in Kibbutz Literature"] (2011), Vol. 52, 'Hebrew Studies', pp. 235-58 (retrieved 17 November 2012).
Influences
The 2010 film 'Habaita', directed by Oded Hirsch, is named after the novel. Dalia Karpel . [http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/reinventing-the-wheel-kibbutznik-turned-filmmaker-conquers-ny-art-scene-1.453861 "Reinventing the wheel: Kibbutznik-turned-filmmaker conquers NY art scene"], 'Haaretz', July 26, 2012
References
Category:2009 novels
Category:21st-century Israeli novels
Category:Novels set in Israel
Category:Books about the kibbutz
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