Doubts and Loves of Yehuda Amichai - by Ido Bassok (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book presents the life and works of Yehuda Amichai, born Ludwig Pfeuffer in Würzburg, Germany. Amichai, an engaged political poet, was an enlightened, humanitarian European while remaining an authentic Israeli who loved his country and was deeply involved finding solutions to its problems.

Book Synopsis

This book presents the life and works of Yehuda Amichai, born Ludwig Pfeuffer in Wüuuml;rzburg, Germany. Amichai, an engaged political poet, was an enlightened, humanitarian European while remaining an authentic Israeli who loved his country and was deeply involved finding solutions to its problems.

Review Quotes

Ido Bassok is a master of his dual craft: he is a thorough and meticulous researcher, whose treatment of archival materials demonstrates the depth of his knowledge and insights which he harnesses to weave events small and large into a complete life. More importantly, and this is his power as a biographer, he knows how to tell a story. He knows how to evaluate a good anecdote and to frame it and is aware of the characters who populate his book. He provides a vivid setting to Amichairsquo;s works, and turns him from a lexical item into the protagonist of a rich literary work.

Ido Bassok plunged into the archives and has produced a detailed, comprehensive and complete research work. His in-depth examination of the media from every period of Amichairsquo;s life and his correspondence, his analysis of Amichairsquo;s numerous interviews, criticism and diverse texts brings to life the voices of dozens of men and women who knew him.

This comprehensive book provides a robust grasp of Amichairsquo;s multidimensional thinking by anchoring it firmly in his life story. Bassok leans towards both detail and the big picture, and the reader gets to know Amichairsquo;s complex environment from his forebears to beyond his death. This biography provides the readers of his poems with a particularly vital interpretive tool since Amichai#39;s poems rely heavily and fundamentally on his actual life.

This is a thoroughly researched and well-written literary biography of Yehuda Amichai, the internationally renowned Israeli poet. Both as a literary historian and as one of the few surviving contemporaries of the poet, I can testify to veracity of this volume: everything here is true: from the detailed account of Amichai poetic career to the empathic yet perspicacious portrayal of the lovely person Amichai was. Bassok#39;s book clearly achieves its goal of telling Amichai#39;s story fully, elegantly, and truthfully.

About the Author

Ido Bassok is a poet, translator, and researcher in literature and history.