Agnon, S. Y. - Jeffrey M. Green (review date spring-summer 1984)
Jeffrey M. Green (review date spring-summer 1984)
SOURCE: Green, Jeffrey M. “Inside Agnon.” Modern Hebrew Literature 9, nos. 3-4 (spring-summer 1984): 80-4.
[In the following review of Estherlein, a compilation of Agnon's letters to his wife from 1924-1931, Green states that Agnon reveals few literary secrets but offers insights into his thinking about other matters.]
For those of us whom he captivates, Agnon is incomparable. While they might seem to be limited to a narrow realm of experience and interests, his writings have an emotional range extending from the depths of tragedy to the most caustic of wit. His works include Hassidic legends, astonishing surrealistic dreams, allegory-like fantasies as well as realism, and they always remain enigmatic. A basic reason for this is that Agnon's narrators, whether omniscient or personalized, tend to be unreliable. They do not tell all they know, nor do they have a well-defined...
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