Past Continuous (novel)
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 Cover of 1994 Hebrew reprint |
|
| Author | Yaakov Shabtai |
|---|---|
| Original title | Zikhron Devarim (זכרון דברים) |
| Translator | Dalya Bilu |
| Cover artist | Yehudah Nayman |
| Country | Israel |
| Language | Hebrew |
| Publisher | Siman Kriah |
| Released | 1977 |
| Released in English | 1985 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 282, 389 in translation |
| ISBN | 0-8276-0239-1 |
| Followed by | Past Perfect (Sof Davar) |
Past Continuous is a 1977 novel originally written in Hebrew by Israeli novelist Yaakov Shabtai. The original title, Zikhron Devarim (Hebrew: זכרון דברים) can be translated literally as Remembrance of Things Past.
[edit] Plot Summary
The Novel focuses on three friends, Goldman, Caesar, and Israel, in 1960's Tel Aviv, as well as their acquaintances, love interests, and realtives. The story begins with the death of Goldman's father on April 1 and ends a little after Goldman's death on January 1. The past is weaved into this short "present" period, through a complex stream of associations.
The three men, lurching from guilt to depression, lose themselves in sexual adventures or compare their lives unfavorably to those of their sometimes heroic, sometime pitiful elders. The older characters can always hold firm to something or other, whether socialism and hatred of religious Jews, insights gained in Siberia, or refusal to admit that Israel is not Poland. The younger characters seethe instead in doubt and sweat. Full of incidental information on the ups and downs of Zionism, the novel serves as an introduction to Israel as well as to Israeli literature.
[edit] Literary Significance
Past Continuous is considered the first novel ever to be written in truly vernacular Hebrew and in 2005 it was named the best novel written about Tel Aviv by Time Out Tel Aviv. The novel was originally written as a single paragraph, though in the English translation (1985) it is broken up into shorter sections. It received international acclaim as a unique work of modernism, prompting critic Gabriel Yosepovitchi of The Independent to name it the greatest novel of the decade in 1989, comparing it to Proust's In Search of Lost Time.
