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| April 11, 2005 |
The eternal writing Jew
 Prince of Fire author and spy-thriller impresario Daniel Silva, when I sat down to a quick breakfast with him, referred to the novel's lead character as the "eternal wandering Jew." It was not the first time he made such a reference; it shows up word for word in the book. Still it's striking how so many of the characters in his novels (this would be the fifth to feature art restorer-slash-spy Gabriel Allon as the lead) are archetypes rather than flesh-and-blood figures.
He referred to the "al-Kalifa family, from which springs three generations of villains in his books"* as "a vehicle of telling the story of the creation of Israel from the Palestinian perspective."
Why this interests me is not the use of archetypes, spokesplayers for their respective peoples, rather than more nuanced characters. I don't have a personal preference, nor do I want to diminish the merits of such a literary choice. Rather, I was fascinated by just how much this literary choice was a reflection of Silva himself.
The man is a walking archetype of Jewish angst amidst a rising tide of European anti-Semitism and the collapse of Oslo a half-decade ago. His books, and more specifically Gabriel Allon, are extensions of that world view. They dwell on Holocaust restitutions, the Arab-Israeli conflict, in an almost predictable way. It's sad how unable they are to break out of these parameters, so sad in fact that I'd be prone to list it as the overarching tragedy of the characters if I thought it was purposeful.
I don't.
Sitting and talking with Silva gives me the idea that these are the parameters of his thinking on the subject, and by extension, his writing. Not that this should diminish the joy you'll get from reading Silva's work. His writing is brisk, and his Gabriel Allon stories are gripping. As the genre goes, deep social commentary is hardly required. This was merely what struck me about the author himself.
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*I'm now quoting from my write-up on the breakfast in the latest issue of Atlanta Jewish Life.
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