Conversations with Dvora: An Experimental Biography of the First Modern Hebrew Woman Writer (Contraversions: Critical Studies in Jewish Literature, Culture, and Society)
First published in Hebrew in 1991, this imagined conversation between the author (psychology, Hebrew Univ.) and her subject, whom she calls the first modern Hebrew woman author (her works are not available in English), is an excellent example of the new biographer's art. Dvora Baron (1887-1956) went to Palestine when she was 24, married, and continued to write. She and her husband spent four bitter years in exile in Egypt during World War I. For the last 39 years of her life, she was a recluse. The imagined conversations take place in Dvora's room, with her daughter in attendance. Two great streams of Jewish life in this century, East European and Israeli, are major elements of Baron's life, as are the ideals of Zionism and feminism. "Many and wondrous are the roads a human being chooses," Dvora is supposed to have said, and many and wondrous are the uses of the literary art. Highly recommended for Jewish and women's studies collections.?Gene Shaw, NYPLCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.