Approximately 50 people gathered at Hillel on Friday to see Israeli fiction writer Etgar Keret speak and answer questions for a talk called "On Bus Drivers and Gods."
Keret has won renown for his work in his home country, garnering both the Israeli Ministry of Culture's Cinema Prize and the Israeli Prime Minister's Award for Literature.
Keret started by reading "Pipes," which he introduced as the first story he ever wrote, inspired by the suicide of his close friend while in the Israeli army. The story is about a boy trying to escape his world by constructing pipes and embracing uniqueness. During his time in the army, Keret said he did not do the same for fear of standing out. "I was a very bad soldier, I got injured, I got into lots of trouble," he said. "When you are young you don't want to stick out."
Keret next read his story "Glittery Eyes," centering on a young girl who loves anything that sparkles and meets a boy while trying to make her eyes glitter.
The reading concluded with the tale "The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God," which follows a bus driver obsessed with timeliness who leaves late passengers behind.
Between sharing these stories, Keret answered questions about Israeli culture.
Keret spoke about the ideological fissures fragmenting Israeli society and how they can be bridged. He said that in the city of Tel Aviv, a great variety of people live together in peace.
"The challenge is not really being able to close those gaps, but to be able to make those gaps not something that will block an emotional connection," Keret said.
He also painted contrasting images of Israeli and American society, emphasizing what he sees as an over reliance on routine among Americans.
"I think America is one of the most emotionally suppressed places in the world," Keret said. "People are kind of scared of connection between people if it is not sort of arranged or anticipated. I think this is the biggest distance between America and Israel."
Keret drew parallels between America's drive for freedom from British rule and Zionism, the underlying ethos of Israel's founders.
Keret also spoke about the tradeoffs involved in attempting to capture an original work in a translation. He explained that he learned English while helping to translate his books, but that "the process of translation is always a process where you lose things." Specific cultural meanings of words, he said, can't be expressed in a different language.
Freshman Jared Olkin said he is drawn to Keret's unique self-expression.
"I really enjoy his stories, they are interesting and they show the world through a different view," he said. "He shows the conflicting human desires for power and compassion in a way in which cold statistics don't always reconcile," Olkin said.
Olkin first saw Keret while in Israel on Tufts' "Rebuilding the North" trip during winter break. The experience encouraged Olkin and other trip members to come out to see Keret a second time.
"I had seen him in Israel and I really enjoyed his presentation there so I jumped at the opportunity to go again," Olkin said.
The talk was sponsored by Tufts Hillel, the Hebrew Department and the Judaic Studies Department.
