[ilds] Response to James Gifford's comments on Judith (Vol. 90, issue 6)

[Bruce Redwine]

James,

I seem to recall, but may be off base, that Pine once commented on Durrell’s disillusionment (if such) with Israel.  It may be someone else, however.  In any event, that was certainly not my conclusion.  Durrell was in and out of Palestine during the war, as he was chasing Nancy, wife no. 1, so he had some familiarity with the area, enough familiarity to enable the brief storyline of Justine seeking refuge in a kibbutz near the end of her novel.  Haag shows that Claude Vincendon provided the political plot of Copts financing Zionists so brilliantly exploited in Mountolive.  You’re right — Durrell doesn’t write much about war as such.  His scenes are on the periphery, as he himself was.  The sounds of battle are in the distance.  His interests lie elsewhere, although what rages inside the man seems equally destructive.

Bruce



On Oct 10, 2014, at 5:40 PM, James Gifford <james.d.gifford at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Bruce,
> 
> On 2014-10-10 4:53 PM, Bruce Redwine wrote:
>> My understanding is that he was pro-Israel until the
>> Six-Day War in 1967.
> 
> I wouldn't have a clear basis for asserting that, but it's my own sense too.  It also helps for context to know he was helping Albert Cossery with funds and getting his work to America for publication (and quite likely Georges Henein as well), which is to say I don't accept the simplification of his position as anti-Egyptian for being pro-Israel.
> 
>> So it would be interesting to know exactly what
>> caused Durrell’s disenchantment.
> 
> It's fascinating that he could write so very little about the war (WWII) in his poetry *during* the war.  /Personal Landscape/ is fascinating to me for the paucity of overtly war-related content, and I don't think it's accidental.  By 1967, he'd been on Cyprus, in Yugoslavia in the aftermath of Tito's break from the Cominform, and could express (I think typically not in his major texts) an explicit and clear sense of the political conflicts.  I don't think he'd celebrate the military element.
> 
> But I also think it's entirely plausible that Claude was the driving voice in /Judith/, though I'd have to sit down with it and her own novel to really feel comfortable saying that.  It's also possible (in contrast) that Durrell was largely ghost writing her novel, /A Chair for the Prophet/.
> 
>> At the time, many American
>> conservatives praised the stunning Israeli victory.  William F.
>> Buckley cited it on one occasion as an example of war solving a
>> political problem.  How wrong he was.  Was Durrell prescient?
> 
> After Cyprus, I doubt he would have seen 1967 as a resolution of the conflict.  In a sense, /A Chair for the Prophet/ can work because it doesn't think about the Palestinians and other interests in the region.  But that's a narrative not a political position, and what works in a novel can be quite different from what an author recognizes as reality in the world.  Or it could just be that it's how Claude understood Israel, and it's her book, not his.  I'd suspect Durrell would have sensed the instability.
> 
> In any case after 1967, whether due to Claude's death or the Six-Day War, or perhaps most likely due to both, we don't find Durrell taking up those kinds of projects again.  The commentary in /The Avignon Quintet/ is much different.
> 
> But I have other books before me, and I have to work my way through those before I can set /Judith/ and /A Chair/ down for a weekend chat!
> 
> All best,
> James
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