Q&A with Benjamin Abravenel

  

 

 

 

Benjamin Abravenel is the author of the new novel The Past, Again. He is also a physician, and he lives in California. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Past, Again?

 

A: I have visited Europe over a timespan of 48 years. Over the past 30 years I have noticed a change in culture. If graffiti is a sort of barometer of societal opinion, then I knew European Jews were once again in trouble.

 

I noted increasing antisemitic slogans and symbolism written on the walls and subways in France, Germany, England, and Italy. I didn’t know if it was spray painted by neo-Nazis or Islamists, but I knew the direction was not a good omen.

After I returned from one trip 10 years ago, I began to see changes at home in the United States in the (not so) far left and (not so) far right “thought” leaders. I sensed anti-Zionism veering into frank antisemitism. 

 

I thought of a comment my grandmother once said after a guest commented “how lucky we were to be in the United States”: “Vell so far.” (Yes, that is in my book during the Passover seder!)

I decided to write a novel questioning the exceptionalism of the United States, raising the question of whether the catastrophic history of Jews in Europe can occur here. Other than The Plot Against America by Philip Roth, I know of no other novel that studies this possibility.

Q: How did you create your character Judah?

 

A: I think all novels have elements of autobiography. Judah mirrors aspects of my personality and development. He is partly an exaggeration of the author's identity and partly an aspirational characterization for the author. 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I completely made changes along the way. I did not know how I was going to end the story until I typed the last page. I decided to leave the ending unknown and unclear, which I feels encapsulates so much of life in general.

 

Q: Especially given the current rise in antisemitism, what do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: I wrote the book as a warning to Americans, that it is not impossible for our 2,00-year-old history of persecution to follow us here in America. We need to be on alert that we may be entering a period analogous to early-1930s Germany, and this may be more likely if we enter a severe economic downturn.

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am writing an entirely different story. I am uncertain if it will be a short story or a full-length novel. I only discover where the story takes me as I create it!

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Yes, I loved writing the story and I miss my characters. Writing a story is very god-like. One creates characters out of thin air. Of course, we know that is not entirely true. So much is extracted from our personal histories.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb