Author: Eva Etzioni-Halevy

Publisher: Plume a Division of Penguin Group

ISBN: 0452286727

The following interview was conducted by: NORM GOLDMAN:  Editor of Bookpleasures. CLICK TO VIEW  Norm Goldman's Reviews   

    

             To read the review CLICK HERE

Today, Norm Goldman Editor of Bookpleasures.com is honored to have as our guest, Eva Etzioni-Halevy, author of THE SONG OF HANNAH. Eva was Professor of Sociology at Bar-Ilan University, Israel where she is now Professor emeritus.

Shalom Eva and thanks for participating in our interview.

Norm:

When did your passion for writing begin? What keeps you going?

Eva:

I have had this passion since my youth. What has changed over time is the type of writing on which it was focused: from academic writing for most of my adult life, to Biblical novels in recent years.

What keeps me going is, in the first place, my enjoyment of the writing process. Even so, I probably would have given up long ago, had not the fruit of my labor been published, particularly in the form of books. An additional bonus that pushes me forward to further writing, are readers’ responses.    

Norm:

Was there anyone who really influenced you to become a writer?

Eva:

It is expected of writers to be able to point to someone who influenced them to become what they are, but much as I try, I cannot think of anyone. When I was a child, my parents encouraged me to become an avid reader, and this was the basis for everything else. I made the transition to writing on my own.

Norm:

As you are a survivor of the Holocaust, do you feel that this in any way has influenced your writing? If so, how?

Eva:

Unfortunately, I am a child of the Holocaust in the sense that it had a large part in shaping my personality and my Jewish identity.  In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, I decided never to write about my experiences during that time. Instead, it spurned me to explore the even deeper roots of my identity by delving into the world of the Bible and bringing it alive for modern readers.

Norm:

Please tell our readers something about The Song of Hannah. What is its underlying theme?

Eva:

The Song of Hannah is based on the story of Elkanah and his two wives, Hannah and Pninah, which opens the book of I Samuel. Pninah had children and Hannah was barren; but Elkanah loved Hannah. Her rival provoked her, to make her angry; so she cried and would not eat. Eventually she prayed in the Temple and was granted the son she craved for: Samuel, who became a renowned prophet and leader.

Taking off from this very short story, the novel's twisting plot follows the lives of these two women, their intricate relations with each other, with the husband they shared, and with Hannah's son, Samuel.

It is a sensual novel of love, rejection, revenge and redemption through feminine strength and friendship. Although it is a Biblical tale, it is a page-turner, especially appropriate for light summer reading.

Norm:

I believe this is your first work of fiction. How easy or difficult was it to cross over from writing non-fiction to fiction? Please explain.

Eva:

The transition from academic writing, which is analytical, to writing fiction, which is more imaginative, was a bit like migrating into an unfamiliar foreign country. I was totally unprepared for it, and it took quite a while before I found my way (and my feet) in it.

Norm:

Why do you feel that The Song of Hannah is an important book for you to write and for all of us to read at this time?

Eva:

I think that the moment you tell people that it is important for them to read something, they shy away from reading it. Instead I want to say that The Song of Hannah is an enjoyable read. At the same time, the entertainment it affords is in the nature of “the sugar that makes the medicine go down,” since the novel also contains some messages.

It takes the reader back to the roots of Judaism as it took shape some three thousand years ago, which are also the roots of Christianity and of Western culture.

The novel conveys feminist messages. Giving the two Biblical women their own voices, it describes how they faced life in a patriarchal society. Although weak in their position, they were strong in their character, finding ingenious ways of promoting their interests.

Thus it is a book where entertainment, religion and feminism meet.

Norm:

What challenges or obstacles did you encounter while writing The Song of Hannah? How did you overcome these challenges?

Eva:

The greatest challenge was to turn people who lived thousands of years ago, into believable characters with whom contemporary readers could identify. I met it by following the lead of the Bible itself, in portraying even its most exalted and beloved heroines and heroes as true human beings. I portrayed them as women and men with strengths, but also with weaknesses, some of which stemmed from their sexuality. I believe I was successful, because quite a few people told me they related the book to their own life experiences.

Norm:

How much real-life do you put into your fiction? Is there much “you” in there?  Has your personal attitude towards the subject and characters of The Song of Hannah colored your narrative in any way?

Eva:

Every year I heard the story being read on the high holidays in the synagogue, and I found it deeply troubling.

What troubled me was that Scripture shows much sympathy for Hannah, the barren woman, but no sympathy at all for Pninah, the unloved woman. Hannah is presented as the saintly, aggrieved one, Pninah as the one who aggrieves her. Surely, I said to myself, the unloved one must have been deeply injured, also. Yet, she is not allowed to give voice or tears to her anguish.  It is this sense of the injustice done to Pninah that led me to identify with her, and prompted me to take up her cause in a novel.

I could not give voice only to Pninah, without giving voice to Hannah as well. Both women underwent shattering experiences and I had no doubt that they would both react in shattering ways. In fact, if I could give The Song of Hannah a subtitle, I would call it: A Barren Woman Shatters Heaven, an Unloved Woman Shatters the Earth. The novel is the story of how they did so.

Norm:

Did you have any difficulty in writing The Song of Hannah in English, as I don’t believe English is your mother tongue?

Eva:

As I have lived in English speaking countries for over twenty years, I had no difficulty in writing in English. The difficulty was in settling on the right style for a Biblical novel that also affords light, smooth reading. I had to “hit” on a style that was neither so modern as to be jarring, nor so archaic as to be off-putting. I needed to find the imagery that stems from the world of the Bible, yet is also familiar to contemporary readers. It was not easy, but I hope I have been able to do it.

Norm:

You presently live in Israel. Did this in any way influence your writing of The Song of Hannah?

Eva:

I could not have written this novel based on the Bible, except in the land of the Bible. It was my deep connection to this land that made me feel close to the people who populated it thousands of years ago. And vice versa: It was my fascination with the Bible that made me feel an affinity to the land in which such a large part of the events described in it took place. 

Norm:

What kind of research did you do to write this book?
 

Eva:

An enormous amount of research went into the writing of this book. The first step was scouring the Bible for any hints it may yield about food, clothing, housing, lifestyle, means of transport and the like.  The second step was visiting archeological excavations of sites from Biblical times, for which, luckily, I did not have to travel far. Third came visits to museums in Israel and abroad, where artifacts from Biblical times are to be found.  Finally there was the reading of a large number of source books on a variety of topics connected with the novel’s contents.

Although I invested no less research in The Song of Hannah than I did in my academic writings, there was a decisive difference between the two: Research for academic books had to be shown off through a large number of footnotes and references. The Research for the novel had to be concealed, so that the reader would be unaware of how laborious a process it really was. The two types of research also have something in common: in both cases, mistakes have to be shunned like the plague. 

 
Norm:

Do you agree that to have good drama there must be an emotional charge that usually comes from the individual squaring off against antagonists either out in the world or within himself or herself? If so, please elaborate and how does it fit into your novel?

Eva:

I agree that without the emotional charge that comes from a conflict there can be no plot. To me, the struggles within the protagonists’ personalities and their confrontation with each other are so closely intermingled that they cannot be separated from each other. The drama imbedded in my novel comes from the convergence of these two types of conflict.

In my novel, the two heroines, Hannah and Pninah initially resent each other, and the jealousy between them is so loud that you can hear it like thunder cracking up in the sky. While they battle each other they can find no peace within themselves. Only later on, when they become reconciled with each other, can they also find rest in their own souls.

Norm:

It is said that a good novel is about the struggles of vividly drawn personalities, not issues. It is through their travail that we comprehend the issues profoundly. Do you agree with this and if so, how is this applicable to your novel?

Eva:

 I could not agree more. In my experience novels that analyze issues as such, are boring to distraction. The issues must emerge through the plot, the personalities, and the relations between them.

This is what I have tried to do in The Song of Hannah. It is through its plot and characters that (as I hope) the topics of the family structure and the position of women in Biblical society come through, raising the question of how much has truly changed since then.

Norm:

Can you tell us how you found representation for your book? Did you pitch it to an agent, or query publishers who would most likely publish this type of book? Any rejections?

Eva:

I found out quite early in my endeavor that the large publishers are unwilling to consider any piece of fiction that does not come through a literary agent. I had no connections whatsoever in the right quarters, so I bought a book that lists literary agents and their areas of interest.

There were some agents’ rejections, but they came in response to what I now consider very early drafts of the novel. In fact, those agents did me a great favor, because through the feedback they sent me, they made it possible for me to revise the manuscript and improve it out of all recognition.

Once I achieved a more finished product, there were several agents who expressed an interest. I chose the one I was most impressed with, and indeed she turned out to be the best and most supportive agent any author could wish for. She, in turn, found the best and most appropriate publisher for the novel.

Norm:

Although you are not leaving us just yet, how do you want the world to remember Eva Etzioni-Halevy?

Eva:

I prefer not to think about this right now. Instead, I want to invest my efforts in producing additional Biblical novels so that when the time comes there will be more to remember.

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add and what is next for Eva Etzioni-Halevy?

Eva:

I have another novel about women in the Bible in press. The title is: The Garden of Ruth, and it is scheduled to come out in January. In the meantime I am working on a third one, temporarily entitled The Palm Tree of Deborah.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

And thank you, Norm, for giving me this opportunity to share my thoughts with readers.