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“I’ve been looking at [Keret’s] Substack and it’s so witty and enjoyable, and he’s clearly having a wonderful time doing it, I thought, ‘maybe I could do that’” — Salman Rushdie, The Guardian
Ninety
Read at Alphabet Soup
"Intention"
Deep in his heart, Yechiel-Nachman had made peace with his prayers going unanswered. Because prayer was the pure yearning for compassion and justice, whereas life was life: cruel, dispiriting, insulting. It was therefore only natural that two such contrasting worlds could never converge. But on October 7, 2023 – the 22nd day of Tishrei in the year 5784 – something in Yechiel-Nachman broke.
Photograph: Bumble Dee/Alamy
“What About Me?“
Written by Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen for “Short Stories on Human Rights“ (2008).
Random quote
Her third story started out funny. It was about a woman who gave birth to a cat. The hero of the story was the husband, who suspected that the cat wasn't his. A fat ginger tomcat that slept on the lid of the dumpster right below the window of the couple's bedroom gave the husband a condescending look every time he went downstairs to throw out the garbage.
Third Temple: Israel’s Occupation Is Coming Home
Netanyahu’s government is not here to debate—it’s here to rule, and any resistance is an intifada.
Words Without Borders, 2010
I believe that there is a truth. I believe it is very difficult to articulate that truth. I try to go in that direction, but I don’t pretend I will get there.
New York Times, 2012
For Keret, the creative impulse resides not in a conscious devotion to the classic armature of fiction (character, plot, theme, etc.) but in an allegiance to the anarchic instigations of the subconscious. His best stories display a kind of irrepressible dream logic