Sami Michael - Writing

Writing

Michael's mother tongue is Arabic. It took him roughly 15 years to make the move from writing in Arabic to Hebrew. By sheer persistence and strong will, lacking any formal training, he managed to gain a complete mastery of his new language. He learned from listening and obsessive reading. He defines this 'move' as a miracle:

"It sometimes happens to me while writing, that I seek a word; mischievous as it is it appears in English, it appears in Arabic, but refuses to come in Hebrew. To some extent I made up my Hebrew. Unquestionably, the influence of Arabic is dominant, my syntax is almost Arabic." –Sami Michael, Unbounded Ideas

"When Victoria came out in Cairo, in the preface it was written that 'this is an Arabic novel written in Hebrew'. I took it as a compliment."

He wrote his first novel in Arabic, which won a prize awarded by the Communistic Party. On leaving the party, he ceded publication of the book. Throwing the handwritten copy away, Unbounded Ideas.

"In his study, amongst books in Hebrew, Arabic and English – novels, poetry, politics, history and science – lies on the table a student's folder and inside it neatly arranged pages of his next novel – all handwritten in exemplary fashion on white paper; rows of sentences in perfectly straight lines, that later he will cross out again and again until he decides that this is it, it can be typed. Not by himself. 'At my age you want me to write on a computer? I belong to the generation that does not press buttons, but rather turn them,' he explains, 'I could not do otherwise. I need the contact of the pen where the words flow from the hand on to the page.'"

Michael has fixed hours for writing: twice a day – morning and afternoon. While writing, he disconnects from everything. He does not have a telephone in his study, where he writes. He insists on finishing the novel in the same room in which he started it. He started to write Victoria in his garden shed in Ma'alot, and when he sold the house and moved back to Haifa, he had not completed his book, he asked the buyer to allow him to continue living there until he finished writing Victoria – paying full rent of course.

During his writing he does not show it, not even a chapter to anyone. Nor does he consult with anyone. "A good writer in known not only in by good writing but also in his ability to throw away without mercy, to erase and to leave a pure text." "At the end of the process – approximately three years from the beginning of a book, it will be typed. He does not show his unfinished handwriting, not even to his editor. Here is the place where stubbornness and the joy of creating join to become one determined decision, with the last word left to Michael at all times.

He mostly discards the whole novel and begins writing again. He wrote the novel Water Kissing Water over 20 years, and the version that was finally published was the eighth version. During this time he had other novels published, including: Unbounded Ideas.

He declares that he writes from the gut, without planning out the novel. He likes to surprise himself, although he adds: At the Heart of literature is the plot. When there is no plot, in my opinion, it is not literature but rather another academic exercise."

His books are bestsellers, and his readers are from diverse social strata. His style has been nurtured by both the treasures of the Hebrew language and the wealth of the Arab language. Many would say that Michael generated the revolution of pluralism in Israeli literature in that his protagonists are always “the other”, mainly focusing on Arabs, women, refugees and immigrants. Michael says "life experience has given me a whole gallery of characters." Michael:

"My childhood was soaked in the wisdom of women. I was amazed by the richness of their imagination. I remember with wonder how a woman, at the age of 90, toothless would become pretty when playing a princess waiting for her prince."

His novels explore a wide range of interlocking relationships – social, ethnic and political – between Jews and Arabs, Moslems and Christians, nationalists and communists and Iraq and Israel, at times comparable to the multiple political identities within Michael himself. "It is as if, sometimes, I feel I am two persons. One is an Arab Iraqi, the other an Israeli Jew."

Michael's writing is characterized by its humor, painful irony, empathy and tolerance. His style is clean, direct, and bare of symbols, yet with an outstanding expressiveness. Each story exudes authenticity and personal involvement.His writing, rich in imagery. With a scathing realism, he exposes the weaknesses and virtue of the human being, but always with a jealous regard for his honor, freedom and compassion.

In his books he describes the Jewish-Arab conflict of its deep national, psychological and social aspects. The longing for social justice, equality between peoples, communities and gender are a central motif in Michael's writing that smashes stereotypes and prejudices. Michael was the first Hebrew author to make the Arab the protagonist in his stories and his referring to him neither with arrogance nor idealization. His style of writing milks both the treasures of the Hebrew language and the wealth of the Arab language. In all his writing the sanctity of life is uppermost.

Michael's books have been translated into many languages and used as text books at universities and schools in Israel and abroad.