Give Alan Kaufman the choice to write a book or go fly-fishing and he says he would likely choose the latter.
“I don’t write a book unless I absolutely have to,” said the San Francisco resident and author of the new novel “Matches.” “I would rather do any number of things than write a book.”
But he felt compelled to write “Matches,” a novel about an American serving in
the Israeli Defense Forces from the war in Lebanon to the intifada of the early ’80s. It incorporates much of Kaufman’s real-life experiences as an American in the IDF at the time.
The book’s release Oct. 24 will likely make it one of the first fiction books being released after the time of disengagement from Gaza that expressly deals with the subject.
“It’s a highly relevant book, there’s no question about it. When I was writing it I had no idea at all that that timing would occur. Kind of strange,” he said.
Kaufman, the author of “Jew Boy” and editor of “The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry,” teaches memoir classes and sings in an Irish band. He said hearing those on the left referring to Israeli soldiers as Nazis was one of the reasons he started writing “Matches.”
“What I’m seeing is a failure in the counterculture to imagine other people. They can’t imagine Israelis. A failure to imagine another human being is a big moral failure,” he said. “If they were able to imagine Jewish history and to imagine Israelis, there would be no question in their minds … that things are not as simple as they making it out to be. That Israel is not some big villain.”
Kaufman insists there is no political statement in the book — that it’s only meant to accurately show the experience of an Israeli soldier.
“I have a funny feeling there’s going to be (people) on both sides of the camp who are going to claim it,” he said.
He started writing in 2002, when the suicide and bus bombings of the most recent intifada began.
“Each time a bus would blow up it was like something was blowing up in my guts, and I couldn’t really share this with my friends here in San Francisco,” he said.
San Francisco is not a traditionally pro-Israel city, Kaufman said, and many of his friends did not understand his grief, especially those who were on the left. He added that few people knew his daughter lived in Israel.
“I wanted to do something. The suicide bombings continued and I couldn’t stand anymore the sense of helplessness of just sitting here in San Francisco and doing nothing. It was driving me crazy,” he said.
In the summer of 2002, Kaufman returned to Israel and reunited with his daughter, now 17. He had the army reactivate his reserve service and was soon called up to serve in the West Bank with a front-line unit.
The experience, he said, helped him see his former army service in a new light, and helped him remember things he had forgotten.
“My having been there again kind of washed over the whole manuscript,” he said.
Kaufman said his love and loyalty for Israel clouded his ability to speak or write about it, because he could not come to terms with aspects that were morally complex or ambiguous.
“Matches” was written with a sense of necessity, he said, because he needed to face his experience as a soldier, and digest painful memories and emotions he still had about the experience.
“Matches” by Alan Kaufman (Back Bay Books, 245 pages, $13.95).