Uncle Peretz Takes Off is a collection of short stories

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i writer Yaakov Shabtai

Yaakov Shabtai

Yaakov Shabtai was an Israeli novelist, playwright, and translator.-Biography:Shabtai was born in 1934 in Tel Aviv, Mandate Palestine. In 1957, after completing military service, he joined Kibbutz Merhavia, but returned to Tel Aviv in 1967....

. An English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 translation by Dalya Bilu was published in 2004. The stories present a gallery of characters in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

 of the 1940s, including Uncle Shmuel who tries to make his fortune as a poulterer, the nude model

Model (art)

Art models are models who pose for photographers, painters, sculptors, and other artists as part of their work of art. Art models who pose in the nude for life drawing are usually called life models...

 Tamara Bell, and Albert Weiss-Fink, who dreams of bringing a traveling circus

Traveling Circus

Traveling Circus is the fifth studio album by American country music singer Phil Vassar. It was released on December 15, 2009 as his second album for the Universal South Records label. The album contains the singles "Bobbi with an I" and "Everywhere I Go," both of which have charted on the U.S....

 to Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

.

Writing and Publication history

The thirteen stories which make up the first edition of the collection were all written between 1966 and 1971, when Yaakov Shabtai was in his thirties, and still mostly focused on his work as a playwright. Following his experience with these stories, Shabtai decided to dedicate himself to prose. Once the collection was published he turned to writing novels, and never attempted to write short stories again.

The first Hebrew edition of the book was published in 1972 and included thirteen stories. An expanded edition, including seven previously unpublished stories from Shabtai's estate, was published posthumously in 1985. The English edition includes the 13 original stories and one additional story, "The Czech Tea Service", from the new collection.

The original stories

Shabtai paid close attention to the overall structure of the collection, believing that it also reflected the internal ideas of the stories. Though at first the book included additional stories, such as "The Gospel according to Lucas," Shabtai decided to leave them out since they did not fit the overall structure.

Seven of the stories - the first five and the final two - deal with memory and serve as a frame for the book. The first story, "Adoshem", recounts the narrator's Bar Mitzvah, while the last story, "Departure", presents the death of his grandmother. the character of the narrator reappears in all seven of these "memory" stories, as either protagonist or witness. All the stories in the collection except two, "Cordoba" and "The Voyage to Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

", take place in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

.

The thirteen stories, in order, are:

• Adoshem
• Model
• True Tenderness
• Uncle Shmuel
• A Marriage Proposal
• Past Continuous
• Cordoba
• Twilight
• The Voyage to Mauritius
• A Private and Very Awesome Leopard
• Uncle Peretz Takes Off
• The Visit
• Departure

The estate stories

Shabtai deemed these seven stories as unfitting for the collection; they were later added by his wife, who managed his estate, as the first volume in a series which would publish Shabtai's complete literary output. Except for "The Czech Tea Service," none of these stories were translated into English and their titles are direct translations of the original Hebrew names.

The seven stories are:

• Family - an early draft of "A Private and Very Awesome Leopard"
• The Czech Tea Service - partly integrated into the novel Past Continuous
  Past Continuous (novel)
  Past Continuous is a 1977 novel originally written in Hebrew by Israeli novelist Yaakov Shabtai. The original title, Zikhron Devarim is a form of contract or letter of agreement or memorandum, but could also be translated literally as Remembrance of Things.Past Continuous is Shabtai’s first, and...
  
  
• Lesson
• Chardash
• Love Adventure
• A Wick from the Cathedral Bell's Rope
• The Gospel
  Gospel
  A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
  
  according to Lucas

External links

• Uncle Peretz Takes Off - Review at the Jewish News Weekly