You don’t have to be Jewish to be a writer – but it helps

GILLIAN KLAWANSKY

“My entire education in reading consisted of Jewish authors, and it could only be filtered through to my writing. I consider myself an extremely Jewish writer, although some of my books don’t have Jewish characters.”

Sidley, an award-winning writer, was participating in a public conversation between authors Jill Nudelman, Gail Schimmel, and journalist Terry Shakinovsky on “Jews and Fiction: writing in Portnoy’s Shadow”. Born to an East Coast Jewish American mother who moved with his South African father to Johannesburg, Sidley was addressing how being Jewish affects his writing.

“I’m a mixed-up Jew,” said Schimmel, who’s written three acclaimed novels. “My mother was a Pretoria Jew, and she was sent to St Mary’s because it was the best school. She was the only Jewish girl in an Anglican convent. She was traumatised by it, and became a Catholic when she matriculated. Upsetting everyone, she remained a Catholic until she met my non-Jewish father who was from Holland, and came from a long line of atheists. My father’s parents were involved in the Dutch resistance, so ironically, my father’s life was more steeped in Judaism as he came from a Jewish place.

“My mother had a very complicated relationship with her Judaism, but she brought me up to feel that it was a very important part of my identity. So I had mixed messages of accepting and rejecting Judaism. As a result, it’s not a big influence in my work, but it probably influences how I see myself in the world.”

Jill Nudelman, whose debut novel Inheriting the Earth was the co-winner of the Olive Schreiner Prize for prose in 2015, said: “I identify very strongly with my Jewishness, but I think it’s more about whiteness that I’m writing. I’m writing about being white in South Africa. Rootedness and belonging – that’s always my theme.”

Shakinovsky suggested that whiteness was part of the South African Jewish experience. “It’s not straightforward to be writing as white, middle class people today,” she said. “In South Africa, it’s not simple to write about characters of different cultures and races.” She asked the authors if this inhibited or inspired them as writers.

“It’s something I’m very aware of,” said Schimmel. “The very nature of fiction is that you’re writing another person’s story. How far do you take it? My protagonists are all middle class white women because that’s what I am. At the same time, I’m very aware of not just telling a story that [represents] our closed suburban experience of South Africa, rather one that looks at the biggest picture. As a white South African writer, you have to check your privilege constantly to ensure you’re telling a real story.”

“I’m also trying to inscribe whiteness, trying to write that slight racism of which a lot of people are guilty,” said Nudelman. “All my books are about home and unhomeliness, about longing for belonging and rootedness as a white person in South Africa.” Nudelman, who is working towards a new novel as part of her PHD at Birmingham University, says she struggles to impart the nuances of South African society to her British professor. “It’s hard to explain how complicated our situation is.”

Sidley said he actively avoided setting his novels in South Africa. “I spent most of adult life in the United States, and all my books are set [there]. When I wrote a book set in South Africa, it was rejected by all the publishers. I realised that any story about South Africa is often crowded out by tales of corruption, race, bigotry, and so on. I don’t want to tackle that when I’m telling a story about humans in a situation by which they are crushed or triumphant. There are other novelists better at it than me.”

Schimmel approaches the issue differently. “I find joy in showing we are still living human stories despite our complicated country and history. We still fall in love, fight with our spouses, and neighbours, and so on. We still live a very mundane existence against the background of the political picture.”

The panellists reflected how writing made them more self-aware. For Sidley, writing is therapy. “The catalyst for my writing is trying to understand myself, and I have through my novels.” Nudelman agreed that writing was very revealing of who you are, saying, “I am the characters I write.” Schimmel said, “It’s inevitable. In writing, you expose yourself to others and yourself. When I write, I discover my unrealised prejudices.” All of the panellists agreed that finding pleasure in the act of writing, and a sense of accomplishment in the finished product, were their main motivations. Noting that only about 5% of writers in America made a living from writing – and far fewer in South Africa – Schimmel pointed out, “None of us do it for the fame or money!”

They also debated whether there was room for a thought-provoking novel tackling the South African Jewish experience. Nudelman said she was doing just that in her new novel. “I have a Jewish character who’s verbally attacked by an angry black man, and goes back to trace her ancestry and write the Jewish story.” Sidley, however, argued that many feel that because the number of Jews in South Africa is dwindling, there’s less of a market for a South African Jewish story, a “harsh commercial reality”. Nudelman argued that such a book need not be limited to a Jewish audience.

This discussion was just one of the numerous talks and presentations at the “Talking Books” festival celebrating Jewish books, authors, readers, artists, and ideas.

“We felt that there should be a Jewish book festival in Johannesburg,” said organiser Hazel Cohen. Having run the last one of this kind 15 years ago, it definitely was time for the next one. “Roughly, it takes the format of the London Jewish Book Week, but we’ve turned it into a fortnight.”

Celebrated speakers include photographer Jodi Bieber, journalist Mandy Wiener, Daily Maverick senior contributor Richard Poplak, and academic and editor Marcia Leveson.

• The festival runs until 21 October. For more information, call Hazel or Rene on 011 728 8088/8378.