[Short Stories] Creative Writing, Guava, Hat Trick---three short stories by Etgar Keret

I was searching for free short stories at The New Yorker when I chanced upon Israeli writer Etgar Keret’s “Creative Writing”, a really short story about the writing endeavors of a wife and eventually, of her husband.

Written the point of view of the husband, the narrator listens to the experiences of his wife who signs for a creative writing class. Two months before the enrolment, the couple experiences a miscarriage. Naturally, they grieve over the loss of a child, but the wife keeps all her feelings to herself. After a series of writing exercises, the wife is able to express her grief (well, that’s what it means to me) through a humorous story, which overwhelms the husband. He then signs himself up for a creative writing class and writes a story “without thinking”. Oh, there are a lot of metaphors in the story. Reading it is like looking at a piece of an art and letting its meanings wash over you. My favorite quote is towards the end:

“And suddenly he remembered that he was a fish. A very rich fish who controlled many subsidiary companies that were traded on stock markets around the world, but still a fish. A fish who, for years, had not tasted the salt of the sea.”

For me, Creative Writing is a thought-provoking short story about how a woman who grieves clamor for support and understanding and capitalizes on the support she gets, no matter if that person supporting her “reeked with body lotion”. Well, that’s my serious interpretation. On the lighter side, I think, if I am to sum up the story in a few words, it shows people’s longing for escape.

Interested on Keret’s work, I searched for his other stories and found “Guava”, another very short thought-provoking story of a man, before he died in a plane crash, was granted one wish. He wished for “peace on earth” (which, coincidentally, is also my wish should I be granted one). The man was reincarnated into a “guava” in the afterlife, still afraid of falling as he was before the plane crashed, while peace washed over the earth.

The message there is: be happy and mean what you say when you make a wish so you won’t suffer in the afterlife... Just kidding! Really, I am curious to know why Keret picked a guava of all fruits as symbol for the main character in the afterlife. Are there guavas in the West? I know there are lots of them out here in the East.

Keret’s “Hat Trick”, though, is quite disturbing. A magician who enjoys pulling his rabbit from his hat finds himself eventually losing the trick. One show, he pulled a bloody dead rabbit’s head. The second time, he pulled from his hat a dead baby. During both shows, the children were hardly interested in the magician’s tricks (they were busy playing video games) until the dead rabbit and baby were pulled out of the hat. Most of the children were enthusiastic about the incident that they request the magician’s services during their own birthdays and particularly asked that dead rabbit’s head be pulled out of the hat.

The short story speaks volumes of the kind of entertainment we have today, how many of our children are heavily influenced by video games, and how the population of genuine magicians really enjoying their magic craft is sadly becoming obsolete. Here’s a striking passage from the story:

“...other than that I don't do anything. I just lie awake in bed and think about the rabbit's head and the dead baby. Like they're clues to a riddle; like someone was trying to tell me something, that this isn't the best time for rabbits, or for babies either. That this isn't really the right time for magicians.”

Keret is a writer of six bestselling story collections. His first movie, Jellyfish, as a director along with his wife, Shira Geffen, won the Camera d’Or prize for best first feature at Cannes in 2007. In 2010 he was named a Chevalier of France’s Order of Arts and Letters. I am interested to read his The Nimrod Flip-Out, (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006), which is said to be a collection of 32 short stories that captures the craziness of life in Israel today.

As a reader, I found Keret’s writing flawless and a definite pleasure. I realized I was having fun reading Keret’s stories and was not in the least bothered by the need to poke around and under the letters for meanings. Actually, there was no need for the poking; the messages just came to me. I haven’t read such a light and quirky set of short stories since David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day a couple of years ago. The difference, though, is that Keret’s works are surreal and layered with metaphors. I will definitely be reading more of the works of this writer.

Have you read a short story by Etgar Keret? What do you think about it? I welcome your thoughts. Thanks!