#zmora speaks

[wren-of-the-woods]

Curse Fic Recs

I absolutely love Witcher fics where a character gets cursed so I thought I'd share some of my favorites! All of them are Geraskier except for a few Lambden ones at the end.

If anyone has other fics to reccommend, please feel free to give them a shoutout – I’d love to read them!

~

Cursed Jaskier

A Friend in the Wild by @samstree (Rated T, 1k)

In which Geralt acquires a tiny mouse friend who wouldn't stop following him.

If There's Any Sleep At Night by @smolalienbee (Rated T, 22k)

A mare, also known as a mara or a zmora - a malicious entity, a bringer of nightmares and a demon of the night. An easy enough contract to fulfill, if only frustrating, or at least that’s what Geralt believes when he first sets out to hunt down one such mare. What he doesn’t expect is to be wrapped up in a tale of a wronged soul, of love and of joy.

My Name is Hidden On Your Tongue by @anarchycox (Rated T, 10k)

Jaskier is cursed. Well his whole family line is. Every male born child cannot be named. They can be given a name, but it will never be a true one and people will always have an allergic reaction to saying this false name. Only a soulmate speaking your true name aloud will break the curse. The family though has never cared, they've only cared about the family fortune and marrying well. But Jaskier cares. He is determined to travel the world, find his soulmate and learn what his name is. And the best way to travel the world seems to be with a rather taciturn witcher named Geralt of Rivia. If he started to hope that Geralt would be the one to say his true name, well that was one thing that Jaskier would not say aloud.

The Cursed Jewels of Lettenhove by GoldenDaydreams (Rated T, 8k)

Geralt has no intention of getting involved with breaking a curse and naturally ends up very involved.

Silver and Copper by @heronfem (Rated M, 56k)

Jaskier is kept from becoming a bard. Geralt finds him anyway.

Priceless by @handwrittenhello (Rated M, 38k)

Jaskier was cursed as a child; when spilled, his blood turns to rubies and his tears turn to diamonds. When his secret is discovered, Geralt must save him from those who would take advantage of it. Together they work to break the curse, but the cost might end up being too steep.

Set My Wings on Fire by bilboakenshield27 (Not Rated, 4k)

Jaskier gets turned into a bird and has to warn Geralt about an ambush.

Sleep of the Dead by @dancedelion (Rated T, 20k)

Jaskier thinks he hit rock bottom when Geralt flushed twenty years of friendship down the drain, but then he finds himself suddenly translucent and rudely walked through by a traveller. Apparently he's dead - that's certainly a new low. He needs to find out what happened, and who better to help him than the man who's made more than clear he wants nothing to do with him.

The Sandpiper by @welcomemysentence (Rated T, 2k)

When Jaskier gets cursed into an actual sandpiper, the little coast bird, the only way to save him is with true love's kiss.

What's Engraved Upon My Heart (In Letters Deeply Worn) by @made-of-constellations-blog (Rated T, 6k)

Jaskier gets cursed to be a lark with a strange failsafe to turn him back. Geralt misses this, and realizes too late that he's not ready to lose his bard.

to be held by @wanderlust-t (Rated T, 1k)

The knife dropped on the ground. And Geralt’s thoughts reached to a halt for a moment. He had no rope. Not anything to keep Jaskier still. To hold him back. Oh. That was going to be a really long night.

Catskier by @al-in-my-head (Rated T, 17k)

Due to an unfortunate encounter with a mage while him and Geralt are apart, Jaskier is transformed into a cat. It just so happens that Geralt likes talking to animals.

~

Cursed Geralt

A Marvelous Night for a Moondance by @flowercrown-bard (Rated T, 1k)

There was a warning every child living near Oakwood Valley knew. "Don't go out at night, or you'll disturb the Moonlit Dancer." No one truly knew who the Moonlit Dancer was, but everyone agreed on two things: The Dancer must be dangerous. And he must be oh so lonely.

animal instinct by leodesic (Rated M, 13k)

Despite Jaskier's hard work, there are still plenty of people who hate witchers. They think they're monstrous, inhuman, only held back from violence by a thin veneer of control. One mage has a plan to spread his views by capturing a witcher and bewitching them to remove their control. When the Butcher of Blaviken walks into his hideout, he's convinced he's found the perfect candidate - and a convenient way to get rid of the pesky bard that's been singing his praises. Jaskier is forced to agree witchers are not human, but that doesn't mean they're dangerous. In fact, he's astounded by how many of Geralt's uncontrolled impulses involve touching.

Connecting dots by @dapandapod (Rated G, 3k)

Geralt is hit with a lying curse, and it takes Jaskier an embarrassing amount of time to figure it out. Now, it Jaskier only would stick to the safe questions....

Don't Go Stealing My Heart by @thesilverqueenlady (Rated T, 17k)

When Jaskier is stiffed by a lord on payment, he decides to help himself to proper compensation. Alongside the correct amount of gold and silver, he also steals a beautiful silver wolf's head medallion. It's safe to say that he is not expecting the medallion to be haunted by the spirit of a very grumpy, very handsome, very cursed Witcher.

Cuddles, Curses, and Confusion by me :D (Rated T, 3k)

Geralt becomes oddly affectionate after being cursed by a mage. Jaskier would just like his life to be less complicated, please.

Spectre's Soul also by me :D (Rated T, 31k)

When Jaskier tried to go on a date with a man named Rience, he did not expect to nearly be killed. He certainly did not expect to discover a beautiful valley while running away from him. He very definitely did not expect to find out that the valley was haunted — by an absurdly beautiful man. Or: In which Geralt is cursed to be a ghost and Jaskier is the first person in decades to talk to him.

~

Cursed Aiden

Headache at First Sight by YorkAndDelta (Rated T, 12k)

A story of how Lambert ends up looking after a cursed cat, helping a Witcher from a rival school retrieve his gear from angry mages, and maybe finds love along the way.

~

Cursed Lambert

the mortifying ordeal of being known as a cat by @skaldingrayne Rated M, 10k

Lambert is cursed to be a cat. Fortunately, he finds Jaskier.

~

You can find my other reclists here!

[wellesleyunderground]

Wellesley Underground’s Holiday Guide to Wellesley-Owned Businesses: November 2019

The Good Supply / Image Credit: The Good Supply

Looking for your holiday gifts? Check out Wellesley Underground’s crowd-sourced list of Wellesley-owned businesses (updated for 2019)! Compiled by Hoi-Fei Mok ‘10, WU Managing Editor.

Pinterest Board of the Shops (incomplete)

Jewelry

Alumnati Jewelry by Stephanie Christie ‘00: Handmade Wellesley lamppost earrings

Ecru Collection by Kara Templeton '12: Jewelry, home decor, and stationery

Kindred Spirit Studios by Michelle Davis Petelinz '78: Jewelry, home decor

Lauren Wimmer Jewelry by Lauren Wimmer ‘98: Jewelry

Mala Shah Design by Mala Shah ‘98: Metalworks and Reiki-infused jewelry

Ready-Made by Jenn Meng ‘13: Materials-focused jewelry brand offering minimal, everyday pieces that are affordable, hypoallergenic, super strong, and tarnish-free.

Porcelain and Stone by Kimberly Huestis '05: Nautically inspired jewelry

Space Mermaid by Stephanie Carbone '93: Sky and sea inspired jewelry

Urban Witchcraft by Elena Gauvin ‘13: hand fabricated sterling silver gemstone jewelry with a gothic feel 

Wellesley Voices For Disability: Wellesley earring and necklace set, scarf and hat set, fountain pen, bookmark, keyboard covers and more. 

Art & Crafts

A Riot of Color by Susan Eiseman Levitin '85: Hand-dyed yarns

Achiaa Paper and Pen by Rebecca Amponsah ‘08: Handmade paper goods and lettering

Alyssa Sketch’d by Alyssa Torres ‘09: Original illustrations/art and jewelry

Art Without A Frame by Hoi-Fei Mok ‘10: Original illustrations/art from the Dragon Fruit Project, an oral history project of queer and trans Asian Pacific Islanders

Cardiology Cards by Tamar Zmora ‘11: Break up Cards

ChemKnits Creations by Rebecca Brown ‘06: Hand dyed yarns

Connie-Chen.com by Connie Chen ‘17: Calligraphy commissions, prints, bookish apparel, oblique holders, penmanship lessons 

DisaporicArts by Jenny Jean ‘13: Modern digital art prints

Fran Decker by Fran Decker '80: Original paintings, prints, tiles and notecards

Genevieve Calligraphy by Genevieve Goldleaf ‘12: Botanical illustrations and custom calligraphy

The Grey Fox Studio by Katherine Grey '08: Printmaking, drawing & painting

KT Obermanns by KT Obermanns '07: Illustrations, portraits, pinups, and caricature

Leslie Ordal Fibre Arts by Leslie Ordal ‘04: Handspun yarns, handwoven scarves, and other fibre arts. Lessons and workshops in the Toronto, Ontario, area.

Map Attic by Alex Azzi ‘15: Block-printed holiday cards, resin jewelry, vintage map crafts, ceramics, and abstract fluid paintings.

Misc Midwest by Marie Clymer Sarnacki '13: Wooden coasters and fridge magnets with a Wellesley design

Miyun Makes by Gena Hong ‘12: handmade pottery inspired by Korean traditions.

Monica Starr Creations by Monica Starr Feldman ‘14: Leather luggage tags, metal flower bouquets, embossed stationary, scarves, mason jar cozies, metal & wood working

My Big Pink Crafty Box by Sophia Giordano '09: Feminist crafts

Pick Two Pottery by Dana Lamb ‘99: Pottery

Singing Whale Stained Glass by Amy Putnam ‘90: Handmade stained glass art and shattered glass pins, plus chainmaille bracelets and earrings, including Wellesley inspired pieces.

Stephanie Hessler by Stephanie Hessler ‘84: Wellesley inspired prints, apparel, homewares

Tiny Small Joys by Alyssa Kayser-Hirsh '14: handmade books, calendars, notebooks, and planners

Wear I’ve Been by Samaa Ahmed ‘13: Art designs on throw pillows, prints, mugs, tote bags and more.

Kacie Lyn Martinez by Kacie Lyn Martinez ‘09: fiber artist who weaves tapestries and other fiber art 

Photography

Az Bulutlu by Eylul Dogruel ‘07: Skyscapes, travel and abstract photography, prints and merchandise.

JezRebelle by Jess Planos '10: Wellesley photos on prints, apparel, homewares

Meera Graham Photography by Meera Mohan ‘09: Nature Prints for Sale, Headshots & Candid Portraiture

Vero Kherian Photography by Veronique (Chau) Kherian ‘05: Professional Portraits and Headshot Photography in the SF Bay area  

Health & Skincare

Beautycounter by Jen Askin Pollock ‘99: Safer, high-performing products for the whole family

Box Naturals by Irene Kim ‘99: Luxe towelettes with organic essential oils

Cocofloss by Chrystle Cu '05: Flavored dental floss

EmmGerri by Karen and Kristi Jordan: Skincare lotion

Eu’Genia Shea by Naa-Sakle Akuete ‘08: Shea butter 

Just Botanicals by Sonya Funaro ‘00: Handcraft organic, ethically-sourced skincare  

Hubba Hubba by Megan (MJ) Pullins `94: The oldest alternative adult store in New England, stocking everything from corsets, club clothes, lingerie, and all sorts of sex toys.

Lioness by Liz Klinger: Smart vibrator

Maum Goods Co. by Helen (Tak) Kingery ‘01: Handmade essential oil products for wellness and balance

TATCHA Beauty by Victoria Tsai ‘00: Japanese based skincare products

Fashion and Apparel 

A Gifted Baby by Amelia Gray ‘03: Online boutique for babies and little people focussing on small and emerging designers, ethical production practices and women-owned labels. Alums are friends and family, use code “weloveyou20much” for the 20% f&f discount:).

Baby Blast Off by Emily Bennett: Baby clothes

Catie’s Natives by Jennifer Roesch ‘92: Shirts, hoodies, and accessories that show city pride. Developed and designed by Jennifer’s 10 year old daughter. Featured in Time Out NY. 10% of profits support Hartley House which provides social services to residents of Hell’s Kitchen, NY.

Charlotte and Asher by Laura Hahn ‘06: Fashionable diaper bags

Cliobags by Alejandra Zambrano: Handmade bags

Emma Finney by Kristin Bunce ‘00: Bags and clutches

Orange Soda Baby by Dorothy Hsiung '05: Whimsical children's clothing

The Outrage by Claire Schlemme ‘06: Feminist clothing and accessories with a portion of profits to women’s empowerment orgs.

Satya Twena by Satya Twena ‘05: Hats and millinery 

Stoptiques by Olga Vidisheva '07: Apparel and accessories

Wellesley Class of 1990: Purple W capes!  Made of durable material - great for wearing as a cape, using a picnic blanket, keeping your car seat clean, etc.

Wellesley Class of 2003: Wellesley lamp post shirts, baby apparel, and accessories

Wellesley Class of 2007: Wellesley apron (“We can stand the heat!”), baby and kids apparel

Wellesley Club of Columbus, OH: Wellesley insignia whistle

Swells Swag by Sarie Hale-Alper ‘04: Wellesley-themed designs on a variety of apparel and accessories.

Food & Care Packages

ChocolatesU by Amy Camargo ‘94: Chocolates

Ice Cream Jubilee by Victoria Lai ‘01: 6 ice cream pints, shipped nationwide

Montecarlos Estate by Carlota Batres ‘09: Coffee

Off The Beaten Path Food Tours by Lizzie Bell '03: Food tours in MA

Sky Vineyards by Skyla Olds ‘99: Wines

Sunny Exchange by Connie Su ‘09 and Jennifer Lim ‘06: Care packages

Takeout Kit by Rachael Blanchard Lake '07: Shelf-stable meal kit

Tranquil Tuesdays by Charlene Wang '03: Tea and teaware

Toys

My Muse Dolls by Torlisa Jeffery ‘06: Customizable dolls

Animal Care

Newbury Paws by Andrea Fowler '07: Harnesses for large dogs

Wellesley DC Club: Wellesley pet bowls

Domesticat: Rocío Garza Tisdell ‘07: modern-design cat furniture and accessories

Books & Zines

DefinitiveLeigh by Leigh Morrison '15: Feminist zines

Children’s photo books by Cristi Carlstead ‘01: Colors, alphabet and numbers from various countries around the world Romance Novels by Kate Broad ‘06, writing as Rebecca Brooks: sexy contemporary feminist romance

Jambo Book Club by Mijha Butcher Godfrey ‘98: Receive two-three age-appropriate children’s books each month that feature a child of color as the star. Jambo books show children of color in situations where children’s literature rarely places them - making friends, raising pets, loving grandparents and fighting dragons. The books arrive with a personalized letter in boxes beautifully decorated with art that celebrates the joy of childhood. We serve children aged 0-13.

General Home:

Domesticat by Rocío Garza Tisdell ‘07: posters, more products in development

TAIT Design Co. by Audrey Elkus ‘18: Toys + Homewares designed and assembled in Detroit and 100% made in USA. Minimalist, mid-century modern, built to last and make great gifts. Thanks for checking us out : )!

Professional Services

Abilities Dance: Boston-based physically-integrated dance company. Able to perform at holiday parties, fundraisers, and all types of events. Always willing to negotiate rates for W alums. 

Grace Astrology by Elisabeth Grace ‘83: Professionally certified astrologer; life strategist. Astrology is a powerful tool for understanding why you are the way you are; what you need in order to feel fulfilled and why things happen when they do. Improve your timing and your relationships. Based in New York -- available for parties, fundraisers, speaking/teaching engagements.  

Leslie Ordal: Writing and editing, with a specialty in medicine and science but other fields also welcome. Ad copy, journal manuscripts, etc.--my clients have ranged from Big Pharma to artisans to graduate students. Discount on my usual rate for W alums! Makefast Workshop (Maura Atwater ‘08): Prototyping consultancy; hardware, software, and musical instrument design.

[funnythingshere0-blog]

Etgar Keret, Israel's Dark Star Whose Light Never Goes Out

New Post has been published on http://funnythingshere.xyz/etgar-keret-israels-dark-star-whose-light-never-goes-out/

Etgar Keret, Israel's Dark Star Whose Light Never Goes Out

In many ways, Etgar Keret is the writer of my generation. We were born into the same world, we rode the same roads, we watched the same TV shows. When his first two books came out – “Pipelines” in 1992 and “Missing Kissinger” in 1994 – it was the first time that a writer from our generation wrote in our language.

People called it lean language, but I’m not sure this was an apt description. The language was devoid of flowery rhetoric and gave voice to a generation that scorned poetical writing and no longer believed in it.

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We understood Keret and the path he was taking, outside the mainstream that was captivated by lofty words and “important” literature that dealt with Zionism and the pain of the shooters and criers, and spoke at such a high level when we knew we were really so small. We hated yuppies and their early SUVs, we weren’t about to commit to anything – certainly not to talk seriously or pretend that we were important and that anything we said mattered.

Twenty-six years have gone by. Keret became an international star, a little matter that keeps a lot of Israelis up at night, for we can’t stand people who are successful. Actually, we already hated successful types 26 years ago, because, as we saw it then, successful folks were also the ones writing important things, maintaining a serious expression, speaking on behalf of the tribe or the generation.

But the way Keret wrote was different – short, absurd, with sorrow buried deep inside and not named aloud because to do so would instantly render it fake. He was funny, but the way that Holocaust jokes are funny. We liked it, though I’m not sure we understood that these were Holocaust jokes, even if we didn’t miss the horror that was in there. The horror was always there, but there was also a perspective, an understanding of the little things, a distancing from the drama. That’s still the same. In that, he hasn’t changed.

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The title of his latest Hebrew-language collection – which translates as “A Glitch at the Edge of the Galaxy” – nudges us to acknowledge that there’s a galaxy and we’re minuscule stars that are burning out in it. Any kind of serious talk, therefore, betrays a lack of awareness. We’re pathetic, small, hurting and smoking weed sometimes to help us bear this existential truth. Such are Keret’s protagonists, walking around in the world while a past or future little catastrophe lurks in the background.

Years ago I met an American writer at the International Writers Festival at Mishkenot Sha’ananim in Jerusalem. We were chatting, I don’t recall about what, and I said something about Holocaust jokes. He froze and then slowly repeated my words back to me: “Ho-lo-caust jokes? Ho-lo-caust jokes?” What’s a Holocaust joke, he asked, completely stunned. And it hit me that Holocaust jokes are a dirty little secret that I’d unwittingly revealed. I declined to tell him. I come from a family in which people take their secrets to the grave.

But he was charming and eventually persuaded me to tell, and he was also Jewish so I thought it might do him good to know about his people’s rich and secret body of knowledge, and I assessed that he was old enough to enter this orchard. So I told him my favorite Holocaust joke. I was wary of what his reaction would be, but to my surprise, he roared with laughter. It sounded like a laugh that was letting go of 2,000 years of exile, and it occurred to me that maybe this is what Keret does in his work.

Etgar Keret’s Hebrew-language collection of stories ‘A Glitch at the Edge of the Galaxy,’ 2018. Kinnert Zmora-Biton Dvir

This kind of thing used to be done in Hebrew literature, before Zionism came and surgically removed our sense of humor. Now we’re very serious and a very threatened people. The first thing people tend to say about Keret is that he’s funny, and it’s true, but he’s funny in precisely this way, with a grim laugh in the face of horror.

When he published his first book and spoke in a language we understood, the idea was to deflate all the balloons and never blow them up again. As the years went by, he and his contemporaries were criticized for this – for not being ready to assume the portentous role of observer of the House of Israel.

But Keret didn’t give in, and despite the passage of time, all the success and the translation of his books into more than 40 languages, he still writes short stories that sometimes make the reader laugh while getting him a little choked up. It’s sort of like all those anarchist ladies and gentlemen who dare take out a cellophane-wrapped candy at the theater. The rustling of the wrapper causes the stern-faced person beside them to shift uncomfortably in his seat, as if the disturbance came from the unwrapping of a cyanide pill.

Cloning Hitler

What’s in Keret’s new story collection? One thing you notice is that the stories come from somebody who’s out there in the world and no longer chained to names like Devora and Yosef. His protagonists might be called Pete-Pete and Todd, and they work in the cafeteria at Lincoln High, but sometimes they’re called Lidor or Zvi and they’re looking for an escape room to take their grandmother to on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The world is the same dark, absurd and uncompromising world where the kids and teens have become grown-ups who still don’t know how to save themselves and their children from the horror; the parents are absent. Sometimes mothers die, sometimes fathers. Keret’s world is that same world that lacks an organizing principle. Though maybe what’s changed is that now one could possibly point to a single overriding principle: the principle of orphanhood.

In the opening story, “The Second-to-Last Time I was Shot Out of a Cannon,” Esteban the human cannonball is too drunk to perform and a replacement must be found. When it’s suggested to the narrator that he take his place, he begs off, saying he has no experience. The circus manager begs to differ, pointing out that he has been shot out of a cannon before, and not just once but many times – for example, when his wife left him, or when his son called him a loser and said he never wanted to see him again.

In the next story – “Don’t Do It!” – a father and son notice a man standing on a rooftop and getting ready to jump, but each of them perceives the situation differently. The father wants to save the man while the son shouts encouragement, not yet aware of the possibility that someone could take his own life. He yells to the man to jump because he wants to see him fly – it’s not every day that you get to meet a real superhero.

An escape room in Tel Aviv, September 2016. Keret’s escape room is closed on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Ilia Kitov

In the story “Todd,” Todd asks his writer friend to write a story that will help him get girls to go to bed with him. The writer explains what a story is: “A story is not a magical incantation or hypnotherapy, a story is essentially a way to share with people something that you feel, something intimate, sometimes it’s even embarrassing that” – here the friend cuts him off. A story is just a story, Keret is telling us, still committed not to inflate any balloons.

In many of the stories, the father or mother is missing, having either run away or died or run away and died. Sometimes they’re just divorced, with wrecked families, single-parent families, orphaned children. In “Car Concentrate,” a 46-year-old man keeps a piece of compressed metal in his living room. It was once part of his father’s Mustang that got mixed up in a deadly accident. Sometimes the kids in Keret’s stories are small, and sometimes they’re 46-year-olds.

“What does your daughter do?,” the mother in “Crumb Cake” asks Charlie in Charlie’s Diner. The woman is there with her son to celebrate her 50th birthday. Charlie is impressed that, at his age, the son still wants to go out with his mother for her birthday. In answering her question, he says he doesn’t know exactly, something high-tech. And the mother replies: “My son is fat and unemployed, so don’t be too quick to be jealous.”

In “Rabbit on My Father’s Side,” fathers leave home and return to their young children in the form of real white rabbits that can be petted behind the ear. And there are also stories about clones. In “Tabula Rasa,” Hitler is cloned so that a Holocaust survivor can kill him. Hitler doesn’t know that he’s a clone or that he’s Hitler. He is raised in harsh conditions, in captivity, and dreams of the day when he’ll be free. Does killing a clone count as murder? And what about murdering a Hitler who doesn’t know that he’s Hitler and has yet to harm anyone?

In “Yad Vashem,” a clear glass divider separates an exhibit about European Jewry before the Nazis came to power and one about Kristallnacht. A tourist named Eugene accidentally bumps into it. Blood drips from his nose as he views the exhibit with his wife Rachel. They’re going through a hard time, but not because of the Holocaust.

Interspersed with the stories is correspondence about the use of an escape room called “A Glitch at the Edge of the Galaxy” that a man named Michael Warshavsky wants to bring his mother to on Holocaust Remembrance Day. He’s informed in a letter from the place’s manager that the escape room is closed that day.

Undeterred, Warshavsky writes back that he’s trying “to find an appropriate activity for this sad and awful day,” adding that “the escape room has to do with the heavenly bodies, and, to the best of my knowledge, these did not deviate from their orbits even as 6 million Jews were sent to their deaths.” Which may have been why I thought about Holocaust jokes, and the joke I told to that American writer: A Jew arrives at the concentration camp and in the selection the Nazi orders him to go to the left, so the Jew asks – my left or yours?

Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks,’ 1942. A place to celebrate one’s 50th birthday. Reuters

A shattered culture

It will be interesting to see how Keret is perceived today by young readers, the ones for whom career isn’t a dirty word; for those who can afford it, a yuppie’s SUV is the natural choice. Keret still writes about people outside the bourgeois circle, about people whose lives have shot them out of a cannon. He doesn’t write beautifully, he’s not making love to the language, he doesn’t know what’s right and what’s good and how it’s supposed to be. Despite all his success, he remains faithful to his generation and in this sense he hasn’t changed; some would say that he hasn’t grown up – compared to the rest of us who’ve betrayed all we used to be and can now be found spouting gibberish on Facebook and at Botox parties.

Keret doesn’t preach, he doesn’t judge, he just tells a story. Some people might think this is just more of the same, but what’s this thing that’s the same and has it really not changed? Keret has the ability to see things both from a bird’s-eye view and from the vantage point of the refrigerator. He knows what’s in the single guy’s fridge and the married couple’s fridge. He also knows what’s in the war’s fridge, the family’s fridge, the parents’ fridge and the orphan’s fridge. He knows the farewell fridge and the compromise fridge.

Maybe a story is just a story, but a story is also a cunning act, certainly when it comes to Keret. It seems to me that since his first books, the laughter has changed and sometimes vanished completely. The story that concludes the collection, “The Evolution of Separation,” describes a cell that becomes a pepper that becomes a fish that becomes a lizard that becomes a creature that walks upright that becomes a loving couple laughing and watching television together. And then their parents die and they have a child who grows up and goes off to college and they’re left alone and grow nasty to each other and cheat on each other and find replacements for each other. And then they break down and crash, and the man notices that he’s speaking in the plural when he’s all alone.

Here we have a story that’s not just about the evolution of separation between people, but also a depiction of the evolution of a culture still crushed and trampled on, and here Keret offers no words of comfort or the merest hint of a joke. And that’s what has changed.