498
PARTISAN REVIEW
all sorts of notices to the concrete pillars, and letter boxes, and receptacles
for collecting old newspapers for the Soldiers' Support Committee. And
rows of dustbins in rectilinear containers in front of each building.
By the end of the week I said to Noa, All right, why not, let's give it
a try. Something inside me responded and wanted to follow her to the
desert. Or anywhere. I transferred half my savings from the bank in To–
ronto, put part of it in index-linked government bonds and part of it in
shares and pension plans, bought this apartment, and purchased the prop–
erty in Herzlyya that brings in a thousand dollars a month. Noa
immediately got a job teaching literature in the secondary school. I
opened a small planning office. Seven years have passed and we're still
here, like a couple that's come through the child-rearing wars and is
liv–
ing in a quiet routine, looking after the houseplants to pass the time
between visits from the grandchildren. We've furnished the living room
with a white three-piece suite and matching rug. Noa usually invites a
few people over on Friday nights, some teachers with their professional
army-officer husbands, the local choirmaster; a couple my age from Hol–
land who are both doctors, a hydraulic engineer; a neo-Cubist vegan
artist who objects to leather shoes, a drama instructor. We
talk
about na–
tional security and the Occupied Territories. Joke about government
ministers. Deplore the way the town has stopped growing, the better
residents are leaving and are being replaced by people who are only so-so.
Perhaps the immigration from Russia will give us a bit of a boost.
Though in point of fact, what will they
do
here. They'll dry out in the
sun like us. Noa serves fruit and biscuits and South American coffee that
makes your head spin, concocted with spells and brandy. If one of the
speakers pauses, hesitating, searching for the right word, Noa has a habit
of jumping straight into the gap, volunteering to finish his interrupted
sentence, produce the missing word or free an idea that had got stuck.
Not as though she is dominating the conversation but like an usherette
whose job is to stand at a particular spot and gently take any latecomers
by the elbow to make sure they do not stumble in the dark on some un–
seen step.
As
the evening wears on the conversation breaks up into groups: the
men discuss the issue of the deterioration of standards in public life, while
the women exchange their impressions of a new play or novel that is
causing controversy in the newspapers. Occasionally they come together
again around scandals in artistic circles in Tel Aviv or a recent television
broadcast, and there may even be a few local affairs, generally thanks to
Muki Peleg. The artist may say, for instance: A couple of days ago I went
to see an exhibition of young minimalists in Rishon Le-Zion, followed
by a display of contemporary multimedia. Art is galloping ahead, culture
