Shlomo Kalo

Shlomo Kalo (2003)

Shlomo Kalo ( Hebrew שלמה קאלו; * February 25, 1928 in Sofia ; † August 30, 2014 in Jaffa ) was an Israeli writer and philosopher. The former microbiologist has published more than 60 works since the 1950s, including novels, short stories and non-fiction.

Life

Shlomo Kalo was born in Bulgaria in 1928 . At the age of twelve he is said to have joined the anti-fascist movement before he was interned in a concentration camp at the age of 15 . As a teenager he devoted himself to poetry and was awarded in a competition at the age of 18. After the Second World War he worked as a journalist in Prague , where Kalo studied medicine. In 1949 he emigrated to Israel. There he studied microbiology at Tel Aviv University . Kalo later served as director of the medical laboratories of Israel's largest health center.

In 1954 Kalo published his first collection of short stories with Alcove in Jaffa . In 1962 he made his debut novel with ha-ʻAremah . Since then, until his death, Kalo published more than 60 books, including both autobiographical novels and philosophical works on spiritual topics such as Buddhism or Zen teaching, as well as translations into Hebrew (including the Daodejing of Laozi , 1981). In 1969 he experienced a personal enlightenment , which he addressed in the same year in the autobiographical work ʻErʻal . With the works The Self as a Warrior (1979) and Fearless Shui (1981) he established himself in Israel as a spiritual thinker.

His novel The Heap is considered a turning point in Hebrew literary history, understood as a neo-modernist social protest by an immigrant and brought closer to authors such as Abraham B. Jehoshua . The work is conceived as a collection of anecdotes about a group of immigrants of various nationalities who, before they emigrated to Israel, led an uneventful but productive life. In their new home the job seekers get into an existential crisis and neither individually nor collectively manage to clear a mountain of rubbish, as ordered by the local council. At the same time, The Heap stands for the beginning of the modernist novel in Israel and marked the dawn of Ashkenazi and Sephardic authors who took up the Sephardic immigrant community as a theme.

Kalo's short stories are not very detailed and have an ultra-economic style. The author tended to repeat intentionally, often single words, which left a hypnotic effect on the reader. The short stories in The Dollar and the Gun (1999), which was translated into English in 1999, are set in all parts of the world, from America to Europe, the Middle East to the Orient, and deal with outcasts, including man-eating cannibals the terrorist Osama bin Laden .

Shlomo Kalo was married to the Israeli singer Rivka Zohar and lived in seclusion in Jaffa until his death .

Works (selection)

Fiction

• 1962: ha-ʻAremah
• 1966: Lev ha-baśar ( Hebrew לב הבשר)
• 1983: Meshalim ( Hebrew משלים)
• 1985: Masa 'Atos ( Hebrew מסע אתוס)
• 1987: Beśorat ha-ratson ha-ḥofshi ha-muḥlaṭ ( Hebrew בשורת הרצון החופשי המוחלט)
• 1988: Ke-ḥuṭ ha-shani ( Hebrew כחוט השני)
• 1990: Shekheneha shel dodati Rashel ( Hebrew סיפורים)
• 1990: Ben kokhav aḥer ( Hebrew בן כוכב אחר)
• 1991: ʻAlilotaṿ ha-muflaʼot shel Loiṭenlib le-Vet Meyunkhaʼuzen ( Hebrew עלילותיו המופלאות של לויטנליב לבית מיונכאוזן)
• 1993: Melekh u-shemo ahavah ( Hebrew מלך ושמו אהבה)
• 1994: ha-Nivḥar ( Hebrew הנבחר)
• 1995: ʻAd ʻolam ( Hebrew עד עולם)
• 1995: Regaʻim shel emet ( Hebrew רגעים של אמת)
• 1996: ha-Mikhnasayim ( Hebrew המכנסיים)
• 1999: ha-Dolar ṿeha-eḳdaḥ ( Hebrew הדולר והאקדח)
• 2000: Ḥaṭifah ( Hebrew חטיפה)
• 2002: ʻAd sheha-maṿet yeḥaber benehem ( Hebrew עד שהמוות יחבר ביניהם)
• 2003: Samurai: shaḥ maṭ ( Hebrew סמוראי)
• 2003: Shenat arbaʻ-ʻeśreh la-sefirah she-lo heḥelah ( Hebrew שנת ארבע־עשרה לספירה שלא החלה)
• 2004: Pashuṭ ( Hebrew פירוש)
• 2005: Thriller ( Hebrew thriller)
• 2006: Mifgashim ( Hebrew מפגשים)
• 2006: Mishpaḥat Ṿais ( Hebrew משפחת וייס)
• 2007: Ḳatedralah ( Hebrew קתדרלה)
• 2007: Migrash ḥanayah ( Hebrew מגרש חניה)
• 2007: Shete novelot ( Hebrew שתי נובלות)
• 2008: Ḥarig ( Hebrew חריג)
• 2008: Lili ( Hebrew לילי)
• 2008: Shaʻare ha-barzel ha-ʻatiḳim ( Hebrew שערי הברזל העתיקים)
• 2009: ha-Na'ar ha-Hungari
• 2009: Tisis ( Hebrew טיסיס)

Non-fiction

• 1974: Zen ṿe-ḥakhme zen ( Hebrew זן וחכמי זן)
• 1976: Shir ha-Elohim
• 1979: ha-ʻAtsmi ke-loḥem ( Hebrew העצמי כלוחם)
• 1981: ʻAśui li-veli ḥat ( Hebrew עשוי לבלי חת)
• 1982: Du-śiaḥ shel ḥerut ( Hebrew דו־שיח של חרות)
• 1984: Atah hinkha atah ( Hebrew אתה הנך אתה)
• 1984: Maʻagal ha-ʻotsmah ha-Ṭibeṭi ( Hebrew מעגל העוצמה הטיבטי)
• 1985: Omanut ha-milḥamah le-ḥerut-emet ( Hebrew אמנות המלחמה לחרות־אמת)
• 1988: Yedidai
• 1989: ha-Emet hi ḥedṿah ( Hebrew האמת היא חדווה)
• 1990: Ahavah menatsaḥat kol ( Hebrew אהבה מנצחת כל)
• 1991: Le-hatḥil ha-kol me-ḥadash ( Hebrew להתחיל הכל מחדש)
• 1993: Gam lo bi-fene ʻatsmekha ( Hebrew גם לא בפני עצמך)
• 1996: ha-Dimui
• 1996: Ṿe-eingh hu ba ( Hebrew והנה הוא בא)
• 1997: ha-Enʼonim ke-mashal ( Hebrew האינאונים כמשל)
• 1997: ha-Matat she-lo hikhzivah ( Hebrew המתת שלא הכזיבה)
• 1999: Le-lo perush ṿe-tosafot ( Hebrew ללא פירוש ותוספות)
• 1999: Masaʻʼel ( Hebrew מסעאל)
• 2000: Har ha-osher ( Hebrew הר האושר)
• 2000: Teshuvot ( Hebrew תשובות)
• 2001: Aṭar ( Hebrew אטאר)
• 2001: ʻIm G'uliʼan ( Hebrew עם ג׳וליאן)
• 2002: Bhagavadgiṭah
• 2002: Ḳandar ( Hebrew קנדר)
• 2002: Ḳav hafrada ( Hebrew קו הפרדה)
• 2003: Matemaṭiḳah rom ( Hebrew מתמטיקה רום)
• 2004: Kata ( Hebrew קטה)
• 2007: ha-Hebeṭ ha-aḥer ( Hebrew ההיבט האחר)
• 2007: Hitnatslut ( Hebrew התנצלות)
• 2008: Shire ḥerut ( Hebrew שירי חרות)
• 2009: Trepan ( Hebrew טראפן)

Biographical works

• 1969: ʻErʻal ( Hebrew ערעל)
• 1996: Ṿe-eingh hu ba ( Hebrew והנה הוא בא)

Web links

• Profile at y-dat.co.il (English)
• Profile at library.osu.edu (Hebrew)
• Portrait at nrg.co.il, 2006/07 (Hebrew)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Profile of Shlomo Kalo at DAT Publications
2. ↑ http://www.y-dat.com/191001/About-Shlomo-Kalo
3. ↑ cf. Biography ( Memento of the original from December 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at y-dat.co.il (Hebrew; accessed October 10, 2009) 
4. ↑ cf. Book portrait  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at concepcion.de (accessed October 17, 2009)  
5. ↑ ^{a b} cf. Shaked, Gershon; Miller Budick, Emily: Modern Hebrew fiction . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.- ISBN 978-0-253-33711-5 . P. 184
6. ↑ cf. Nicholas Royle : "The Dollar and the Gun" . In: Time Out , July 23, 2003, p. 58