Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Analysis
1. Authors Biography
Dan Jacobson was born on 7 March 1929 in Johannesburg, South Africa,
and was educated at Kimberley Boys' High School and the University of
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. After the publication of his first two novels, The
Trap (1955) and A Dance in the Sun (1956), he was awarded a one-year
Creative Writing Fellowship at Stanford University (1956-7). From 1965-6 he
was Visiting Professor at Syracuse University, New York, and he was Reader in
English at University College London between 1979 and 1986, and Professor of
English until 1994 (Professor Emeritus since 1994).
A Long Way from London, a collection of short stories published in 1958,
won the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and his collection Time of
Arrival and Other Essays (1963) won a Somerset Maugham Award. His novels
include The Evidence of Love (1960), The Beginners (1966), The Rape of Tamar
(1970), The Confessions of Joseph Baisz (1977), which won the Jewish Quarterly
Literary Prize for Fiction, Hidden in the Heart (1991), and The God-Fearer
(1992).
His volume of autobiography, Time and Time Again: Autobiographies
(1985), won the J. R. Ackerley Prize. His books, The Electronic Elephant: A
Southern African Journey (1994) and Heshel's Kingdom (1998), are eclectic in
form, combining public history, private memoir and accounts of journeys made
in southern Africa and Lithuania respectively.
Dan Jacobson lives in London. His most recent book is All for Love (2005).
Critical Perspective
Author Dan Jacobson used his experiences as a child growing up in
South Africa to mold his writings about human nature.
Even when Jacobson has spent most of his adult life in the UK, he
grew up in South Africa, where his parents families had come to avoid the
persecution of Jews in their European homelands.
His father, Hymann Michael Jacobson, was born in Latvia, in 1885. His
mother, Liebe (Melamed) Jacobson, was born in Lithuania, in 1896.
Jacobson had two older brothers, Israel Joshua and Hirsch Jacob, and a
young sister, Aviva. His mothers family immigrated to South Africa in
1919, after the death of his grandfather. His grandfather, Heshel Melamed,
was a rabbi, and refused to leave Lithuania after travelling to the United
States and finding that many Jews were not following their religion.
Jacobson later wrote about his travels back to Lithuania to find out more
information about his grandfather.
Bibliography
2005 All for Love, Hamish Hamilton
2000 Mouthful of Glass by Henk Van Woerden, translator, Granta
1998 Heshel's Kingdon, Hamish Hamilton
1994 The Electronic Elephant: A Southern African Journey, Hamish
Hamilton
1992 The God-Fearer, Bloomsbury
1991 Hidden in the Heart, Bloomsbury
1988 Adult Pleasures: Essays on Writers and Readers, Andr Deutsch
1987 Her Story, Andr Deutsch
1985 Time and Time Again: Autobiographies, Andr Deutsch
1982 The Story of Stories: The Chosen People and Its God, Secker &
Warburg
1977 The Confessions of Josef Baisz, Secker & Warburg
1973 The Wonder-Worker, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1973 Inklings: Selected Stories, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1970 The Rape of Tamar, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1970 Penguin Modern Stories 6, contributor, Penguin
1966 The Beginners, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1964 Beggar My Neighbour: Short Stories, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1963 Time of Arrival and Other Essays, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1960 The Evidence of Love, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Awards
1986
Society of Authors Fellowship
1986
Mary Elinore Smith Poetry Prize
1986
J. R. Ackerley Prize, Time and Time Again: Autobiographies
1977
Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize for Fiction, The Confessions of Josef
Baisz
1964
Somerset Maugham Award, Time of Arrival and Other Essays
1959
Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, A Long Way from London
5. The theme
The story is about the generational conflict between the old and young
people in a factory. Miss Posen and Mr Kramer represent the old generation,
and Lionel is the young one in the firm.
While Mr Kramer has accepted the fact that he is going to retire and leave
Lionel in his position, Miss Posen freely disapproves this decision. She has
worked for Mr Kramer for many years so she cannot adapt to a new boss,
especially one who is younger than her. And this situation leads to a conflict
between Lionel and Miss Posen.
On the other hand, Mr Kramer is able to understand that Miss Posen is
reasonably upset by having a younger boss; and being both of the older
generation in the workplace, there is a bond between them that is not possible
with the younger workers.
And, obviously, everyone acts according their own experience in life.
********
Mr Kramer: We are all different, arent we, Lily, now that the younger
generation has come to take our place?
Lionel: Shes old and finished and shes got it against me because Im
young and on top of her.
Lily: Youre a dirty little boy! You should be ashamed of yourself.
sending out accounts and farmers cheques, supervising the work of the other
girls, a certain amount of bookkeeping. And she presumes on the fact she is
the oldest employee in the firm. Miss Posen is loyal to Mr Kramer, thus she
does not accept Lionels coming, resulting in the tension with the boy.
Lionel Kramer. He is Mr Kramers son. He is tall, tanned, with a lean face
and large brown eyes. He seems to be self-confident, but when he cannot solve
a problem, he asks his father for help. He is eighteen and does not want to go
to the university; instead, he has decided to work in the factory.
Others characters: Betty, the girl who brings the tea to Mr Kramer and
his son; the white employees (in contrast with Miss Posen who is Jewish).
9. Point of view
The point of view is omniscient (all-knowing). The story is told in the third
person and the narrator knows everything, including what goes on in the minds
of the characters.