A friend replies, number 11

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Knowing on Saturday eve I am supposed to leave for the army the next morning. I still dream about that sometimes and wake up choked. Worse than that, losing my beloved ones frightens me to the degree of inconceivability.


Where would you like to live?

As far as possible from anything related to an army.


What is your idea of earthly happiness?

Sleep 6 hours in a night, and be able to read a good novel without being interrupted in the middle. Then playing with [my son] Asaf on the beach. Won't resist slow passionate sex, an interesting CD, and a good movie either.


To what faults do you feel most indulgent?

All of the above (ideas of earthly happiness).


Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?

Hmmm. So many. A few I can think of right now are: Ferinand Bardamu (Celine, "A Journey to the End of the Night," 1932); Hanno (Thomas Mann, "Buddenbrooks," 1901); John Marcher (Henry James, "The Beast in the Jungle," 1903), the narrator of "Wittgenstein's Nephew" (Thomas Bernhard, 1982), the narrator of Georges Perec's "W or the Memory of a Whildhood " (1975).


Who are your favorite characters in history?

The European Jewish intellectuals: Benjamin, Kafka, Celan, Primo Levi, Ernst Cassirer, even Leon Blum.


Who are your favorite heroines in real life?

Helene Grimaud, Martha Argerich, Adrienne Rich. Women who have second thoughts about men.


Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?

Gina (David Fogel, "In Front of the Ocean," 1932); Briony (Ian McEwan, "Atonment," 2000); all Viriginia Woolf's horoines; Proust's female heroines.


Your favorite painter?

This week it would be Paul Klee again, thanks to a small sketch of an emptry room from 1917.


Your favorite musician?

Hmmm. Today it would be a mixture of Murcof (an electronic music artist) and Schumann (thanks to the beautifull "Pletnev Plays Schumann"). Tomorrow it'll be others.


The quality you most admire in a man?

Intellectual honesty.


The quality you most admire in a woman?

Same, plus.


Your favorite virtue?

Kindness.


Your favorite occupation?

Pausing. (While holding an interesting book in one hand, a good cake in the other, a cup of strong coffee on the table, and Dietrich Fischer Diskau singing in the background.)


Who would you have liked to be?

An author, a painter, an experimental musician, a traveler, a wondering Jew.