Homerton Roll News, 2012 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------
Tamar Hodes Tamar Hodes was born in Israel in 1961 and moved with her family to the UK when she was five. She attended Henrietta Barnett School in north London and then Homerton College from 1980-1984. Since then Tamar has married and raised her two children and taught English and creative writing in schools, universities and prisons.
Tamar tries, in each story, to create a plausible world where characters are convincing and details are appropriate. She is very interested in the minutiae of life and in detail. The wild flowers arranged in a jam jar; the colours of a stormy sky; the floor tiles catching the sun; the features of a doll’s house. These need to be well-described and convincing as the reader needs to trust the writer. If she cannot get the details right, how can she be trusted in terms of character? Tamar does not go looking for inspiration. Like love, it eludes you when you seek it and can catch you unawares. She finds train journeys seem to lead to ideas and sudden moments can spark off a story: someone piles watercress on his plate; a man finds a wounded pigeon on a horse track; an embroidered quilt; a rusty nail in a garden wall; pastel-coloured houses framing a Suffolk beach; a butterfly house. All of these have been triggers to stories but then, as Tamar writes, she finds that many influences come to bear so that the characters and events are mosaics. Some people are nervous of confiding in writers as they fear that they may be reproduced negatively in a story. It rarely happens that way. Stories are not photographs; they are collages.
Photo: Emma Findley
Tamar’s own writing has remained very important to her. She has had ten stories broadcast on Radio 4 and in 2006 her novel, ‘Raffy’s Shapes’ was published by Accent Press. Her most recent publication was her book ‘The Watercress Wife and Other Stories’ which came out in 2011. The book contains thirty-five stories written over a twenty-two year period and is available in book form and as an e-book. Tamar’s stories are sometimes located in the real world but at other times there is a fantastical element in them: a young boy becomes a bird; a wife and mother is a fish. Certain strands run through her work: the way we deceive others and ourselves; creativity and how it can be both joyful and damaging; how children sometimes take on the role of parents; how a moment can alter our lives forever; our contradictory desires to be both sociable and private and the construction and destruction of dreams.
Contradiction and paradox are central to Tamar’s writing. Not only are the characters themselves complex but so is the writing process. Through invented and created people and situations, truth about life is hopefully revealed. Through concealment, then, there is a revealing. Through lying, we are led to truth. By standing back from life, we are in the centre of it. Detachment leads to involvement. Symbolism is central to this. By using metaphors, we appear to move away from the person we are trying to portray but the device takes us closer. A failed actress is symbolised by a cracked lalique vase; a man is depicted through the barren land; a carpenter is as mysterious as the little boxes he carves; a child builds a sandcastle while his parents’ marriage collapses. Tamar’s books can be ordered through Amazon, bookshops or from her at tamar.hodes@virgin.net .
The stories are set around the world: in South Africa, a painter takes comfort in the landscape; in Italy, a young man tries to restore his father’s ruined vineyard; in Lithuania, a childless couple struggle to save their marriage and in France, sisters use their religion as a weapon. Several of the stories explore Judaism. 7