As a seamstress who takes different pieces of cloth and sews them into a quilt, Amos Oz writes short pieces of fiction which together form a quilt in the reader's consciousness. Just as the quilt may be of many colors but still one garment, Oz's stories speak of many things but still pay homage to one central idea: universal redemption through suffering. Although the concept is hardly unique to either Judaism or Zionism (two perspectives influencing Oz's writing), the point may be made that the Jews have the longest history of suffering as a people and therefore have one of the stronger claims to the redemption which suffering is alleged to bring. (p. 224)

Without belaboring the point, it seems to me that Oz shows in all his work that the people who endure the suffering imposed by others and by themselves will triumph, will be redeemed. The damned...