Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I so wanted to love this book, and there was much to admire about it, but it was ultimately disappointing. Colum McCann is a brilliant writer - his "Let the Great World Spin" is as good as anything written in the past 20 years. Apeirogon: defined as a shape with a countably infinite number of sides, approaching but not reaching a circle. The premise of this book is a nuanced depiction of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict; infirnite ways of examining the situation in order to foster understanding of the many points of view. The book is beautifully written, almost more poetry than prose. The structure of the book reflects the title and the the subject matter. It is divided into 1001 chapters/chapterlets of varying length, some only a line or two. The chapters are in no particular order - but ultimately describe a whole. They are on often seemingly unrelated topics: the migration and types of birds, the building of the pulpit in the Dome of the Rock, the exploration ot the River Jordan in the early 1800's, and of course chapters that further the story line. By the end it all makes sense. The use of words is beautiful, almost ethereal. I learned some new ones, besides Apeirogon. Satyagraha (passive political resistance as practiced by Gandhi), Clepsydra (a water clock), etc. And the story was uplifting, wonderful - like a fragrant flower growing out of a dung heap. Two men - Rami, a seventh generation Israeli and Bassam, a Palestinian who formerly spent seven years in jail for "terrorism" - each have young daughters murdered by the other side. Rami's daughter Smadar is blown up by a Palestinian suicide bomber during the second Intifada. And Bassam's daughter Abir is shot in the head with a rubber bullet during a "demonstration" by an Israeli soldier. Somehow the men are able to each find forgiveness for the other side. They form a friendship and spend their lives helping people find the ability to forgive, to empathise, to move forward. Through organizations such as the Parents Circle Family and Combatants of Peace, they foster acceptance and redemption. The problem I had with this book, and the strongest criticism that can be made of a book like this, is that it is one-dimensional. Fault is always Israeli. Obviously the little girl getting shot is a brutal over-reaction by the Israeli teen-aged soldier. But also the Israeli father, whose daughter is blown up by the Palestinian, holds only Israel to blame. It is the Occupation, always the Occupation, the Preoccupation with the Occupation. The Palestinians are only the oppressed, never at fault. In a book that purports to describe the infinite sides of a complex issue, there is never a mention of any Jewish right to a homeland. Thousands of years of Jewish history in and around Jerusalem, well before Mohammed, are never talked about. Only side references to the Holocaust, and no mention of a long history of persecution (that just might justify the need for a homeland), never a word about the accomplishments of the Israelis in making the desert bloom, increasing the prosperity and health and freedom for both Jews and Arabs who reside in Israel. Nothing about the contributions to technology making the world a better place, or the Jewish support championing the various causes of the oppressed world-wide. No mention of the Hamas charter to destroy Israel, or the BDS movement to delegitimize and ultimately eliminate Israel as its own nation. Israel is by no means perfect. A small nation, surrounded by enemies, with a history of brutal persecution around the world, that struggles to stay alive. Struggles to reconcile a Homeland for a religious group with the principles of Democracy. Struggles to do the right thing, while allowing itself to continue to exist. Apeirogon is a good but not great book. It depicts the Palestinian viewpoint beautifully with nuance and great sympathy. Not so the Israeli. Ultimately it is too one-dimensional to live up to its ambitions (or at least this reader's ambitions for it).