User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Everything about this book is extraordinary. I was not surprised since Colum McCann is one of my favorite writers. I’ve read all of his published books. This book though, is different from anything I’ve read by him. McCann’s words best describe it : “This is a hybrid novel with invention at its core, a work of storytelling which, like all storytelling, weaves together elements of speculation, memory, fact, and imagination....” The heart of the book is the real story of Rami Elhanan, an Israeli whose thirteen year old daughter Smadar was killed by suicide bombers and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, father of ten year old Abir who was shot after leaving a candy store. Their friendship is forged on shared sorrow and on empathy, meeting through organizations for grieving families, both Israeli and Palestinian, working together sharing their stories with each other and the world.
This book is breathtaking, literally in the detailed descriptions of what happened to these two young girls, breathtaking in how it conveys the depth of grief of their families and equally in the illustration of empathy and in the unique structure. It’s not a straightforward narrative. It’s an all encompassing blend of stories about historical figures, quotes from literature, biblical references, art and science and even a few photographs, none of which are more affecting than those of Abir and Smadar. The linkages are both fascinating and jolting. And the birds, so many images - real, sculptured , none more affecting than the dove. Everything is connected. Everything has meaning. Everything is related to the deaths of ten year old Abir and thirteen year old Smadar, to the deaths of those who were killed with them, to the deaths of those who were killed before them and those who we’re killed after them, to those who happened to be Israeli, and those who happened to be Palestinian and to the Holocaust victims, to all these human beings. It’s epic in scope. I read it slowly because I didn’t want to miss a single word or a connection between people past and present, between events past and present, between things past and present and the heart of this story. The emotional impact is quite stunning.
The book moves around in time, from their pasts to their presents to the moments that their daughters were killed. This book is as cerebral as it is emotional and the combined effect leaves me in awe of Colum McCann. The prose is unparalleled. It’s the kind of book that left me changed. I highly recommended it to fans of the author and to anyone who is looking for an absolutely unique reading experience. My favorite of the year and definitely one of my all time favorites. Of course, I had to find out more about Bassam and Rami and I read numerous articles, interviews, etc and it was obvious that McCann more than does justice to their stories. It’s worth taking the time to read and listen to some of these in their own words . What hope, what empathy is possible even after the impossibly horrific thing that happened to their daughters.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Random House through NetGalley.
Rating: really liked it
On the Booker Prize Longlist!
An eye opening epic blend of fact and fiction from Colum McCann, ambitiously structured with its echoes and inspirations of 1001 nights and by the Apeirogon, a shape with a countably infinite number of sides. The non-linear narrative interweaves the tragedies that befall two fathers on different sides of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, and the endless cycle of the horrors and terrors of history repeating itself. Rami Elhanan, an Israeli, lost his daughter, 13 year old Smadar, killed by a suicide bomber and Bassan Aranin, a Palestinian, lost his 10 year old daughter, Abir, shot outside her school by a member of the border police. The griefstricken fathers find a commonality in their grief, a humanity and spawn connections across the political divide, driven by hope and straining to break that cycle of death, grief, brutality and violence of the conflict.
McCann's inventive and speculative narrative is all encompassing, fragmentary, apparently random pieces of an extraordinary, sensitive, disparate storytelling and facts, of history, the arts, religion, mythology, poetry, nature, mathematics, memory, philosophy, literature, birds, and so much more, like tiny pieces of a huge complex jigsaw puzzle that slowly builds a picture of connections. Profound, emotionally heartbreaking, unforgettable and tearfully moving, yet driven by hope, this is an unmissable and original read. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.
Rating: really liked it
Not sure yet how to frame my thoughts - but I honestly almost stopped reading completely at 13%!
Until then - I was reading this book diligently- closely - learning and FASCINATED about the migration of birds.
But then... that 13% period came. I actually felt PHYSICALLY SICK with bile in my throat. I thought I ‘was’ going to vomit. - my body reacted THAT much....
Not sure how to rate it - 5 stars in parts
3 stars in other parts ...
I’m left thinking there ARE some books best NOT read - books DEFINITELY NOT HEALTHY for some readers.
I didn’t need this story to know how FUCKING PAINFUL WAR HAS BEEN BETWEEN TWO NATIONS..
I was in Israel during the Yom Kippur War. I lived in a bomb shelter for part of it.
I have CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS ( crazy Americans who immigrated to Israel at a time when the CITIES were at HIGH TIME DANGEROUS- when Jewish temples all over America were pulling their travel plans for the Bar and Bat Mitzvah kids - not letting them travel to their beloved country)...
Yep - I worried sick for a couple of years - for the safety of my cousins - permanently choosing to live Israel.
But...I didn’t want or need to read about ZAKA!!!
Really? Did I need to read about those GHASTLY DETAILS??? - I already knew what ZAKA does?
ZAKA — is a team of people who collect body parts for burial.
They assembled the corpses bagged them in plastic - and hand them over to the Israeli police. Isn’t that enough
information? I can figure out myself that it’s bloody - and AWFUL....
AND....
“They were meticulous. Rigorous. Precise. Special care was taken not to mix the blood of victims and the bombers”.
THIS PART IS HEARTFELT- and wonderful - and I THANK THESE PEOPLE FOR THEIR WORK....
but why McCann felt it necessary to go ‘further’ into graphics about a civilian finding an eyeball .. MY GOD.......
I angrily wanted to toss my book to the wall ( but I didn’t feel like breaking my kindle, ether).. so I suppressed my aggression.
For me..... it would’ve been enough for me to know more about the two precious little girls who are killed - One from Israel- one from Palestine —
and learn how their fathers came together -
and learning about the migration- was literally and figuratively brilliant— but parts were unnecessary and too graphic for my well being.
The acknowledgment page was very moving and important to me...though....
It wasn’t only Colum McCann’s talent - I thought about - or this story - with scenes I wished I ‘hadn’t’ read - but I sat thinking about the MANY people -from whom McCann could never acknowledged or thank enough.
The unsung heroes - community of ‘people’ who contributed facts, and inspiration to McCann are people I’d like to light a candle too.
I guess I’ll give this book 4 stars ... but I need a few days to recover. It was THAT DISTURBING for me.
So — who doesn’t need this book? - people who know war first hand.
People like myself who lived in Israel during a war .
There are reasons that some things are best not talked about to the masses.
Rating: really liked it
Grief is grief. It cannot be measured or weighted, or argued.
Two fathers, two daughters killed by the opposite side, two families shattered, and still the same grief.
'Apeirogon' was a demanding novel for me due to several reasons, the first one being that I had a general understanding of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Do I know more now? Yes, and not only about the decades of fight, but about life in that region and its history. Mr McCann provides in his unusual narration both the stories of the Elhanans and the Aranins, but also so much more. I loved all passages about the birds migration, about ordinary, daily life, about architecture etc. The names and lots of facts were mostly unknown to me, but I am happy I eventually read a book that brought me closer to understanding ideas expressed by both sides.
There are surprises ... A Palestinian studying the Holocaust ... Building mutual support by two fathers whose little daughters were the innocent victims of the conflict and who come from two sides of the conflict ... Such support is natural in many places, but Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aranin are fathers on the land which has been disputed for decades, on the land where the innocent are killed and where two sides fail to reconcile.
Personally, I found this book a challenge, however, it reads surprisingly well. I think the varied length of chapters allowed me to concentrate on the text. I admit I would like to return to this book because this is not a novel for one reading only, at least not for me. And it is also a great lesson in efforts that should be made towards understanding and peace.
Rating: really liked it
"Borges said that his despair as a writer came when he was unable to translate the limitless nature of the aleph: that point in space which contained all other points. While some fell back on birds and spheres and angels, he himself was unable to find the metaphor for this timeless repository of everything. Language was successive: it could not, by its nature, be frozen in one place and therefore couldn’t catch the sheer simultaneity of all things.
Nevertheless, said Borges, he would recollect what he could."
I liked the birds, even the birds of sorrow.
Rating: really liked it
BOOKER PRIZE 2020 LONGLISTED
We have words but sometimes they’re not enough. Apeirogon: a shape with a countably infinite number of sides. A book of one thousand and one parts. A story of Israel and Palestine. Of Rami, father of Smadar, killed in a bombing aged 13. Of Bassam, father of Abir, shot dead by an Israeli soldier at the age of 10. A true story.
The hero makes a friend of his enemy. That’s my duty. Don’t thank me for doing it.McCann constructs Apeirogon both directly and obliquely, in a kind of poetic journalism that incorporates Rami and Bassam’s tales into a multifaceted, digressive piece, ranging over subjects from ornithology to art, quotations from Borges to Talking Heads. An obsession with symmetry and mathematical beauty renders the book more mosaic than collage.
Borges wrote that it only takes two facing mirrors to form a labyrinth.Instead of chapters there are tiny fragments, 1001 of them. The mosaic is formed from these numbered pieces, running several pages, or a sentence, or a single word. Every now and then a photograph. Exactly twice: a blank space.
You never heal, don’t let anyone tell you that you ever fully heal—it’s the living who have to bury the dead.The effect is of walking through a hushed, spacious room—part history museum, part art installation, part shrine—with 1001 tiny exhibits. You walk slowly, reverently, through, reading each title card in full, pausing a little to reflect before moving on to the next. The items are variable, but they are anything but random: a leather slingshot, a child’s report card, letters from Einstein to Freud, a military radar showing a migratory flock of birds, a Walkman containing a Sinead O’Connor cassette. Each item is carefully selected, precisely positioned, forming part of a deliberate pattern, a larger whole. It’s a marvel, not just the artefacts but the act of curating them, each one freighted with meaning. It’s almost overwhelming.
Finite words on an infinite plane. Undoubtedly one of the best books of the year. Astoundingly good.
Sometimes it feels like we’re trying to draw water from the ocean with a spoon. But peace is a fact. A matter of time.
Rating: really liked it
I apologize to the people who loved and raved about this book!
It is a first read for me by this author.
Many parts I was very taken with the writing, but the format, and the seemingly random streams of thought..I know they all connected in ways, but damn my head hurts.
I appreciated the story and the sadness of the loss these two men endured, tragically losing both their daughters.. and I also love reading about this part of the world, I just wish it had been in a regular novel type format.
A very difficult reading experience for me!
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC!
Rating: really liked it
Now shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
Re-read following its deserved (and predicted below) Booker longlisting.
I loved this book as much on a second read as a first - its omission from the Booker shortlist was simply to the detriment of the prize.
Once upon a time …. Rami Elhanan, a Jew, a graphic artist … father too of the late Smadar, travelled on his motorbike from the suburbs of Jerusalem to the Cremesian monastry in the mainly Christian town of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, to meet with Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, a Muslim . father too of the late Abir, ten years old, shot dead by an unnamed Israeli border guard in East Jerusalem, almost a decade after Rami’s daughter Smadar, two weeks away from fourteen, was killed in the western part of the city by three Palestinian suicide bombers ..
This brilliant book, surely a serious contender for the 2020 Booker Prize, is a
“hybrid novel with invention at its core, a work of storytelling, which like all storytelling, weaves together elements of speculation, memory, fact and imagination”. At its heart is the true story of Rami (and Smadar) and Bassam (and Abir)
http://withineyeofstorm.com/about-the...
One Thousand and One Nights is an explicit inspiration not just for the storytelling of the book (and the way in which that storytelling in some ways keeps the girls alive - tragically here only in memory), but for its fascinating structure. It is told in 1001 number paragraphs – firstly counting up to 500 and then back down.
The first half of the novel has as its narrative underpinning, the journey Rami takes on his motorbike to the meeting above, a meeting at which Rami and Bassam do what they do around the world – tell the stories of their daughter’s deaths, of their own mental journeys and of their plea for dialogue, understanding and peace.
Memory. Trauma. The rhyme of history and oppression. The generational shifts, The lives poisoned with narrowness. What it might mean to understand the history of another. It struck him early on that people were afraid of the enemy because they were terrified that their lives might get diluted, that they might lose themselves in the tangle of knowing each other.
The second half is underpinned by Bassam’s journey home after the meeting.
The middle part is the two lengthy, and powerful accounts, that Rami and Bassam give at the meeting – accounts which we have already largely pieced together from the first part of the book, and which are then further explored on in the second half, but which are set out here in full detail.
From the accounts and the book we get a strong sense of the kinship that Rami and Bassam have reached through their tragedies.
Amicable numbers are two different numbers related in the sense that when you add all their proper divisors together – not including the original number itself – the sums of their divisors equal each other …. As if those different things of which they are compromised can somehow recognize each other.
All of the above would make for a memorable and powerful piece of writing – however what also makes it exceptional literature is the way in which the 500 sections take elements of the stories of Rami and Bassam as a point to weave a web of connections, connections which then in turn give us a deeper understanding of their stories.
These connections draw on modern and ancient history, geography, ornithology, mathematics, language, science, politics and so much more.
Borges said to his listeners that One Thousand and One Nights could be compared to the creation of a cathedral or a beautiful mosque … Their stories had been gathered at different times, in myriad places …and from different sources …[they] existed on their own at first .. and were then joined together, strengthening one another, an endless cathedral, a widening mosque, a random everywhere
It is really hard to do justice to the book and the way in which these connections are both scattered and then gathered together – sometimes via symbolism, sometimes bringing in the terrible reality of violence, and sometimes juxtaposing the two.
But perhaps one example will give an idea.
A terrible section tells of the work of Zaka Orthodox paramedics to gather up body parts after the suicide bombing which kills Smadar – the paramedics have to return to pick up an eyeball (of one of the bombers) spotted by an elderly man – Moti Richter. The eyeball has parts of the optic nerve attached and reminds Richter we are told of a
“tiny old fashioned motorcycle lamp with wires dangling”. Via discussions of eye surgery, we go to the hospital where Abir is dying and Bassam is asked if (were the worse to happen) he would consent to an eye transplant. Via rubber bullets (one of which killed Abir) we visit the death of Goliath, the mushroom effect of suicide bombers. The book explores the tightrope walk of the high wire artist Phillipe Petit (the subject of one of the author’s earlier novels) across Jerusalem, following in the path of a cable used by the Jewish forces to sneak supplies over hostile territory in the 1948 War. Moti was a guard for this cable – and at night would patrol under the cable to ensure it was still working on a motorcycle (which in turn reminds us of Rami’s journey) which had its headlight disconnected – and which sat by his bedside
“with its wires dangling”.
Are these too many connections - not for this reader, and for me the concept of connection, of the constant search for commonality, of the need for unceasing dialogue - is absolutely crucial to the solution for peace that underlies the message of Rami, Bassam and this novel. The quotes above all show that.
Ultimately no connection - and the resulting increase in empathy and diminishing of enmity - can be too many. Something the book’s title (a countably infinite sided polyhedral) acknowledges.
At one point McCann discusses “The Conference of the Birds” (a story incidentally which is the second crucial inspiration for Salman Rushdie’s “Quichotte”) – a story in which a long journey seeking enlightenment ends with the birds finding only their own reflections – an analogy I think for Rami and Bassam’s realisation that only recognising something of your own reflection in “the other” will ever really bring peace, as a bumper sticker on Rami’s motorcycle says
“It will not be over until we talk”And a final example – a lengthy section discusses the journey of an Dublin born Irishman – Christopher Costigin in 1835, tracing the River Jordan from the Sea of Gaillee to the Sea of Salt (Dead Sea), a rather foolhardy and ultimately doomed attempt to explore the region. This novel, by another Dubliner, another attempt to explore and understand the land via journeys is in my view anything but a foolhardy and doomed attempt.
One final comment on the structure of the book. The page numbering (and some comments I have seen from the author) almost imply that the book could be read backwards - which given its travel underpinning of the journey to/from the talk, would mean something of a chronologically backward reading.
Actually I think that would be appropriate. One of the many points that the book makes is that to understand current day conflict you have to return to historical roots - this is as true in Israel (for example a crucial point in Bassam's journey towards peace is when he watches a holocaust film in jail and suddenly realises what drove the Jewish need for a homeland) as for the Irish conflict analogies the author (understandably given his background) frequently draws, as in this passage (imagined as George Mitchell's thoughts).
Eight hundred years of history here. Thirty-five years of oppression there. A treaty here, a massacre there, a siege elsewhere. What happened in ’68. What supermarket was torched in ’74. What happened last week on the Shankill Road. The bombings in Birmingham. The shootings in Gibraltar. The links with Libya. The Battle of the Boyne. The march of Cromwell.
Very highly recommended.
There may be books in 2020 which give an equally brilliant literary treatment to an equally powerful story and with an equally important message. If so then 2020 will be a vintage year for literature.
My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing for an ARC via NetGalley
Rating: really liked it
Apeirogon: a shape with a countably Infinite Number of sides.
Divide two deaths you get life
This is a dense and heavy hearted story - based on truths some Imagination and historical history of 2 men who have found each other and a lifetime friendship despite one being Israeli and one being Palestinian. They have been brought together because of the common bond they share: the death of a child.
This is an enlightening piece of living in a place that is occupied; and one that occupies it. Of guns. Of death. Of hope for peace.
This story brings humanity to this part of the world that doesn’t have the luxuries we have in the western world.
The writing - amazing. McCann weaves in the most remote and obscure time pieces from music and history and magically aligns them like a beautiful tapestry.
But alas, the last 150 pages were a struggle for me to get through.
Smadar and Abir. May you never be forgotten.
4⭐️
Rating: really liked it
First 5 star read of 2020!
Perhaps not perfect, but certainly brilliant, thought provoking, emotionally charged and timely.
Apeirogon is not a linear narrative. Told in 1000 short segments, it tells the story of two men who have lost daughters to violence — one is Israeli and the other is Palestinian. This is based on a true story. Rami and Bassam are joined together in their grief and through the united project of finding a road to peace. The fragments of McCann’s brilliant narrative go back and forth in time, zeroing in on different parts of these characters’ lives and families, weaving in scraps of history, politics and nature and seemingly random anecdotes and thoughts.
I can’t really do justice to the power of this book through my review. As I read some parts — especially those dealing with Rami and Bassam’s grief and their paths forward — I found myself holding my breath in awe.
What was not perfect? At times, I found myself losing focus — this is a long book with many tangents. But this is a minor flaw.
This won’t be for everyone. It’s not a straightforward narrative and it’s infused with a political message. But it really turned my crank.
I think I’ve given a five star rating to every one of McCann’s books I’ve read. He takes huge chances with big payoffs. He writes like an angel — deceptive simplicity.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
Rating: really liked it
Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2020Another book that would have made the shortlist in a saner world.
I will start with a disclosure - the edition I read was an uncorrected proof courtesy of my friends at Five Leaves bookshop. Gumble's Yard and Neil have already written excellent detailed reviews so I will try to keep this one short.
This is a book that fully deserves the hype - McCann has dared to write this collage of fact and fiction that challenges all sides in the conflict in Palestine to explore their common humanity.
The book is written in 1001 sections, counting from 1 to 500, 1001 and down from 500 to 1 again, varying from a few pages down to a single line or picture. Its central characters Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin are both real, one Israeli and one Palestinian. Both have lost young daughters to the conflict and both are campaigning against the odds to work for peace and understanding.
Alongside these human stories are many other elements, some historical and cultural, some mathematical, some more descriptive of the landscape and wildlife, notably the migrating birds that cross Palestine. These coalesce surprisingly well, and the whole is very readable. Highly recommended.
Rating: really liked it
DNF at 40%. I tried, I tried more than once, starting over each time. Maybe it is that right now my mind is so scattered that the scattered presentation if this book, made it frustrating. I usually love this author and I understand what he was trying to do with this book, but I finally have thrown in the towel. The repetition, the back and forth narrative, did me in.
Rating: really liked it
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 BOOKER PRIZE
The last sentence of the fist chapter says it all.
“Geography here is everything”. Geography here in this part of the world can get you killed. If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, if you are in a zone where restrictions say you cannot go. Even by accident, yes, geography can get you killed.
There are signs everywhere to help prevent this happening. Signs that are expected in some way to reduce the killings. Surely, it’s as simple as sticking to your designated areas. Do not cross the line, do not threaten the peace.
Five hundred million birds arc the sky over the hills of Beit Jala every year. It almost seems they are mocking the people far below. Nothing restricts them, they migrate and fly where they must. If they are killed it will be by some accident, or maybe a predator. The one thing it will not be from, is from hate. Hate is reserved for us. Why are these people not allowed in this zone? Because we hate them? Why do you hate them? Because we have always hated them?
This is the story of two men, one an Israeli, Rami Elhanan, and one a Palestinian, Bassam Aramin.
This novel is about the conflict between two different peoples, two different cultures, two different religions, and the realisation, that in truth, there is no difference. Why does this conflict rage on, and the innocent suffer?
Both men’s lives are shattered, irrevocably changed, when they lose a child. Bassam loses his beloved Abir when she, at the age of ten is hit in the back of the head by an Israeli rubber bullet, a form of ammunition that is supposed to be non-fatal. Rami lost his thirteen-year-old daughter, Smadar, killed by suicide bombers.
Ten-year-old Abir,
“Abir. From the ancient Arabic. The perfume. The fragrance of the flower”.Thirteen-year-old Smadar,
“From the Song of Solomon. The grapevine. The opening of the flower.”Two different cultures, two different religions, two different peoples, two innocent lives lost forever. Two men living with the same one irreplaceable loss.
In this part of the world, things like this happen every day, but this knowledge is no help to the men. There is nothing that can be said or done to assuage the men’s grief. The culprit, the source of the pain, the interminable, indelible hatred between the two cultures. The oppression of one over the other.
McCann assails the reader with vast amounts of military information which he uses in contrast, juxtaposing theses passages amongst the narrative of the lives of the characters. It works well, emphasizing the normalcy of everyday life against these weapons and the destruction they disperse.
There is no linear narrative, and there are no chapters. The novel is broken into small portions or paragraphs which all have something to do with the narrative, even if infinitesimally tiny. McCann keeps returning to the scenes of the young girl’s deaths, replaying them in the readers head until they dominate your thoughts, and the complete senseless tragedy of their deaths hits you. We read of their loves, their passions, their skills. Futures that a rubber bullet and a bomb erased. And yet these weapons are just objects. They have no emotion, feel no hatred.
McCann also writes of the propaganda and misconception printed and reported by both sides. Both sides will use false information to justify their actions. Misconception and falsehoods that just lead to more violence, which again, leads to false reports and innuendo. It is a vicious circle, a snake eating its own tail.
The genius of McCann’s writing can be found in paragraphs like this,
“When, in 2009, Mitchell was appointed as special envoy to the Middle East, he had a sudden feeling that he was walking into the middle of another smashed jigsaw -PLO, JDL, DFLP, LEHI, PFLP, ALA, PIJ, CPT, IWPS, ICASH, AIC, AATW, EIJ, JTJ, ISM, AEI, NIF, ACRI, RHR, BDS, PACBI, BNC – only this time it is so much more difficult to find a straight edge with which to begin”.My review cannot do justice to what McCann has achieved with this novel. It’s a masterpiece.
There is a particular passage from the novel which has stayed with me in which Phillipe Petit walks across a tightrope. He has purchased a pigeon which was meant to be a dove, but he could not find one, and he releases it halfway across the tightrope. Instead of the pigeon flying away, it lands on his head pecking him, then leaps onto his balance bar threatening a lethal fall. There was a festival for this walk, and it was called the “Bridge of Peace”. Is McCann using this passage to represent the peace process in the Middle East and the difficulty of its sustainability? I think he is. The wire is also on an incline. The steep road of the peace process perhaps? Petit, had no safety net, and despite the pigeon, despite the fear, he made it. 5 Stars!!!
There is a wonderful interview with Colum on youtube talking about Apeirogon. Both Bassam and Rami are present. It is really worth watching, link here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KDGK...
Rating: really liked it
"They seemed the most unlikely of friends, even beyond the obvious, one being Israeli, the other Palestinian." Rami and Bassam's story is humbling. Centered around the Israeli-Palestine conflict, Rami and Bassam relive the day that each of their daughters died at the hands of a oppressive barrier that has effected more than just a perimeter. After each lose a daughter to violence, they learn to find solace in their grief and overcome the boundaries defined by their government.
"...everyone knew at least one child who was killed, and most of us knew several. You get used to it, sometimes you think it's normal." It is a somber read with graphic gory scenes from beginning to end. Rami and Bassam's recollections and revelations were heartbreaking. Just when I thought my heart couldn't break anymore, it did. But the power and value behind the words is undeniable.
(The speeches they gave on pages 217-240 were unequivocal and would provide great dialogue for panel discussions and Socratic Seminars.)
There are only sections; most sections are about a paragraph in length, some sections are one sentence, some might be a small photo, though other sections are the length of a regular chapter.
With a total of 1,001 sections, there are no chapters or parts.
It is a blend of fiction and nonfiction.
For example: the story will be describing the anniversary of the time of deaths for the girls, so the very next section then discusses how the Greeks measured time in antiquity. Or, another example: there is a flashback when Salwa and her daughter are watching Arabian horses, so the next section goes into facts about Arabian horses.
The fiction and nonfiction weave back and forth relying on each other. It jigsaws, using the previous section to build on the next section. The sequence is ornamental but blends cohesively.
I loved the book.
It changed the way I think. When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. It had a profound impact on me. I enjoyed learning through their story.
“Truth is, you can’t have a humane occupation. It just doesn’t exist. It can’t. It’s about control.” I won an advance reader's edition in a Goodread's Giveaway. Thank you Random House!
Read The Guardian's Review for
Apeirogon.
Rating: really liked it
I personally do not like this book, so I am giving it one star. This is upsetting to me. In the past I have always relied on good books from Colum McCann.
The story circles around two men, two fathers, Bassam Aramin (a Muslim Arab) and Rami Elhanan (a seventh generation Israeli Jew). Each has lost a daughter to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Bassam lost his ten-year-old Abir to a rubber bullet fired by an Israeli soldier shooting from the back of a jeep. Rami lost his thirteen-year-old Smadar to a suicide bombing on Ben Yehuda Street during the Second Intifada.
Bassam and Rami eventually meet at a group for grieving parents composed of both Arabs and Israelis. They become close friends. By the end of book, the men’s past lives have been revealed, as well as the details of the children’s deaths and the progression through shock, grief, anger, a quest for revenge and retaliation and finally, to a sort of peace.
In the author's note, at the beginning of the book, McCann makes clear that the characters in this story are real. They do exist. Their names and those of their children, wives and parents have not been altered, nor the name of the anti -Occupation organization in which they are both active members and speakers. What Bassam and Rami have said and done has been well documented in the media. The author goes on to explain the following:
“The transcripts of both men in the centre section of the book are pulled together from a series of interviews in Jerusalem, New York, Jericho and Beit Jala, but elsewhere in the book Bassam and Rami have allowed me to shape and reshape their words and worlds.”
“Despite these liberties, I hope to remain true to the actual realities of their shared experiences.”
Before and then again after the middle section of the book, are five hundred short, short chapters. The first are numbered consecutively one to five hundred. This is followed by the middle section, which is then followed by another five hundred chapters. The latter five hundred, start at four hundred ninety nine and go steadily down to one.
The one thousand chapters are short, from a word or two to at the most a couple of paragraphs.
Between the jumbled presentation of information about Bassam and Rami and their two respective families are sprinkled random facts--on birds and bird migration, Argentinian author Jorg Luis Borges, Arab leader Yasser Arafat, letters between Einstein and Freud, French daredevil acrobat Philippe Petit, sandhogs, the origin of the term “mayday”, the making of gunpowder, falconry ,M16 rifles, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. These are just examples, a complete list of the wide variety of topics covered would go on too long.
It is up to the reader to draw the connection between topics and guess at why the information is inserted. Sometimes the train of thought continues from one chapter to the next. Other times, a completely different topic is broached. Often one wonders what the connection could possibly be! One hops, without rhyme or reason, backwards and forwards in time and between different places and people. The reading experience is disjointed. Presented in this fashion the information becomes unnecessarily confusing. The author gives long strings of words, lists. What is presented is a kind of poetry, but unfortunately the artistry of writing takes precedence over clarity.
Words and exact phrases are repeated:
“I am sorry to tell you this, senator, but you murdered my daughter.”
and
“This is the world’s most expensive candy.”
are two examples of lines repeated umpteen times. If a turn of phrase is spectacular, it need not be repeated; it should shine first time around.
In any case, what is important to note is that the book can scarcely be classified as a book of fiction. Nor does it read as a book of historical fiction. It consists of facts piled up on facts in a haphazard fashion.
I do not like how the book is put together.
One might state that information is dumped on the reader. If you have read the author’s other books you will recognize that he repeats information from them. In This Side of Brightness the author wrote about sandhogs, the immigrants digging the train tunnel beneath the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan. In Let the Great World Spin, the whole book was about the acrobat artist Philippe Petit who in August 1974 performed his high-wire walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center of New York City. The information on Philippe Petit and sandhogs is repeated in Apeirogon.
McCann does have the ability to express himself well, but sometimes he overdoes it.
“When you divide death by life you find a circle.”
While this sounds very deep and intelligent and wise, tell me, please, what does this actually mean? His writing is sometimes
too clever, at times
too obtuse.
Now I am getting around to what really irritates me. The writing is meant to move the reader. Clearly the author intends to upset his readers. Portions border on the graphic. In cold, precise words we are informed that a civilian has found an eyeball left on the street. A squad comes into to collect it. The author uses his words to manipulate us. This is how it felt to me and I dislike this immensely.
The book speaks out against the Israeli Occupation. It does this through emotions, not through facts. I find this underhand. Although I fully agree with the standpoint taken against the Occupation, it doesn’t fairly tackle all sides of the Israeli Palestinian dispute. Here, it does not give adequate historical detail.
I dislike the sensational tone of the writing.
The audiobook is narrated by the author. I have given his narration two stars because it is OK. I could hear the words. The author’s Irish accent is too prominent, and his speed varies too much. All too often factual information is zipped through too quickly, while lines of drama are spoken slowly for effect.
In the second half of the book, as the chapter count descends from four hundred and ninety nine to one, I was filled with relief each time I saw I was approaching one, the end of this long, drawn-out, repetitive, pretentious, jumbled and unnecessarily confusing, telling of two men’s lives. Counting the chapters as one reaches the end of a book is
NOT a good sign.
*********************************.
Thoughts while reading:
This is so VERY hard to read..................It is disjointed and it is repetitive and McCann has accumulated snippets from earlier books and it is gruelingly upsetting!!!!!!!!! Phew, difficult to go on.
A day later--information is not presented in a manner conductive to learning. Shock value and pretty, poetic language seem to me to be valued over clarity. I have just spent 15 minutes trying to make sense of shocking information presented in three short lines, one after the other, but not in chronological order. Information presented in a confusing fashion is annoying to me. I am trying very hard not to lose my temper.
********************
*Songdogs 5 stars
*Dancer 5 stars
*Let the Great World Spin 5 stars
*TransAtlantic 5 stars
*This Side of Brightness 4 stars
*Zoli 4 stars
*Everything in This Country Must 4 stars
*Thirteen Ways of Looking 3 stars
*Fishing the Sloe-Black River 2 stars
*Apeirogon 1 star
