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Reviews
Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation by Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman
katnortonwriter's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
It took me a while to read this book -- the format lends itself to being read here and there, rather than in one sitting. By definition, there are observations that are repeated many time across the essays, as well as specific takes or points of interest that are related to the author's personal focuses, such as sports and hip-hop. Like Joe Sacco's graphic novel, these essays provide an on-the-ground perspective from people who are there to bear witness, including essays by Palestinians, and several by Jews (some of whom are Israeli, some of who are not). The whole project was organized by an Israeli organization of former soldiers called Breaking The Silence, and several of the individual essayists bring nuance to the conversation without trying "both-sides" or justify the occupation. This is the most helpful and comprehensive book I have read on the topic so far.
A disclaimer: the focus is *not* on broad historical contexts, geopolitical nuances, etc. The focus is on the lived experience of people in and adjacent to occupied Palestine. One of the reasons this took me so long to finish was that I was reading other books at the same time.
A disclaimer: the focus is *not* on broad historical contexts, geopolitical nuances, etc. The focus is on the lived experience of people in and adjacent to occupied Palestine. One of the reasons this took me so long to finish was that I was reading other books at the same time.
elliya's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.5
This is a wonderful collection of essays in a small range of perspectives — all broadly anti-occupation, though each author focuses on a slightly different facet of what they experienced while on a trip to the West Bank with Breaking the Silence. Some of the details in the essays are repetitive, because the authors traveled as a group and had many of the same experiences — but it’s always poignant and heartbreaking to hear stories bearing witness to the atrocities of the occupation.
gsroney's review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: War, Racism, and Genocide
shelleyanderson4127's review
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
This collection of 26 essays by writers, including the likes of Geraldine Brooks, Mario Vargos Llosa, Jacqueline Woodson, Dave Eggers and Colm Toibin, was published in 2017 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Occupation.
A year before, in cooperation with the Israeli organization Breaking the Silence, all the writers visited Palestinian homes and groups in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. They interviewed human rights organizations, spoke with both Palestinian and Israeli activists, and recorded their experiences in this collection, edited by Pulitzer-award winner Michael Chabon and writer Ayelet Waldman.
The essays are often moving and always thought provoking. Their witness to the cost of occupation paid by ordinary Palestinians is heart breaking, and will come as no surprise to anyone who has been following recent events. Waiting hours each day at checkpoints, arbitrary arrests, collective punishments and constant discrimination are only a few of the common experiences.
The writing is vivid and compelling. This is an excellent book with background information on the conflict by a group of internationally recognized writers, including Palestinian and Israeli writers. It's a book for anyone who wants to learn more about life under occupation, about surviving conflict and about bearing witness.
A year before, in cooperation with the Israeli organization Breaking the Silence, all the writers visited Palestinian homes and groups in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. They interviewed human rights organizations, spoke with both Palestinian and Israeli activists, and recorded their experiences in this collection, edited by Pulitzer-award winner Michael Chabon and writer Ayelet Waldman.
The essays are often moving and always thought provoking. Their witness to the cost of occupation paid by ordinary Palestinians is heart breaking, and will come as no surprise to anyone who has been following recent events. Waiting hours each day at checkpoints, arbitrary arrests, collective punishments and constant discrimination are only a few of the common experiences.
The writing is vivid and compelling. This is an excellent book with background information on the conflict by a group of internationally recognized writers, including Palestinian and Israeli writers. It's a book for anyone who wants to learn more about life under occupation, about surviving conflict and about bearing witness.
anj_t's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.75
As with any essay collection, a handful of contributions fall flat for content or writing style or perspective. But I found the majority interesting, a few even moving. If you are motivated to read more about Palestine after October 7th I would note two things: 1) this should not be your first choice if you know nothing about the history of Israel/Palestinian relations. If you have a broader context about the Nakba, settlements, the IDF, to name a few, the best essays will be more fulfilling. And 2) most of the contributors are not from Gaza, the West Bank or Israel so they observe, interview, research and write from a different perspective. I have already read some excellent books written by Palestinians and I believe it’s vital to read “own voices” but “Kingdom of Olives and Ash” was a fresh way to seek more insight beyond current headlines and social media vitriol and misinformation.
Essays I recommend include:
Sami
Playing for Palestine
High Places
Journey to the West Bank
Giant in a Cage
Bloated Time and the Death of Meaning
Essays I recommend include:
Sami
Playing for Palestine
High Places
Journey to the West Bank
Giant in a Cage
Bloated Time and the Death of Meaning
hem's review against another edition
I had to take this back to the library before I finished it but was deeply appreciative of all it evokes.
veethorn's review against another edition
5.0
This book is staggeringly good. Hard to read and impossible to put down, 26 writers capture many facets of the ongoing occupation of Palestine. There's the historical perspective, there are statistics (such as on the usage of water), there are innumerable human stories that make it incredibly real and present. Everyone should read this book. The proceeds benefit Breaking the silence and Youth against settlement, so as many as possible should also buy this book.
thegothiclibrary's review against another edition
5.0
This book was a powerful and difficult read. Before going into it, I was embarrassingly uninformed about Israeli occupation in Palestine, but I knew I wanted to read up on the subject before going to Israel for the first time last month. Reading a few of the essays before my trip definitely helped me to have a more informed experience.
This collection presents a nuanced, personalized, and multi-faceted view of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation. Each of the twenty-six authors comes at the subject from a different angle. A handful of the authors are Palestinian, one is Israeli, several are members of the Jewish Diaspora, and the rest are third-party observers from countries around the world that do not necessarily have a dog in this fight.
The collection starts strong with the essay "The Dovekeeper" by Geraldine Brooks, in which she follows the story of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in East Jerusalem who joins his cousin on a mission to attack their neighboring Jews with kitchen knives. His cousin stabs a 13-year-old Jewish boy and is subsequently shot by Israeli soldiers. The essay asks difficult questions like, how do young children and teens become radicalized? Can children be considered terrorists? How should they be treated if they commit an act of violence?
Other authors come at the conflict from unique perspectives, such as Taiye Selasi, who investigates the taboo topic of Israeli-Palestinian romance in "Love in the Time of Qalandiya," and Porochista Khakpour, who reports on Palestinian hip-hop in "Hip-Hop Is Not Dead."
One perspective I found particularly interesting was that of Irish writer Colm Toibin. In his essay "Imagining Jericho," Colm discusses the sympathy he feels for Israel, born partly from guilt over the fact that Ireland stood by, doing essentially nothing while 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. But Colm can also identify with the Palestinians, relating their situation to Irish Catholics were driven from their land and controlled by the English. His essay goes on to compare his first visit to Israel, during the election of Yitzhak Rabin in 1992, to the Israel-Palestine that he finds in 2016.
One of the most moving, and most hopeful, essays is "Two Stories, So Many Stories" by Colum McCann which highlights two fathers in the Parents Circle for bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families, and their hope that they can end the violence by sharing their pain.
This collection presents a nuanced, personalized, and multi-faceted view of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation. Each of the twenty-six authors comes at the subject from a different angle. A handful of the authors are Palestinian, one is Israeli, several are members of the Jewish Diaspora, and the rest are third-party observers from countries around the world that do not necessarily have a dog in this fight.
The collection starts strong with the essay "The Dovekeeper" by Geraldine Brooks, in which she follows the story of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in East Jerusalem who joins his cousin on a mission to attack their neighboring Jews with kitchen knives. His cousin stabs a 13-year-old Jewish boy and is subsequently shot by Israeli soldiers. The essay asks difficult questions like, how do young children and teens become radicalized? Can children be considered terrorists? How should they be treated if they commit an act of violence?
Other authors come at the conflict from unique perspectives, such as Taiye Selasi, who investigates the taboo topic of Israeli-Palestinian romance in "Love in the Time of Qalandiya," and Porochista Khakpour, who reports on Palestinian hip-hop in "Hip-Hop Is Not Dead."
One perspective I found particularly interesting was that of Irish writer Colm Toibin. In his essay "Imagining Jericho," Colm discusses the sympathy he feels for Israel, born partly from guilt over the fact that Ireland stood by, doing essentially nothing while 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. But Colm can also identify with the Palestinians, relating their situation to Irish Catholics were driven from their land and controlled by the English. His essay goes on to compare his first visit to Israel, during the election of Yitzhak Rabin in 1992, to the Israel-Palestine that he finds in 2016.
One of the most moving, and most hopeful, essays is "Two Stories, So Many Stories" by Colum McCann which highlights two fathers in the Parents Circle for bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families, and their hope that they can end the violence by sharing their pain.
jordynhaime's review against another edition
2.0
I couldn't finish it.
How incredibly disappointing this book was. I was really looking forward to reading this and I was so excited when I finally got my hands on my library's copy...
This is what happens when you send a bunch of novelists to one of the most reported places in the world for ONE WEEK to write about a conflict which, to quote Chabon, many of them had never even given a second thought. The result is the same overused narratives and tropes we read in the headlines every day. That's just not what I was looking for.
I didn't want to hear the bus ride in which you stared longingly out the window at the menacing border wall, or how innocent-looking the 19-year-olds with guns looked as they stopped you at the same checkpoint that all the other contributors wrote about. I definitely didn't want to hear about how you think the problems started in 1967 when the occupation officially began, and apparently not in 1948 when people were forced out of their homes or fled them because of the war. I don't want to hear about what you "think" about the conflict that's happening there because you know so little about the history. And please, do not call us "few good Jews" "the Righteous ones," as if Judaism is an evil religion in which we all come together on a common hate of Palestinians. This is blatant anti-semitism.
I would much rather read something by a journalist or at least a decent writer next time. Two stars rather than one because of the few writers who wrote essays about something interesting and different and used real research and thought.
How incredibly disappointing this book was. I was really looking forward to reading this and I was so excited when I finally got my hands on my library's copy...
This is what happens when you send a bunch of novelists to one of the most reported places in the world for ONE WEEK to write about a conflict which, to quote Chabon, many of them had never even given a second thought. The result is the same overused narratives and tropes we read in the headlines every day. That's just not what I was looking for.
I didn't want to hear the bus ride in which you stared longingly out the window at the menacing border wall, or how innocent-looking the 19-year-olds with guns looked as they stopped you at the same checkpoint that all the other contributors wrote about. I definitely didn't want to hear about how you think the problems started in 1967 when the occupation officially began, and apparently not in 1948 when people were forced out of their homes or fled them because of the war. I don't want to hear about what you "think" about the conflict that's happening there because you know so little about the history. And please, do not call us "few good Jews" "the Righteous ones," as if Judaism is an evil religion in which we all come together on a common hate of Palestinians. This is blatant anti-semitism.
I would much rather read something by a journalist or at least a decent writer next time. Two stars rather than one because of the few writers who wrote essays about something interesting and different and used real research and thought.