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anice's review against another edition
4.0
A nice little memoir that captures a lot of valuable insights and challenged a lot of my perspectives on life and politics in the levant. Questions on how to resolve and move forward on issues of occupation, imperialism, and settler colonialism are not easy and this book doesn’t have really any answers. A book the starts in political certainty and ends in uncertainty feels apt but maybe unsatisfying. and somehow the book can’t state the obvious in its conclusion: Apartheid in israel must be ended.
erinwolf1997's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism and War
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Islamophobia and Sexual assault
dajna's review against another edition
3.0
No, non si capisce Israele in 60 giorni. Sarah partecipa a un viaggio gratuito per far conoscere la Israele ai giovani ebrei, in questo caso americani. Teme le faranno il lavaggio del cervello, il che mi sembra un pensiero ingenuo: Sarah, ti pagano viaggio e alloggio, ti portano a conferenze, ti mostrano posti e ti raccontano i miti relativi alla creazione dello stato... il meno che si possa pensare è che abbiano un punto di vista fortemente istituzionale.
Sarah è progressista, di sinistra. Sa che gli ebrei stanno facendo qualcosa di cattivo nei confronti degli arabi, ma non sa bene cosa. O meglio: quello che sa è pur sempre filtrato dai giornali, da un altro tipo di propaganda. Vuole toccare con mano e farsi un'idea propria della situazione. Secondo me non ci riesce, anche perché alcuni pregiudizi si sono ormai affermati in tutto il mondo e nemmeno lei ne è pulita.
Il viaggio se lo gode maggiormente l'amica, ebrea di nome ma non di fatto, che si trova in quello stato di "ho trovato le mie radici".
Piacevole, ma un po' insipido.
Sarah è progressista, di sinistra. Sa che gli ebrei stanno facendo qualcosa di cattivo nei confronti degli arabi, ma non sa bene cosa. O meglio: quello che sa è pur sempre filtrato dai giornali, da un altro tipo di propaganda. Vuole toccare con mano e farsi un'idea propria della situazione. Secondo me non ci riesce, anche perché alcuni pregiudizi si sono ormai affermati in tutto il mondo e nemmeno lei ne è pulita.
Il viaggio se lo gode maggiormente l'amica, ebrea di nome ma non di fatto, che si trova in quello stato di "ho trovato le mie radici".
Piacevole, ma un po' insipido.
agirlnamedv's review against another edition
2.0
But how does the Israeli - Palestinian conflict affect a 27-year-old, middle-class girl from Brooklyn?!
mbondlamberty's review against another edition
For those that want to know what to believe, this will not give you a definite answer which is good, but at the same time the narrator is a little too angsty at times, which might appeal to someone closer to her age group, but not to me necessarily.
Really nice reflection of what the trip is like and definitely might make one want to go to visit
Really nice reflection of what the trip is like and definitely might make one want to go to visit
juniper77's review against another edition
3.5
I previously knew nothing about Israel. I now know more than nothing.
aborham's review against another edition
4.0
An interesting peak on the other side makes you rethink that the situation is not as simple as we tend to think it is
brogan7's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
3.75
I was disappointed that Sarah Glidden didn't push herself to come to any sort of conclusion on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. In fact, the deeper one goes in this book, the more she embraces ambiguity and fear. At first, the tension of knowing/not knowing, seeking experience to understand a situation, and trying not to draw facile conclusions, works. She's young, she's learning, she's trying to be all savvy but maybe she's a little bit naive. That's all fine.
But as the book works its way along, she becomes a less sympathetic, less reliable narrator, unwilling to examine her own biases. If the taglit trip did nothing else, it surely encouraged her to magnify fear and paranoia, to the point where she never went to meet any Palestinians, to get their perspectives. This seems unfortunate...human, yes, and ok, for her own personal experience and trip, but if you're going to write a book about it, there is a certain responsibility to do your work, and she doesn't take it up, nor does she give any sort of follow-up that would own this and describe what she did after the trip to learn first-hand from the Palestinian perspective.
The text comes off as rather privileged and naive.
But as the book works its way along, she becomes a less sympathetic, less reliable narrator, unwilling to examine her own biases. If the taglit trip did nothing else, it surely encouraged her to magnify fear and paranoia, to the point where she never went to meet any Palestinians, to get their perspectives. This seems unfortunate...human, yes, and ok, for her own personal experience and trip, but if you're going to write a book about it, there is a certain responsibility to do your work, and she doesn't take it up, nor does she give any sort of follow-up that would own this and describe what she did after the trip to learn first-hand from the Palestinian perspective.
The text comes off as rather privileged and naive.