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octavia_cade's review
3.0
Of all the reviews on the back cover of this book, a large number use the word "simple". They are referring to Stone's prose rather than his content, and I think it's an accurate descriptor. In 1946, in his role as journalist, Stone accompanied a group of Jewish displaced persons (i.e. refugees) as they travelled through Europe and into Palestine, an illegal immigration prompted both by the hideous experiences of World War 2 and the promise of a utopian homeland. A lot of what is described here are the stories of the refugees Stone meets along the way, and they are frequently so horrible that his choice to use simple language is I think the correct one, although in some places the narrative is simply too sparse for my taste.
This is, nevertheless, a strong and readable account that very quickly gives over any pretence of impartiality. Stone was himself Jewish, and came to quickly identify with the people looking for a new life and willing to endure the hardships of travel, making dangerous border crossings and being packed like sardines below the decks of chartered ships, trying to sneak through the British ships guarding the entrance to Palestine. (The British do not come across well here; Stone's first-hand experience proving deeply off-putting.) But because this book is written so thoroughly from the Jewish perspective, there's vanishingly little attention given by any of the travelers - including the author - to the people already living in Palestine. It's an enormous blind spot. On the one hand I can comprehend that perfectly: 70+ years later gives the benefit of hindsight, and the trauma of WW2 was so all-encompassing people cannot be blamed for clutching desperately at any straw that might deliver them from that environment, and the people who allowed it to happen. On the other... because the edition I read was published some 30 years after the initial printing, Stone has space to put an afterword, in which he explores the consequences of this action. It's a great deal dryer to read, but is also a lot more thoughtful, and takes genuine care to value the Palestinian perspective, and how poorly they have been treated. It goes a little way to providing balance to the book, which is still an interesting read despite its flaws.
This is, nevertheless, a strong and readable account that very quickly gives over any pretence of impartiality. Stone was himself Jewish, and came to quickly identify with the people looking for a new life and willing to endure the hardships of travel, making dangerous border crossings and being packed like sardines below the decks of chartered ships, trying to sneak through the British ships guarding the entrance to Palestine. (The British do not come across well here; Stone's first-hand experience proving deeply off-putting.) But because this book is written so thoroughly from the Jewish perspective, there's vanishingly little attention given by any of the travelers - including the author - to the people already living in Palestine. It's an enormous blind spot. On the one hand I can comprehend that perfectly: 70+ years later gives the benefit of hindsight, and the trauma of WW2 was so all-encompassing people cannot be blamed for clutching desperately at any straw that might deliver them from that environment, and the people who allowed it to happen. On the other... because the edition I read was published some 30 years after the initial printing, Stone has space to put an afterword, in which he explores the consequences of this action. It's a great deal dryer to read, but is also a lot more thoughtful, and takes genuine care to value the Palestinian perspective, and how poorly they have been treated. It goes a little way to providing balance to the book, which is still an interesting read despite its flaws.
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