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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
I couldn't have been happier to come across "Sadness is a White Bird" by chance, the book having been selected for a book club that I attended. I have devoured it up in no time, staying up late until the middle of the night. The language flows beautifully and I loved the way the narrative was conceived, in a way that the story was directed to a friend of the main character. Another thing that made the story special, was the way the Hebrew & Arabic phrases were incorporated into the text, as in a transcription of their pronunciation, which added even more character.
I felt like the book gave me both insights of Palestinian & Israeli opinions, while interlacing both with personal stories.
It has been an absolutely enjoyable and touching read from beginning until end & it has made it among my favourite books of the year. An absolute suggestion!
I felt like the book gave me both insights of Palestinian & Israeli opinions, while interlacing both with personal stories.
It has been an absolutely enjoyable and touching read from beginning until end & it has made it among my favourite books of the year. An absolute suggestion!
4.5 Stars
This novel was fantastically moving with gorgeous writing. I really came to connect with the three central characters, and their relationship was so wonderful to read about. I would highly recommend this book for a fresh perspective on the repercussions of the Israel-Palestine Conflict today.
This novel was fantastically moving with gorgeous writing. I really came to connect with the three central characters, and their relationship was so wonderful to read about. I would highly recommend this book for a fresh perspective on the repercussions of the Israel-Palestine Conflict today.
I really enjoyed the narration of this book. I loved how the whole book was Jonathan/Yonatan telling all these stories to Laith. I think it made it feel more powerful when everything coalesced in the end. Because a lot of this Laith was there to experience, but may not have understood the significance or emotions Jonathan was feeling in these moments.
I will say that the ending was very sad, but only because it was so ambiguous. I am not sure I totally understand what the author wanted me to "get" with the closing lines.
I will say that the ending was very sad, but only because it was so ambiguous. I am not sure I totally understand what the author wanted me to "get" with the closing lines.
Spoiler
If it is that Jonathan died, then I guess that is a kind of closure. But that isn't totally clear or explicit. And if he doesn't die - does he get out? Is he discharged from the military? Does he talk to Laith and Nimreen? So many questions!
Take a deep breath, steady yourself, and then open up this book. This book will hit you hard, it will hit you mercilessly, and leave you full and bursting and crying. It's a relatively short book, but it deals with so much. Our antagonist, Jonathan or Yonatan, is growing, he is Israeli, and ready to do his familial and patriotic duty of joining the military for compulsory service. But just before that he befriends twins, brother and sister, and they are Arabs and we see how much of a young ignorant boy Jonathan is. We see how blind we are, where the thin lines of oppression are, and how heavy the weight of hate is. And how deep it runs. I love this book, I desperately love this book, each word, each phrase, each step in this journey was powerful and complex and written to beautifully. Even the hard bits. Especially the hard bits.
It's not simple, and the author doesn't try to simplify something as complex as the tension and violence of social strata and geography over in Israel. Nor does he wash away the past. He creates a very poignant picture of how the culture of Jewishness and Israel is very much entwined with its pass, how a once nationless people finally have a soil to call their own and with the beast like viciousness in which they protect it. On the flip side, he shows us with clear sighted vision and word-craft the oppression, the fear, and the restrictions that surround the Palestinians who live within Israel's borders.
It's not simple, and the author doesn't try to simplify something as complex as the tension and violence of social strata and geography over in Israel. Nor does he wash away the past. He creates a very poignant picture of how the culture of Jewishness and Israel is very much entwined with its pass, how a once nationless people finally have a soil to call their own and with the beast like viciousness in which they protect it. On the flip side, he shows us with clear sighted vision and word-craft the oppression, the fear, and the restrictions that surround the Palestinians who live within Israel's borders.
Beautiful. Devastating. Jarring. This book does wonders for ideas about sexuality, religion, war, loyalty, and gender.
There is much to admire in Moriel Rothman-Zecher's debut novel, Sadness Is a White Bird. The title first brought to my mind Emily Dickinson's poem, "Hope Is a Thing with Feathers." Zecher's title comes from a poem, too, by Mahmoud Darwish.
What is immediately evident is the authenticity of setting, language, and social mores of the Middle East. It is no easy feat to capture these things, even if Zecher has roots in the region and traveled 'on location' for research. Foreignness is palpable from page one. I especially enjoyed picking out what little Hebrew and Arabic I could decipher before the translations were given.
Of course, the challenge of the novel comes from the minefield of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tension between Arabs and Jews extends over geography, religion, politics, friendships, education, and even hitchhiking. For the main character, Jonathan/Yonatan--a teenage American Jew entering the IDF--the lines of family and country loyalty blur when he befriends Arab twins and begins to see the conflict from their side as well.
I applaud Zecher for his attempts to represent both points of view, and I believe that was his intent. To show both sides, not to make a judgement on either. Jonathan was lost within himself from the start, so his exploration and impressionable nature was part of his character. Additional characters stood for other positions on the issue. It was balanced, so to speak.
The ending might be too ambiguous for some, but it was in keeping with the narrative shift in the latter half of the novel. It mirrored the unraveling of Jonathan's belief system.
Finally, I have to mention the stylistic choices Zecher made, particularly toward the end, because using structure for impact--common in poetry, just saying--will always get me on a writing level.
What is immediately evident is the authenticity of setting, language, and social mores of the Middle East. It is no easy feat to capture these things, even if Zecher has roots in the region and traveled 'on location' for research. Foreignness is palpable from page one. I especially enjoyed picking out what little Hebrew and Arabic I could decipher before the translations were given.
Of course, the challenge of the novel comes from the minefield of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tension between Arabs and Jews extends over geography, religion, politics, friendships, education, and even hitchhiking. For the main character, Jonathan/Yonatan--a teenage American Jew entering the IDF--the lines of family and country loyalty blur when he befriends Arab twins and begins to see the conflict from their side as well.
I applaud Zecher for his attempts to represent both points of view, and I believe that was his intent. To show both sides, not to make a judgement on either. Jonathan was lost within himself from the start, so his exploration and impressionable nature was part of his character. Additional characters stood for other positions on the issue. It was balanced, so to speak.
The ending might be too ambiguous for some, but it was in keeping with the narrative shift in the latter half of the novel. It mirrored the unraveling of Jonathan's belief system.
Finally, I have to mention the stylistic choices Zecher made, particularly toward the end, because using structure for impact--common in poetry, just saying--will always get me on a writing level.
DISCLAIMER: I was on a delegation to the West Bank with the author.
It's rare that I encounter a book which fully inserts me into the mind and heart of a person so different from myself. This is such a book. Jonathan, Israeli-American grandson of a Holocaust survivor, bullied by anti-Semites as a child and raised to believe that "the only side that matters is our side", is a completely engaging and sympathetic narrator; an 18 year old experiencing that first heady mix of physical power and sexuality. Rothman-Zecher masterfully describes the physical connection and sensuality between soldiers, and the historical weight carried by children of the Holocaust. Yet he is unflinchingly clear on the savage inhumanity of the Nakba and the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank. As Jonathan feebly defends his decision to join the IDF to his Palestinian friends, we sense their frustration with his moral compromises, as they reveal the heartbreaking stories of slaughter which haunt and inform their own identities.
The ending of Jonathan's story is unclear, for of course this is an ongoing tragedy with no resolution in sight. Rothman-Zecher resists the temptation to simplistically declare that "there are fine people on both sides", while acknowledging that there is deep suffering on all sides. Yet whether we can escape and transcend suffering without inflicting it on someone else remains an open question.
A beautiful, timely and tragic book.
It's rare that I encounter a book which fully inserts me into the mind and heart of a person so different from myself. This is such a book. Jonathan, Israeli-American grandson of a Holocaust survivor, bullied by anti-Semites as a child and raised to believe that "the only side that matters is our side", is a completely engaging and sympathetic narrator; an 18 year old experiencing that first heady mix of physical power and sexuality. Rothman-Zecher masterfully describes the physical connection and sensuality between soldiers, and the historical weight carried by children of the Holocaust. Yet he is unflinchingly clear on the savage inhumanity of the Nakba and the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank. As Jonathan feebly defends his decision to join the IDF to his Palestinian friends, we sense their frustration with his moral compromises, as they reveal the heartbreaking stories of slaughter which haunt and inform their own identities.
The ending of Jonathan's story is unclear, for of course this is an ongoing tragedy with no resolution in sight. Rothman-Zecher resists the temptation to simplistically declare that "there are fine people on both sides", while acknowledging that there is deep suffering on all sides. Yet whether we can escape and transcend suffering without inflicting it on someone else remains an open question.
A beautiful, timely and tragic book.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Antisemitism, Islamophobia
Moderate: Gun violence
Honestly, I was wandering my local Public Library with somewhat of an idea of what I wanted to read and I got distracted. Originally I had planned to pick up one of the many books on my "to-read" list but I found myself drawn to a book display near the entrance of the library with a sign that said, “Fall Into a Good Book.” The books were colour coded to resemble leaves in autumn – burnt orange and deep yellow – and I found myself picking up a book with a beautiful honey-coloured cover, decorated with a white cartoon flower and tendrils of black barbed wire weaving through large, white block letters that read SADNESS IS A WHITE BIRD. On this same cover read a review that said simply: “Unflinching in its honesty, unyielding in its moral complexity.” I immediately took it home without bothering to see what it was about.
This book was amazing. I know most people say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” But I did that, and it was the right call.
Sadness is a White Bird is told from the perspective of a young IDF soldier named Johnathan, who moves back to Israel with his family to spend time with his ill grandfather – a Salonican Jew who fled Greece before his village was wiped out by the Nazis. Johnathan eagerly joins the IDF as a testament to his unflinching Zionism and dedication to his family history, but his relationship to the nation he loves so dearly – that of Israel and the Jewish people – is soon complicated by his blossoming friendship with two Palestinian twins named Laith and Nimreen. Throughout the novel Johnathan struggles with his love for Israel and his exposure to the atrocities faced by Palestinians and Arab Israelis living within a nation of abuse, exclusion, and erasure.
What moved me most about this novel was my connection to Johnathan as a narrator. He was young, yet wise, motivated, yet lost, and clinging to a life he has never had to live. He felt an unconditional responsibility to his people – every decision he made was followed by the shadow of the Holocaust.
If you are looking for a good cry or a reason to explore one of the world's most complex and heartbreaking geo-political issues through the eyes of a teenager, please read this book.
This book was amazing. I know most people say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” But I did that, and it was the right call.
Sadness is a White Bird is told from the perspective of a young IDF soldier named Johnathan, who moves back to Israel with his family to spend time with his ill grandfather – a Salonican Jew who fled Greece before his village was wiped out by the Nazis. Johnathan eagerly joins the IDF as a testament to his unflinching Zionism and dedication to his family history, but his relationship to the nation he loves so dearly – that of Israel and the Jewish people – is soon complicated by his blossoming friendship with two Palestinian twins named Laith and Nimreen. Throughout the novel Johnathan struggles with his love for Israel and his exposure to the atrocities faced by Palestinians and Arab Israelis living within a nation of abuse, exclusion, and erasure.
Spoiler
The book is written almost as if it is one long letter to Laith. There is a beautiful, affectionate quality to Johnathan’s narration that suggests a deeper romantic attachment to the young man. Coupled with Johnathan’s equally affectionate descriptions of Laith’s twin sister, Nimreen, it becomes quite obvious soon into the novel that the narrator has fallen deeply for both characters. The novel’s exploration of Johnathan’s queer, polyamorous identity in addition to his complex relationship to Zionism and Judaism makes for an intricate yet rewarding consideration of modern Israeli youth.What moved me most about this novel was my connection to Johnathan as a narrator. He was young, yet wise, motivated, yet lost, and clinging to a life he has never had to live. He felt an unconditional responsibility to his people – every decision he made was followed by the shadow of the Holocaust.
If you are looking for a good cry or a reason to explore one of the world's most complex and heartbreaking geo-political issues through the eyes of a teenager, please read this book.