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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Fascinating to discover this book existed (published in 1948), with so many modern sentiments about war. It shows the ambivalence from the outset in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but reminded me of more recent literature about Vietnam and Afghanistan. That said, I just couldn't get absorbed -- many seemingly unending sentences didn't help!
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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
Hard to believe I hadn't read this until now, though it has been on my list for nearly a decade! Right up there with the best of the personal, on-the-ground perspectives of horrors of war, as well as one of the perspectives of the founding of Israel and the impact on Palestinian civilians. Breathtaking, timely reading for anyone seeking to better understand the current, endless humanitarian conflict.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This was assigned for my Cross-Cultural Contemporary Literature course. The writing was difficult to understand in parts, with long, lyrical and descriptive sentences. This book was also translated from Hebrew and originally written in 1948 which adds to the potential confusion. That being said, it grabbed my attention in many places with the narrator’s internal monologue. I enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the land of Israel and the perspective from which this story is told. These descriptions of nature are wrought with metaphors of the ongoing conflict being shown in the novella. This was an interesting perspective after having read Ibtisam Barakat’s Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood and, of course, while watching the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza today.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, War
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated