A review by brogan7
How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less by Sarah Glidden

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.