A review by maiakobabe
Comment Comprendre Israël En 60 Jours, Ou Moins by Sarah Glidden

5.0

A thoughtful and personal take on the question of Israel and its history, its relation to Jewish identity, and its conflicts with neighboring countries. Published in 2010, this book chronicles author Sarah Glidden's birthright tour and a few days afterwards in which she travels alone. Sarah is determined to travel with a journalist's objectivity. She is constantly evaluating the information she receives from tour guides: does it seem biased? Is it incomplete? Are they using neutral language, especially when touching on international matters? Yet it's impossible to maintain this stance indefinitely. Slowly Sarah is overcome but the shear beauty of the country around her, from city to desert. Conversations with her fellow birthright travelers reveal a wide range of different motives for the trip: one friend has never before left the US; two people she speaks with are converts; another traveler is interested only in the nightclubs and souvenirs. Sarah came to Israel looking for an answer, but each new experience seems to say that the only definitive is infinite complexity.