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A review by bookswithmaddi
Where the Desert Meets the Sea by Werner Sonne
1.0
[ 1.5 stars ]
I wanted to love this book SO BAD but it fell so flat for me. It covers the narrative of the emergence of Israel as a state, which is something so rarely covered in historical fiction. The subject matter itself was incredibly interesting to me but I think I would've rather just read a non-fiction book about this time rather than this.
My biggest problem with this book was the writing. I understand that this is a translation so I'm not sure exactly how that effects the writing. However, what I read was choppy, and all over the place. There was no fluidity, it randomly jumped from perspective to perspective with no indication or warning. I had such a hard time keeping track of the myriad of characters thrown into the plot. Speaking of the characters, they were one dimensional and had absolutely no depth. I had only a slight interest in about two of the characters who were somewhat fleshed out. Many character's personalities were also poorly planned, they quickly changed their fundamental beliefs for the sake of the story line.
In addition this book was very biased. While it claims not to be the author clearly shows a preference and resolves the stories of the Jews while leaving stories unresolved for the Arab characters. I saw Judith and Hana as equals on either sides of the violence, when comparing the stories of these two characters who should've been equal you can clearly see the bias. A much more effective approach to this book would've been following just these two characters and the way their lives aligned to expose the equality between the two sides rather than creating a further divide. The abundance of perspectives added nothing to this book except confusion. I can see the effort the author was trying to make by including so many different narratives but ultimately it was executed poorly.
I wanted to love this book SO BAD but it fell so flat for me. It covers the narrative of the emergence of Israel as a state, which is something so rarely covered in historical fiction. The subject matter itself was incredibly interesting to me but I think I would've rather just read a non-fiction book about this time rather than this.
My biggest problem with this book was the writing. I understand that this is a translation so I'm not sure exactly how that effects the writing. However, what I read was choppy, and all over the place. There was no fluidity, it randomly jumped from perspective to perspective with no indication or warning. I had such a hard time keeping track of the myriad of characters thrown into the plot. Speaking of the characters, they were one dimensional and had absolutely no depth. I had only a slight interest in about two of the characters who were somewhat fleshed out. Many character's personalities were also poorly planned, they quickly changed their fundamental beliefs for the sake of the story line.
In addition this book was very biased. While it claims not to be the author clearly shows a preference and resolves the stories of the Jews while leaving stories unresolved for the Arab characters. I saw Judith and Hana as equals on either sides of the violence, when comparing the stories of these two characters who should've been equal you can clearly see the bias. A much more effective approach to this book would've been following just these two characters and the way their lives aligned to expose the equality between the two sides rather than creating a further divide. The abundance of perspectives added nothing to this book except confusion. I can see the effort the author was trying to make by including so many different narratives but ultimately it was executed poorly.