A review by angelsubrinaa
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

i decided to reread this novella for my coursework (i’m writing up a reflective essay on moral reasoning and cultural/liberation psychology, particularly focusing on the narratives of marginalised and oppressed communities because traditional psychology needs to stop explaining other cultures through a western perspective). i saw other reviews mention how they found the first narrative boring because of how descriptive it was but i think that was the point of the story. to depict the mundane routine of the israeli soldier in excruciating detail only to mention the tragic incident of the rape as something so menial, a ‘minor detail’ which is insignificant to him and eventually becomes a minor detail in history because of the ongoing erasure from the institution. the erasure of narrative is what drew me to reread this book, as the overall message emphasises that reclaiming a narrative within such circumstances is almost impossible. i wanted to refresh my memory on how the second narrator, the woman, is drawn to this ‘minor detail’ and what her narrative depicted of life under occupation. reading the soldier’s narrative highlighted aspects such as the importance of territory, an obsession with the distinction of in-group and out-group identity with the recurrent motif of him killing insects which reflects his pursuit for ethnic cleaning of palestinians whilst the female narrative was more psychologically discursive, as the woman crossed borders which were not only geographical but social and mental in order to search for a voice within life under occupation.