A review by nadavdavid
Three Worlds: Memoir of an Arab-Jew by Avi Shlaim

informative slow-paced

4.0

I deeply appreciate that this book exists, both for my own learning and connection to my Iraqi Jewish lineage, and for the important histories it tells that are largely forgotten, rejected or ignored in popular discourse about Jews, Israel/Palestine, Zionism and the SWANA/MENA region (aka the “Middle East”). Shlaim’s writing is well researched and offers nuanced and layered perspectives into the interplay of Zionism, antisemitism, and Arab nationalism in the exodus of Jews from the region in the mid 1900’s (and he uncovers with evidence the role of the Zionist underground in several bombings of Jewish sites in Iraq during that period). All that said, I struggle with the writing style as is tries to weave memoir, history and political analysis in a way that lands pretty clunky and circular for me. Nonetheless, very much worth reading.