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_coco_ 's review for:
The World After Gaza
by Pankaj Mishra
This book was clearly extensively researched, and written from a place of personal interest and passion. I really enjoyed the unique perspective of being raised to unquestioningly endorse Zionism in a Hindu family and Mishra's perceptions of - and later disillusionment with - the India's relationship to Israel. I liked the mix of sources, from academic research to novels and films and I found I learnt in much more detail the way in which the Holocaust was utilised to construct an image of Jewishness in Western consciousness.
However, I think it felt at times that the book didn't have much forward momentum. Despite the division of the book into parts, they didn't feel particularly distinct. I think much of the crucial analysis could have been reduced to an excellent 30-page journal article, or a single chapter within the book. The ongoing summarising of other sources and listing of quotes without much additional analysis diluted Mishra's own interesting additions, and made me want to just turn to the source materials instead.
What surprised and disappointed me most was that this book was not really focused on 'the world after Gaza' at all. I imagine this is more a fault of publishing and marketing than the writer himself, but the book largely felt like an analysis of the memory of the Holocaust, with an introduction and epilogue tacked on to relate it to the current conflict and sell more books. It left me turning each page wondering when exactly we would discuss the future prospects of this crisis, or even when there would be an analysis of historical Israel-Palestine conflict in the same detail as World War II had been discussed, only to realise this was not going to come.
The epilogue was void of virtually any hope, which is likely not far off the truth but felt misaligned with the rest of the narrative about the potential - even if emerging from violence and extensive oppression - for some form of liberation.
This review makes it sound like I disliked the book a lot more than I did. I genuinely did find it interesting and engaging, but wish that it had not been presented in the format it had, and feel that the moments of unique insight and analysis were undermined by pages of information and arguments I already had an awareness of.
However, I think it felt at times that the book didn't have much forward momentum. Despite the division of the book into parts, they didn't feel particularly distinct. I think much of the crucial analysis could have been reduced to an excellent 30-page journal article, or a single chapter within the book. The ongoing summarising of other sources and listing of quotes without much additional analysis diluted Mishra's own interesting additions, and made me want to just turn to the source materials instead.
What surprised and disappointed me most was that this book was not really focused on 'the world after Gaza' at all. I imagine this is more a fault of publishing and marketing than the writer himself, but the book largely felt like an analysis of the memory of the Holocaust, with an introduction and epilogue tacked on to relate it to the current conflict and sell more books. It left me turning each page wondering when exactly we would discuss the future prospects of this crisis, or even when there would be an analysis of historical Israel-Palestine conflict in the same detail as World War II had been discussed, only to realise this was not going to come.
The epilogue was void of virtually any hope, which is likely not far off the truth but felt misaligned with the rest of the narrative about the potential - even if emerging from violence and extensive oppression - for some form of liberation.
This review makes it sound like I disliked the book a lot more than I did. I genuinely did find it interesting and engaging, but wish that it had not been presented in the format it had, and feel that the moments of unique insight and analysis were undermined by pages of information and arguments I already had an awareness of.