The book I am currently reading is the Lemon Tree. I started reading it this summer when my cousin gave it to me. It is a very complex, in detail non-fiction book about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The author, Sandy Tolan, took on a huge burden in starting at the beginning and trying to remain unbiased. In the introduction he states "The key to this openness, I think, lies in the interweaving narratives: When someone sees his or her own history represented fairly, it opens up the mind and the heart to the history of the Other." In simpler terms, if a person hears their side of the story accurately, they will be more open to listening and understanding the other side. Understanding does not mean agreement, rather it means appreciation for the opposite view.
Tolan demonstrates both sides in his book by following two families, the Khairis and the Eshkenazis. The Khairis were a powerful family in Palestine and were forced to leave their homes. The Eshkenazis who fled Bulgaria to find refuge in Israel during the Holocaust. It turns out that Bashir Khairi, when he goes to visit his old house, finds the Eshkenazis living there. I have not made it to that part yet but I am intrigued to see both of their reactions.
The author does a fantastic job of remaining unbiased and I have teared up while reading about the situations of both. He is very particular about his language. For example, if that portion of the text is about the Khairis, Tolan uses the Arabic name of the town, "al-Ramla." However, if that portion of the text is about Dalia Eshkenazi, in the book the town will be called "Ramla," what Israeli's named the town.
As I previously mentioned, the book is extremely comprehensive and there is politics, culture, religions, emotions, etc. While the politics of the surrounding countries and governments interest me, I love how deep Tolan goes to describe the emotions of both societies. It is abundantly clear how many interviews and years of research went into this novel to make it the factual, yet emotional, novel that it is. I am currently almost halfway through the book and I am looking forward to finishing it.
Do you know the significance of the title yet? I am also curious as to how Tolan writes about these families? Do you follow daily activities or major events? Does each family have a narrative -- some kind of story you are following (you mention the leaving of their homes to find refuge). What ties it all together?
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds like it really sheds light into the whole conflict. The media often skews the perception of these types of issues but in this case it seems like she is doing a good job on trying to stay unbiased as she writes. On question I have is do these families know each other before the Eshkenazis move into the Khairis house? Also how is she writing this? Does she know these families during the fact or is more like she interviewed family members after the fact? I am mildly confused on what the time period that this book is taking place in.
ReplyDeleteOver all it seems like a very interesting topic. If you are interested a french street artist, JR, did a project on the dividing wall between Israel and Palestine. what he did was he went to both sides and photographed different people than he printed them on a huge scale and then used wheat paste to post these all over the wall with the caption being something like “can you really tell us apart”. He’s big on the social justice stuff. It’s called the Inside Out Project, definitely worth the half hour or so to watch the video.