March 19, 2006

Another review of Linda Grant's book

I linked to the review of Linda Grant's latest book in a post to the Just Peace list and a John Strawson (I think he's with the Engage crew but I'm not sure) has responded thus:
Can I suggest that everyone who is interested in Linda
Grant's book "The people of the Street," read it? It
would be quite wrong to assume that Karma Nabulsi's
narrative of the book is the only one. Grant sets out
not to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or even
to investigate its origins. She is rather attempting
to offer some narratives about the current Israeli
reality. I think we need more not less of this
approach - and certainly need more including of course
Palestinian narratives. It breaks away from imposing
an all embracing national discourse that established a
fixed camp from which the world can see so simple and
instead offers a series of changing frames each
challenging, thought-provoking and thoughtful. My
reading of the book is not as Nabulsi's it is far from
comfortable and cosy but rather disturbing using in
turns humor and sadness to disrupt the noise of
ideological discourses. I my view this is an important
book and a really fine piece of writing.
I hadn't noticed any other reviews of this book but I just found this one, again in the Guardian:
Linda Grant's The People on the Street should be obligatory reading on both sides of the Israel-Palestine divide,
That was the sub-title. You know, the big print just below the headline. I held something back though. The reviewer's name: Ian Black. Another resident zionist at the Guardian.

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