Apeirogon (2020) by Colum McCann - a book Spielberg has acquired rights to
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- čas přidán 7. 03. 2020
- Hi Guys, today I talk about Apeirogon by Colum McCann, just published two weeks ago novel, constructed out of a thousand and one chapters, to which Steven Spielberg's film production company has acquired the rights to.
The main story those chapters address is the pain of two fathers, historical figures, who lost their daughters to the conflict.
It's also a bit more personal as I talk as well about my experience in Israel.
Apeirogon on goodreads:
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I just finished reading this book and it made me cry and cry and cry. I’d never really felt like I understood what was happening in Israel and Palestine until I read this.
It’s a very emotional book
Your analysis is truly one of the best reviews of any book that can be found here on CZcams. Very impressive. I will definitely look forward to any future reviews you do! Dziękuję Ci
Thank you so much. That means a lot.
Beautiful, poignant intro. Sounds like a heartbreaking and important novel.
all D books thank you Doris and yes it’s a stellar one
I am reading this right now. I often find I like books you review favourably, it is a strategy that works when I go book shopping! I am loving this immensely. The connections in it are so profound, the story so deeply human. I think it is going to be a favourite. Also, I am learning a lot from it and seeing things differently. I think that is a powerful and rare gift in beautiful writing. I started off labelling important or breathtaking sentences but realised they happened on every page.
Very insightful commentary about the book. I had similar experience when marking fragments that either thought me something or were beautifully written, almost Avery single page. It’s a shame this book falls under the criticism just because McCann isn’t from one of the sides of the conflict.
And lovely to hear you find my recommendation worth a read.
The more you talk about this book, the more I want to read it. As always, a very thoughtful review!
Olaf Keith thank you Olaf, you won’t be disappointed if you pick it up
Thank you for this very insightful and tender review. It's not at all easy to present a clear review on such complex topic. Really appreciated your reflections based on your personal history ,a great touch that helped to inform even further the conflicts of these two society's , so well done
Cheers Leonie x x
Thank you so much Leonie for this very uplifting comment
Reading it right now and your introduction was really valuable. Thank you
I've been eager to read this novel and it's wonderful to hear you speak about how impactful you found it as well as get your personal reflections on its subject matter. What an artful review! Thank you
Hi Eric, thank you so much, it’s very kind of you and even more appreciated coming from you
Great review, Kamil! I will be picking this book up soon
Thank you so much, means a lot. Happy you liked it
Very interesting analysis, thank you! I can imagine this was quite a challenging book to review. I was apprehensive about picking it up since, as you said, the author is not a direct party to the conflict that he is trying to discuss in this book, but you definitely convinced me that I need to read this soon!
Great to hear that, I think that we are waving own voices and cultural appropriation weapons a bit too often: It’s definitely needed whenever there’s oversimplification and stereotypes in place but if we put a ban to it completely we are censoring ourselves and wouldn’t have such an excellent examples of art as Madame Butterfly, Gauguin paintings.
WhatKamilReads Very well said. Another example that comes to my mind is Mathias Énard. People are often too quick to dismiss (and sometimes also over-hype) books solely based on these assumptions. I’m actually a bit surprised that, at least from what I’ve seen, this book hasn’t already received such criticism (yet 😅).
This is such a good example I totally forgot about Enard’s brilliant ‘compass’ that for god knows what reason I got stuck in the middle of... I plan on reading Zone by him this year and I’ll make an effort to read “Compass”
I finally got to read this masterpiece and I agree with you, it is one of the best books I have read in a while. Absolutely brilliant from McCann especially the way he weaved through the ethical issues of cultural appropriation. Thumbs up to him
I would recommend watching Kiran's (KDBooks) essay he created addressing criticism of cultural appropriation.
I loved the review, the images and the Debussy, all pulling at my heartstrings.
This a conflict that really upsets me, so I hope to pick up Apeirogon soon. But if a foreigner should write about occupied territories, wherever they are, it seems proper and natural that an Irish person would do it, right? I've recently bought a book of essays called Kigdom of Olives and Ash and at least three of them are written by Irish writers, including McCann, of course. I don't know if you heard of it but it's available as an audiobook you know where.
Paula aka azelia lopes thank you Paula! And indeed who is better qualified than Irish person, Ireland being the first British colony. There’s a lot a lot about Belfast and it’s parallels. I’ll pick Kingdom of Olives and Ashes that sounds great
Ordered my copy today. Thank you
Thank you for watching
Just heard about it being long listed for Man Booker and came for this review. I will definitely pick this up soon.
Great to hear that this is very accomplished novel in my opinion
can i read this book without knowing anything prior?
This review is also a work of art itself.....
Thank you a ton, you are very kind
I wonder if we'll ever see an end to this conflict.
Same here.
@Someone Special You make it sound simple, and it's very complex. I don't think placing blame is productive. The whole point is that there is pain on both sides. There isn't one side that's all wrong or one that's all right. Both sides have killed children. The whole point of this novel is that the only way to end the conflict is to start seeing each other as human and to learn that we are more alike than different.
The novel is definitely a masterpiece. But the two characters are not equally represented as the novel and you don’t even speak about the two characters equally as well! The suffering of the Israelis and the Jews take a major part of the book over the actual suffering of the Palestinians. Neither of the Israeli characters in the book, except perhaps for poor Smadar, suffer the same way the Palestinians do in the book, let alone material reality. It is not a conflict, such a word gives an impression of parity, which has nothing to do with material, social, cultural, historical and political realities. Bassam had to pay a high price for just throwing stones, and he was coerced in prison to change. On the other hand, Rami does not suffer at all except after the death of his daughter. The shooter of Abir runs freely and perhaps he has shot many others like her. Of course, Nurit is a rarity in the Israeli society and so are Bassam and Rami, but the novel does not show this! There are variety of Israeli characters in the novel versus Palestinian prototypes who are either terrorists or “reformed” ex-terrorists or silent characters and they are primarily primitive! Reading such a novel made me recall the Palestinian Muhamed Muna, owner of one of the bookshops in Jerusalem; who said that he is sick of white men paying a visit to Palestine for few days or more and deciding to represent the Palestinians’ stor[ies]. I wonder why didn’t you go and try to communicate with the Palestinians other than the coincidental incident in the taxi? why didn’t you google them in the area you’re staying at? There are many Europeans who manage to communicate and gain the trust of the Palestinians. There are may Palestinians who can communicate!
Are there any LBGT in the book?
No, not in this one
@@WhatKamilReads oh ok. Reason I ask there are a lot this year on the book that have that. I like your book reviews Btw it's nice that you talk deeply about the subject matter ♥️