ren’s Reviews > Minor Detail > Status Update

Israeli propaganda is so absolutely sickening… life under occupation really invades every part of a person’s life and past.

Most deeply angering part of this book was when the Australian emigrated guide assumes the death and rape of the bedouin girl was done by the arabs:

“Such a shame, he adds, that they have such customs.”

To kill and disgrace a young girl and blame it on her brothers and sisters…

(pt2)

- the actual literary values of p1 v p2 text is very different, will write more about this later.

- find it kind of morbidly funny that the crux of this entire novel is an autistic women finding a hyperfixation in her daily tragedies. ‘border’ speech…

… she’s not a vehicle for tragedy but possesses her own anxiously stuttering developed complexity

- interesting philosophical points, posed

crossing into part II:

- i, introspection, i, pondering… shes set as a real person - couldn’t miss this juxtaposition if it slapped u in the face

- borderline mythical touch with the parallels, the howling dog, the exact matching birth and death dates

- the normalcy of terror under occupation: having a gun cocked in ur face isn’t a deterrent to make ur way to work

- she’s autistic. novel = hyperfixation

finished P1, much to think about. very briefly:

- the inescapable omniscience of the desert, reminiscent of the grand poetry of the british romantics but in the haggard heated sun

- he lifted the jerry can, he inspected the room, he, he and he. pointedly impersonal, few if any descriptive words, his days are communicated mainly in unending lists

- the girl, and the one ‘stranger’ quote… men cannot be saved