Customer Reviews

How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I delayed reading as I'd never read a graphic novel before... But as soon as I started, I couldn't stop. Sarah has done a phenomenal job in capturing the essence of her experience - internal as well as the confusing world of the Middle East. I was moved by the care and sensitive she gives to all sides. No matter what position you hold in the troubling conflicting narratives of Israel-Palestine - you will find this book well worth your while. Share it with your friends! Give it for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah gift! Give it to the relations who think so differently than you!

I was on a Birthright trip right around the same time, and was impress by the care and detail that went into portraying a complicated situation. The roller coaster of emotions you experience on a trip to Israel are accurately portrayed by the slightly neurotic protagonist, a character I can see a bit of in myself. This is an excellent book, highly recommended for Birthright alumni and those interested in Israel.

The book was great.
As someone who has not only lived in Israel, but also gone on many many group tours, I can easily say Glidden's take on Israel is accurate.
The book is funny, touching and thought provoking.
The drawings are pretty good too.
I'm also grateful that such a personal and emotional journey could be shared in comic-form.
I ordered the book, got it today, and finished reading it in two hours.
I just could not put it down!
Highly recommended.

This is a powerful autobiographical tale of a young woman exploring her heritage and overcoming her own preconceived notions of what is real and what isn't. Sarah turns her art and view onto herself as she makes a journey into Israel in an attempt to discover the Israel of today. I've got to be honest I can't do justice in trying to do a brief blurb about the book, but I'll try.

Sarah is Jewish and lives in New York. From afar she reads and keeps up with the Palestine/Israel conflict. But in order to truly understand it and see if her own opinions/beliefs are right, she and a friend join a heritage tour group. They travel to Israel and here Sarah holds "trial" in her mind at various stops, weighing what she is hearing with what she believes to be the truth. But along the way she discovers something...about the people that surround her and even more about herself.

Sarah does an excellent job of being honest with herself and her opinions. And this is a must read for anyone, regardless of age, gender, or religion.

This excellent book could very well be titled "It's Complicated." Author Sarah Glidden takes her birthright trip to Israel. Her underlying reason for going: to "find out the truth about this whole mess once and for all." Ms. Glidden makes it clear that she feels pretty strongly about the rights of Palestinians, the injustice of the wall, the harshness of Israeli policies. She steels herself against being "brainwashed" (a word she use a few times) by her hosts and guides.

But, once there, the author sees the nuances and complications present in all matters. Case in point: her blood starts to boil when she first takes sight of the wall. Far from ignoring it or giving it an impassioned defense, Sarah's guide gives the wall a review from both sides ("My personal opinion is that, while hate how it hurts many people, every day that I wake up and there's no attack on the news, I think about the wall.") Her take: it was "refreshing to hear [him] speak of the negative aspects of the wall without being prompted." This exchange is emblematic of what you'll find throughout the book.

Sarah Glidden has crafted a fine remembrance of her trip. It speaks to the book's authenticity that other reviewers on these pages that have taken the same trip vouch for her accuracy. The work is heightened by her excellent drawings...especially her annotated maps.

I have to confess that I am not the target reader for this book. The book is intended for young Jewish people and I'm an older Christian woman, but I love it! I hope the author doesn't mind. It was beautifully written and the drawings made it something that nobody else can duplicate. Well done!

Sarah knows how to describe and draw the emotions so accurately that I felt like I was there with her. Like the author, I recently took my first trip to Israel. I wanted to go there because I wanted to see where all the action happened. I wanted to enjoy the experience Sarah described so vividly of Masada, wondering what the "real" story was and the unforgettable moments going up to Jerusalem. I only had a 22-day trip and stayed in luxury hotels, so I missed some of the experiences of waking up out in the wilderness. I didn't get to know many Israeli natives as she and Melissa did, although I did spend quite a bit of time with the 3-4 that I did meet. I wanted to see the places where Jesus lived. I wanted to see the country that God chose for His own special purposes. We aren't so different though, because I also looked at faces and wondered where they were coming from and what they were thinking. Sometimes I misinterpreted a scowl, because I read too much into it. I too had places I would love to have gone and would probably have been fine, but chose not to, not really because I was afraid (I was with strangers for several weeks in a strange country that people are often afraid to visit), but just because. Even though we are so different in age and spiritual beliefs, I could physically feel the process she was going through about whether to go to a certain place or not.

She got to tour the Old City in Jerusalem without a guide, as I would have loved to have done. She bartered for sandals, exactly what I wanted to barter for as we were quickly rushed by and given no chance to stop. I truly enjoyed watching as Sarah and Melissa got turned around and as they ended up in a few situations I know I would have ended up in if I hadn't been in my controlled group environment. I envied them that experience while at the same time I know I wouldn't have done it. I almost felt myself being nervous and wondering what was going to happen.

The important thing about this book is her emotional journey, when she had no intentions of having an emotional journey. She fought her own biases and probably added a few. I have to admit that I was holding my breath in a few of those experiences, going through them with her.

The book is unique because it is in a very creative comic-book style, beautifully drawn by the author, who is an extremely talented artist.

So, do I understand Israel even better after visiting it and seeing it from her perspective? Yes!

This charming illustrated, non-fiction, graphic novel discusses a young woman's first visit to Israel, her attempts to understand her identity as a Jew, and the profoundly troubling issue of the Palestinians.

The book does not choose sides, instead concentrating on the many conflicting issues Israel faces.
It is both thoughtful and informative, and taught me more than a few things about Israel I did not know beforehand.

The art is both warm and human. The author/artist, warm and humane.

I recommend this.

When I was young, books titled "How to (master something) in 60 days or less" were ubiquitous. Most were about things that couldn't be done in such a short period, if at all. Eventually, the books disappeared and the titles evolved into the punchline of jokes, with ever more impossible things being suggested. Sarah Glidden evidently remembered the jokes, judging by the ironic and self-deprecating title of her book. The book is a travel memoir, not a primer on Middle Eastern politics, and as such is about Sarah's journey--both physically and mentally. She travels from being absolutely certain that she already understands what's going on and only needs the Birthright trip to confirm her conclusions, to, in the end, knowing only how much she may never understand. We begin to understand that this is a conflict that involves human beings on both sides. We can quibble about Sarah's perceptions (for myself, it seemed that she isn't aware that not all Palestinians are Muslim--a minor point but one that irritated me a bit) but the fact is that they are Sarah's perceptions and are presented as such. The book is funny, frequently moving and made me long to visit Israel. A wonderful job.

I was on a Taglit-Birthright Trip in '06. All of the doubts, contradictions and turbulent emotions that Glidden writes about are spot-on. There are so many different levels going on with these trips it's hard to quite get a grasp of it all. Glidden does a great job putting this into her perspective and creating a character that lives out the trip within a great narrative. The trips REALLY are like this, right down to the exact same itinerary! A really frustrating but exhilarating experience that Glidden does a great job of capturing in her book. Plus its a graphic novel...and thus the illustrations are just as important as the text.

This is a beautifully rendered personal journey into one of the most complex and heart wrenching situations in the world today. It is quirky and delightful and very thought provoking.