Ambivalence: Adventures in Israel and Palestine (Hardcover)

by Jonathan Garfinkel (Author)
Key Phrases: shesh besh, lecha dodi, legless man, Abu Dalo, Tel Aviv, West Bank (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Raised in Toronto as a Conservative Jew, Garfinkel finds more perplexity than reassurance in his inherited faith, particularly after his progressive friends turn against Israel. But hope flickers when he hears about a house in Jerusalem where Palestinian and Jew live together amicably. So he leaves Canada to investigate this miraculous home. Besides, he needs fresh material for a commissioned play. However, when Garfinkel reaches Israel, events on the ground defy his lofty expectations and frustrate his playwriting instincts. Hardly a haven of amity, the Palestinian-Jewish home the author finally locates (after great difficulty) reflects rather than transcends the tensions running through a fractured land. Exceptionally broad empathies draw the author into probing conversations with a wide range of passionate voices—Israeli and Palestinian, religious and secular, militant and pacifist. Often painful, these exchanges expose the plight of displaced Palestinians, the fears of anxious Israelis. Garfinkel offers no clear strategy for resolving the tensions. But readers may discern a glimmer of progress in the mere presence of a listening ear. --Bryce Christensen

Product Description

With lofty ideals, spectacular ambivalence, and endearing naiveté, Jonathan Garfinkel explores Israel and Palestine by talking to ordinary people. Jonathan Garfinkel can’t make up his mind—not about his girlfriend, or Judaism, or Israel. After hearing about a house in Jerusalem where Jews and Arabs coexist in peace, he decides it’s time to venture there. In Israel, nothing is as he imagined it, and nothing is as he was taught. Garfinkel gives us the people behind the headlines: from secret assignations with Palestinian activists and an uninvited visit at an Arab refugee camp to Passover with Orthodox Jewish friends and finding the truth about the mythic coexistence house, Ambivalence is the provocative, surreal, and often hilarious chronicle of his travels. In this part memoir and part quest, Garfinkel struggles with the growing divisions in a troubled region and with the divide in his soul.

“Marvelous. Garfinkel deftly mines what it means to simultaneously belong, disavow, love, and loathe an identity, a culture, and a history.... A must-read.”—David Rakoff

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; 1st American Ed edition (August 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393066746
• ISBN-13: 978-0393066746
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,441,266 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars captures the uneasy dynamic of Israel-Palestine, November 17, 2008

By	jaamkie - See all my reviews

While the book doesn't offer any answers or dispassionate analysis, the author presents an honest, balanced and sympathetic personal encounter with the trouble of Israel-Palestine- of two groups of people each believing they have the sole rightful mandate to live on the land.

4.0 out of 5 stars Honest, Searching, & Personal Look at the Isreal/Palestine Issue, November 12, 2008

By	M. T. Vancampen (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a heartfelt and searching book by an author attempting to come to terms with the Israel/Palestine question and the complexity of his own beliefs. We follow along with Garfinkel as he visits Israel and meets ordinary people on all sides of the issue and evaluates what he hears and sees and how it accords with what he has been taught/thought.