Sharon and My Mother-in-law: Ramallah Diaries

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Curiously Unsatisfying 25 May 2006

Having long taken an actively passing interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I was delighted to receive this book as a birthday gift. I found it initially very engaging, as it immediately draws the reader into the day-to-day hinderances and frustrations which are features of Palestinian life. However, over the course of the book's relatively brief 194 pages, my interest flagged, and ultimately I felt I had not engaged with the narrator on any significant level.

The reasons for this are several. The first is that the book does not quite seem sure of what it is setting out to do. On the one hand Amiry stresses the significance of the death of her father and the family house that was enforcedly abandoned in the 1968 war. This topic, however, is dealt with in a few brief episodes that, although individually touching, fail really to explore the issues in detail.

Moreover, the book assumes a great deal of its reader, particularly in terms of sympathy with the Palestinians and knowledge of the Middle-East troubles. At no stage does Amiri ever seek to engage with broader issues than those which directly affect her and her mother-in-law, yet she assumes that the reader's standpoint on matters such as the Israeli incursion into Ramallah is the same as her own. At no stage does she mention Palestinian suicide bombers, and her strategy of attempting to reduce the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians to the level of the absurd (which is at times extremely effective) ultimately draws the sting from her own narrative.

That said, the book does offer an extremely illuminating account of Palestinian intellectual life, presenting to the reader a vignette of greater detail and richness than is otherwise to be found in the Western Media. Furthermore, the reader is forced to address issues such as Israel's attempt to force Palestinian academics to renounce the PLO, which is revealed to be a crude and deeply hurtful tactic.

In all, then, this is a book of mixed successes. If you wish to explore a very personal account of a tragedy with global consequences, it is a resource of great value. However, if you are looking for a study of any depth or balance, then you should look elsewhere.