Apeirogon is a literary novel based on true events, like In Cold Blood or Executioner's Song. The central characters are two men, one Palestinian and one Israeli, who become friends and "Combatants for Peace" after each loses a daughter in the perennial conflict. They travel around the world together telling their story.
McCann tells the story in 1001 fragments, some of which advance the story while others provide natural or historical context. Lots of images of birds and walls. The overall effect is to build a mood similar to a Terrence Malick film, with a surprisingly hopeful tone.
My favorite pieces were those that describe everyday life, with all of its barriers and checkpoints. They provide a great sense of place and how people adapt to their circumstances. The book doesn't provide any new arguments for ending the Occupation, it just paints a picture of how it distorts the lives of people living there.
The title refers to a shape with a countably infinite number of sides. The author's intent is clearly to suggest that we're all complicit in the conflict. Given this expansive viewpoint, it's disappointing that we hear so little about the two men's families. The few pages featuring Bassam's wife Salwa were among the most touching, and Rami's son Elik goes through a political transformation largely offscreen.
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