Colum McCann
Apeirogon by Colum McCann is a mosaic of vignettes focusing on the Palestine-Israel conflict. The 1001 vignettes or chapters vary in length from one sentence to several pages. They tell the true story of the tragic deaths of two girls and how their real-life fathers crossed paths to forge an unlikely friendship. Their common grief acts as the transformative catalyst. They become vocal advocates for an end to the occupation through dialogue as the means to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
In 1997, Smadar, a thirteen-year-old Israeli girl, is killed when three suicide bombers blow themselves up in Jerusalem. Rami Elhanan, her father, is an Israeli Jew. About ten years later, Abir, a ten-year-old Palestinian girl, is shot dead with a rubber bullet by an Israeli border guard in East Jerusalem. She had crossed the street from school to buy some candy. Bassam Aramin, her father, is a Palestinian Muslim.
The story of Smadar and Abir, and of Rami and Bassam unfolds intermittently in a non-linear sequence of fragments. The gruesome details of the deaths of the young girls, their back stories, and the back stories of their families are revealed gradually and sandwiched between elements of fiction, quotations, anecdotes, insights, commentary, historical and religious explorations, information on bird migration, the Irish conflict, and various other miscellany. The novel is replete with symbolism that reverberates throughout the sections. The different threads, some of which initially appear as only tangentially connected to the main narrative, are stitched together, dropped, only to be picked up later.
The sections are numbered from 1 to 500, a middle section numbered 1001, followed by sections that reverse the numbering by beginning with 500 and concluding with section 1. The motion is circular and ends where it began with the wording of the final sentence varying slightly from the very first sentence. We are brought full circle. This circular structure reflects the activity of both fathers as are they are repeatedly called upon to tell and re-tell the story of their daughters. They dip in and out of the story, never willing or able to put it behind them. The fragmentary nature of the narrative also effectively replicates the trauma of losing a child since the pain of loss imposes itself on one’s consciousness, unbidden, interrupting the flow of thought at any time of the day or night.
This is not an easy novel to read. It contains graphic descriptions of torture, violence, and dismembered bodies. The heart-wrenching content, especially that which details the youth, innocence, and lost potential of the young girls, coupled with the fragmentary nature of the format make it a challenging read. Through its hybrid form and content, McCann has produced a multi-faceted perspective, an apeirogon with a countable infinite number of sides, which explores the issues surrounding one of the world’s most complex political conflicts. As Rami and Bassam demonstrate, although dialogue alone is insufficient in resolving the conflict, it is an essential first step in eradicating the de-humanization of the other, in generating empathy, and in dismantling the structural barriers which fuel the conflict.
A compelling novel that defies easy categorization but which leaves a lasting and profound impact. Very highly recommended.