I AM ARIEL SHARON by Yara El-Ghadban, translated from its original French, is one of the more creative and innovative novels I've read this year! The book takes place during former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's coma; the spirits of significant women in his life visit him as he teeters between life and death, and remind him of the various acts that he has committed as prime minister in the name of his country.
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Unfortunately, this book was maybe too innovative for me! I don't normally read in second person, so that style of writing was difficult for me to get into. I also have next to no knowledge of specific historical events in Israeli and Palestinian history, so there were references and nuances in the book that went totally over my head. Overall, I just had no idea what was going on because most of the book takes place in Sharon's head and isn't meant to be literal - there was just a lot of confusion for me as a reader.
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I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this book since I listened to Yara El-Ghadban speak at the Festival of Literary Diversity this year and thought she had really interesting things to say about power and identity in the world of translation! I think I'll continue to keep an eye out for her work despite not liking this particular book.

I gave this book my best shot, but just could not get going with it. I can see why it's been well-received, but it didn't work for me.

Thank you to House of Anansi Press for the Reader's Copy!

Now available.

If you aren't familiar with the history of Ariel Sharon, the 11th Prime Minister of Israel, I would recommend doing a brief search just to help follow along the narrative in this extremely lyrical, fast paced & prosaic novel. Told in fragments, "I am Ariel Sharon" attempts to reconstruct the life of a man through the perspectives of his loved ones, including his mother, Vera, who is a refuge and his two wives, Lily and Gali. It's a taut read that delves into the complexities of life in Gaza's West Bank, the contradictions of being a Zionist on a refugee land, of settler colonialism and its impact on human life. If anything, I was entranced by Yara El-Ghabdan's light poetic language in direct contrast to the gruesome subject matter, making the latter all the more poignant and timely.

Quite the searing indictment of Ariel Sharon -- a man who I knew nothing about before reading this book. The author uses a very creative storytelling technique of having women from Ariel's life (dead or alive) speak to him while he is in a coma, though a mystical omniscient-style voice. You learn about his childhood, his career and relationships, and how a man from relatively humble beginnings could be corrupted by power. The politics and history of Israel & Palestine is so complicated, and this is really a heartbreaking topic. I didn't feel like I knew about about any of the characters and had to Google a lot about Ariel Sharon to get some context. I think other readers who are more familiar with this time period and region of the world will really appreciate this book a little more than I did.

I also struggled with the formatting of this proof ebook to the point that it actually annoyed me so much that I started to get annoyed with the book. So much of the spacing was off, missing spaces between entire sentence or between period. Itlookedlikethis thewordsinstringsoftext?And.No.Spaces. I can't imagine that being a style choice.

Happy to include this unusual and fascinating new book in Novel Encounters, my monthly top ten roundup column of notable upcoming fiction titles for Zoomer magazine’s Books hub. To read the feature, click on the link.