Thank you to the publisher for giving me an arc.
I don’t know a lot about rock climbing, other than that one El Cap documentary, and thought the author did a good job teaching the reader about climbing as she learned in the memoir. Until the 50% mark I was really enjoying this memoir. then things took a sharp turn.

The author is Jewish but not religious. She doesn’t observe any holidays, which is pretty common for American Jews. She specially says she dislikes Passover because, “The believers said it was all about freedom, but if you actually read the story, it was about praying to G-d to free you by killing other people’s children… not pray to some fake G-d for a real brown child to die.” The text makes it clear that this is directly connected to her pro Palestine beliefs. However this kind of falls apart when she meets a man who served in the IDF special forces, rock climbs with him, and has sex with him.
Some quotes from that 3 page section that stood out to me -
“Yoav chuckled. “You have a lot of fire,” he said, “for someone who has never seen war.” I almost asked him if he thought that what he had done was really just war, or if it was something else even worse, but it felt like we were far away from wars, and even words.”

“We didn’t talk much about where he was from—in fact, we didn’t talk much at all, but I was desperate to ask him what he’d done, where he was from, and why he’d done it, because he was so kind— gentle, even.”

“I’d encountered many Israelis in nearly every foreign city and beach town, all on long trips after finishing their military service, Jewish Rumspringas on which Palestinians were curiously never invited. When I asked why he was taking this trip now, he told me he’d spent extra time in the military, in the Special Forces.
“Whoa,” I said. “You must have seen some things.” “Yes,” he replied. “And done some things.” He nodded. So I asked my one question, since we had already been quite naked before each other. “Why’d you do it?” I asked. “Whatever you did.” “I thought I had to,” he said. “To protect my family.”“

Emily is in her mid-30s during this. She’s not a teenager whose politics are still forming. She should be fully able to understand how having sex with this random guy who CHOOSE to spend more time in the idf, including special training, does not mesh with her apparent care for Palestinians.
Less than 48 hours after she has sex with this man, when someone asks why her parents are worried about not being able to contact her, she says, ““Because we are Jewish,” I answered. “And very anxious, and afraid of death. That’s actually also why Israel is doing apartheid genocide in Palestine,” I added.”
Like I’m absolutely baffled by this choice?? (She also had a freak out about finding out the guy she thought about hooking up with is only 18, asks a friend if that makes her a pedophile, and then has sex with him anyway.)
I can’t recommend this book in good faith, no matter how enjoyable I found the early parts. I’m not sure what big thought I should have about the disconnect Emily has, only that I think it’s kind of standard among western leftists.
1 star