#453 Sister Hills- Nathan Englander
This is an allegorical tale about the re-claiming of a
settlement in the West Bank. Started by two families in 1973 during a time of
war, the Sister Hills were “settled” soon after by seven boys, turned quickly
into seventy, then in a span of fourteen years, emerged as a metropolis. The
story begins with a fight over a tree. As complicated as this topic is, the
following dialogue is a pretty brilliant break-down of the fight over this
land:
-If it was your tree, I’d have seen you at my side last year
during harvest. I’d have seen you the year before that, and ten years before
that, and a hundred.
-You weren’t here yourself a hundred years ago. And
anyway…you don’t look back far enough. The contract on this land is very old.
-A mythical claim, as meaningless as the one you make today
-It looks like [a war] not a judge [will decide].
Sadly in real life, that’s exactly how this has played out,
but of course war hasn’t settled anything. And unfortunately, extremism and
stubbornness has stopped the progress of any lasting peace:
-We’d prefer to avoid that kind of extremism.
-Then you do not have my trust.
I have no stirring or lucid insight into the politics of the
Israel/Palestine question, but I think Englander does a great job shining a
light on the issues.
Notable Passage: “For a judge can know how his heart would
decide, but his obligation is always to the law. And they had sworn, these
three. Sworn on their lives. A terrible promise to make.”
No comments:
Post a Comment