Goodreads
del.icio.us
When I received my copy of Matches, the first novel by Alan Kaufman, I admit I viewed it with a high degree of trepidation.* Matches, you see, is a novel of the Israeli Defense Forces. And a couple of years back, I decided to become the only one of 294 million U.S. citizens who was not a self-proclaimed expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It was a backwards progression for me. Obviously, everyone around me, by virtue of being American, possesses a vast wealth of ignorance on the conflict that authorizes them to clearly and decisively lecture both Israelis and Palestinians on the correct course of future events. And because I am a Jew, and my maternal grandparents fled pogroms in Russia, I must have had at least a few Jewish ancestors who fled Spain, which means that it is anecdotally unquestionable that at some point in history I had a few ancestors who were some of the actual Semitic Jews who entered Spain in the first place. Naturally, I tend to believe that this remarkable heritage gives me, in addition to a lust for Germans and a childhood difficulty with breakfast cereal, a superior understanding of Israel than those around me, all of whom claim to be experts, making me some sort of obvious über-expert (in a Yiddish, not German this time, way).
It was, of course, knowledge that began to eat away at my egoism; the more I spoke to actual Israelis, the more I began to understand my ignorance. I have not, at this time, had the pleasure of a sincere conversation with a Palestinian – the Palestinians I've met either treat me with a respectable suspicion or a sort of shabby, transparent salesmanship for their cause. This, too, makes it damningly clear how little I know. Moreover, it makes it clear how truly irrelevant to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict I really am, to say nothing of my opinions. Palestinians have no reason to be honest with me.
Matches is a novel, and therefore can be read, analyzed, and criticized, however inadequately, purely on aesthetic grounds. It was written in English, by an American Jew who served in the IDF, in the voice of the main character, an American Jew serving in the IDF. Despite my lingering Israeli-centric egoism, I can still approach and review the book on those grounds. And if the back cover pronounces that SOLDIERS IN THE GAZA STRIP ALWAYS KEEP A BULLET FOR THEMSELVES IN CASE OF CAPTURE, and if I have heard tales of the very specific reason that IDF soldiers in Gaza would prefer death to capture, I will have to keep those to myself. They are hearsay. I am ignorant of Israel, I am ignorant of Palestine and Egypt, I am ignorant of all things military. I am here to discuss an American book.
* Granted, I feel trepidation about every book that I'm asked to review, but I try to come up with an original and compelling justification each time.
