The Almond Tree

It's impossible to look at reviews for The Almond Tree (#408) on other web sites without becoming aware of the passions this book raises in its readers (or in some cases, those who have refused to read it on principle). 

Beginning in the 1950s, over a sixty year period it tells the story of one Palestinian man, Ichmad Hamid, son of a once wealthy planter who was dispossessed of his land when Israel becomes a Jewish state.  The family's circumstances are continually reduced until Ichmad's father is arrested and sentenced to fourteen years in a detention camp.  It becomes Ichmad's job to support his entire family.  Ichmad has a singular gift for mathematics, however, and it eventually becomes his leverage to finding a better life for him and his family.

What makes this story so unusual is that its author, Michelle Cohen Corasanti, is an American Jewish woman who lived in Israel for seven years.  She presents the Palestinians in a sympathetic light in The Almond Tree and builds bridges between Ichmad and Jewish students and professors at Hebrew University after he wins a prestigious math scholarship.  This is also the very thing which creates controversy and adamant critics.  People in general aren't willing to look at things from a different and uncomfortable perspective.  I couldn't even have a civil discussion of this book when I mentioned it recently at one of my book clubs with a number of Jewish members.  No wonder prospects for peace are so dim in the Middle East! 

I do have to say, though, that the character development in The Almond Tree is very one dimensional.  Either the character is good, or the character is bad, and there's not much subtlety in the way they are presented.  The book also suffers from literary overload.  I think Ms. Cohen Corasanti wanted to distill so much of what she observed over the seven years she lived in Israel that she made the mistake of piling all the incidents she could think of onto the Hamid family.  Of course, that does make me think of that most famous of Middle Eastern allegories: the story of Job.  Ichmad Hamid is certainly his modern day counterpart.

All that being said, I still think this book is worth reading even if it provides you with the smallest nugget to ponder about how things could be different today in Israel as the rockets rain down on both sides.  Is it possible for one person to make a difference?