BKMT READING GUIDES
Edges: O Israel, O Palestine
by Leora Skolkin-Smith
Paperback : 200 pages
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6 members have read this book
"Edges" takes the reader to an Israel before high walls formed a border, when, instead, metal wires hung "like hosiery lines" across the land. Liana Barish is ...
Introduction
"Edges" was selected by Grace Paley for "Glad Day Books", a new publishing house founded by Ms. Paley and Robert Nichols.
"Edges" takes the reader to an Israel before high walls formed a border, when, instead, metal wires hung "like hosiery lines" across the land. Liana Barish is fourteen years old when the suicide of her American father forces her mother, mourning, in despair back to her family--to Jerusalem where she grew up. For Liana it is the place where the powerful interdependence of mother and daughter--physical and spiritual--ends. It is the place of her sexual awakening.
This can happen when Liana escapes across the border with the missing son of an American diplomat. They are made closer by the death of a young Palestinian boy. They move deeper into the world of Palestinian fields, olive orchards, villages.
The novel is set in the Israel of the early '60's. Liana's mother and aunt tell lively stories about the 1940's, their young guerilla-like struggles against the British particularly, the mother's memories of growing up in a shared land in the old city before it was divided. Growing into a womanhood forever formed by the boundary-less spaces of a lost geography and people, Liana’s coming of age brings this tumultuous region into startling light and relief.
Excerpt
Chapter One.I flicked on the passenger light above my head. By my wristwatch it was only three-thirty-seven p.m., New York time, but, when I gazed out the plane window, the sky was full of coal-like clouds.
“Want some chocolate?” My mother held an 18-ounce duty-free bar of Hershey’s almond chocolate under my nose. “It’s seven more hours until we reach Tel Aviv, will you survive?”
“No,” I said.
That summer, Jordan had given the few Israeli descendants of the ancient city permission to dig up the graves on the Mount of Olives and transport the souls and skeletons of their lost ones to the other side of the border. ...
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Discussion Questions
Questions from Leora:1. In the beginning of the novel, how would you describe Liana's feelings and attitude towards her mother? How do Liana's feelings about her mother change during the course of the novel?
2. How does the author use the physical geography of Israel as it relates to Liana's own personal growth? How do the rough and raw territories of pre-1967 Jerusalem play a role, reflecting Liana's inner battles? What is the significance of all the geographical boundaries or lack of boundaries of her mother's land?
3. Why do you think Skolkin-Smith chose to make Liana's lover an American diplomat? How does William symbolize, perhaps, America’s accidental and confused involvement in the Middle East conflict?
4. After William leaves Liana, she decides to return to her mother and Jerusalem. Why doesn't she go to the police station to report the Arab boy's death in the forest? What does she fear? What does this tell us about her inner conflicts as well as the conflicts of the larger war?
5. In "Edges", history plays a large role in determining the fate of the novel's characters. How does learning about Liana's mother's past activities in the Jewish underground change Liana's own fate? Does Liana find herself emulating her mother and wanting to be like the other "wild women of the Haganah"? Consider how history has also affected the fates of the other characters in the book---Liana's mother, William, and the Silberfelds.
6. In what ways did the setting of the novel in a pre-1967 Israel/Palestine contribute to the reader's understanding of contemporary conflicts between the Israelis and Palestinians? Did the time period in which the novel was set, allow for a broader context from which to understand these present-day conflicts?
7. What does Liana really mean when she says: " But it was my country this body, I thought. The only power I will ever have." Does this refer to a feeling of her helplessness in the face of outside political tensions which she can not change or affect?
8. Several times, the novel alludes to the difference between the Jewish underground's battle for Independence from the British Empire in the 1940's and the current border conflicts between Israel and Arab Palestinians in the 1960's, reaching into present day crises. How would you characterize the main differences in these conflicts? Does the novel show the genesis of present day conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians? How does the mention and explanation of the first border wars over the water supply add to our understanding of conflicts between Israel and Palestine today?
9. Why does the authors describe the shooting of the innocent Arab boy in the tree as a misfire between soldiers from both sides of the wider political canvas and conflict? What does the Arab boy-child symbolize?
10. What universal truths about mother and daughters allows this novel to be read not just a story about Israel, but a story which a reader can enter from a more personal place of empathy, thereby transcending national identity?
Suggested by Members
Notes From the Author to the Bookclub
A Note from Leora for you: My mother’s family were native Jewish Palestinians, dating far back to the beginning of the nineteenth century when my great-grandmother and great-father settled in ancient Jerusalem, beginning our family. The war there is part of me through the thickness of my blood and its ties, created and stirred by rooted family. My personal connectedness to the stories I heard from uncles, aunts, cousins, my mother and my grandmother opened my ears up very early in my life to the ways in which the intimate storytelling of family could capture authentic, deeply felt tales of war and struggle. Even when the stories were filled with sometimes dubious claims to heroism, pumped up a bit to impress or entertain, that palpable human presence of voice and memory gave me a trust in their essential truthfulness, if not every exact detail and fact. I hope readers come away having met real characters trying to live their daily lives in the chaos and maelstrom of war. And feel my story can be their story, too. No matter how different we are, and where we are from. I wanted to tell a coming-of-age tale, about mothers and daughters, a young woman’s burgeoning sexuality and touch the chords of human universality, not of politics.Book Club Recommendations
Recommended to book clubs by 3 of 5 members.
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