Apeirogon by Colum McCann

Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020--San Antonio

Apeirogon by Colum McCann took me longer to read than most novels.  The author calls it a hybrid novel.  There is an ongoing story built around the true lives of two men--an Israeli and a Palestinian--who have bought lost young daughters to violence and who both have become speakers for an organization promoting peace between Palestine and Israel.  At the same time, there are detailed extraneous bits of information which either eventually relate directly or indirectly to something in the story line.  Reading the details and keeping everything in mind to see how they eventually are meaningful is what slowed me down.  Instead of reading 75 or so pages a day, I found myself reading 25-40.  The book was long-listed for the Booker Prize, named one of the best books of 2020 by BBC, and called a "once in a generation masterpiece" by the Observer.  The story and complexity of its construction made this a fascinating book.  When I balance that with the frustration of following it, I decided to give the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.