Self-Portrait as Ruth

Reviews / Votes

This book, wrestling with the conflicting perspectives of nationality, displacement and religion, is steeped in Israeli and Palestinian history. Land is portrayed throughout as an untrustworthy burden, full of temporary demarcations, constantly under threat of change. Take the short poem "The Border, 1947": "she stands a moment, one foot still in Palestine, / the other in Lebanon." The book's biographical note tells us that Donahaye's family have roots in 19th-century Palestine, and the writing tries to open longer perspectives. The elegy for the poet's family in "Gaza, summer 2006" attempts to negotiate a sense of place that becomes ever more inclusive ("the crowd chanting shema Yisrael will forget / what it was they were called to mourn, and the muezzin will sing / Allahu") and there are tentative moments of respite celebrated here in pieces such as "Water" or "The bus to Ramallah". But violence and damage are continually asserting themselves, and the collection ends with the forebodings and threats of "An angel is passing": "You hear the jeeps; you feel / the rumble of the tanks' approach." -- Charles Bainbridge * The Guardian * This book, wrestling with the conflicting perspectives of nationality, displacement and religion, is steeped in Israeli and Palestinian history. Land is portrayed throughout as an untrustworthy burden, full of temporary demarcations, constantly under threat of change. -- Charles Bainbridge * The Guardian *