A review by daisyb
Belonging: The Story of the Jews 1492–1900 by Simon Schama
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
I listened to the audiobook of this, read by Schama himself, the result being a very nice tempering of all dryness and long-windedness. I learnt a fair bit, and wasn't as weighed down by the scope of it all as I would have been had I ploughed through a paper copy.
The flow of the work, how the different stories interlink and overlap, is probably its best feature – avoiding dull linearity the better to tie history together thematically. I suppose that's in the title though! It is indeed the story of the jews, and all the more engaging for this mode of telling.
While Schama's account isn't entirely Eurocentric or male dominated, the stories that do exist beyond Europe and that are about women are so interesting that I can't help but wish there were more of them! All in all, it's a beautiful history that is brought to life by its focus on individual people across the centuries.
The flow of the work, how the different stories interlink and overlap, is probably its best feature – avoiding dull linearity the better to tie history together thematically. I suppose that's in the title though! It is indeed the story of the jews, and all the more engaging for this mode of telling.
While Schama's account isn't entirely Eurocentric or male dominated, the stories that do exist beyond Europe and that are about women are so interesting that I can't help but wish there were more of them! All in all, it's a beautiful history that is brought to life by its focus on individual people across the centuries.