![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() McCann, in “Apeirogon,” has taken that substitution to a new extreme.Īn apeirogon, to quote the book’s press release, is “a shape with countably infinite sides.” As a title, it’s designed to make the heart plummet: A writer could hardly give a more exaggerated hint that they intend to boldly demonstrate just how amazing and complicated it all is. ![]() The idea that those places are by nature capital-M Meaningful too often substitutes for an attempt to really see, or question, what that meaning might be. Reading it is like listening to an erudite conspiracy theorist explain their thesis of the universe, the thesis being that just about every meaningful thing that has ever happened is connected, and connected specifically to Israel and Palestine. But “Apeirogon,” which tells the stories of two fathers who have each lost daughters to that conflict, one Israeli and one Palestinian, is so obsessed with its own significance as to reduce its big story to a laborious performance of authorial ego. So it’s only natural that he would, at some point, turn his attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. McCann, the author of, among others, the National Book Award-winning “Let the Great World Spin,” is attracted to big stories, the kind that appear to in some way encompass the world. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a more exhausting book than Colum McCann’s “Apeirogon.” ![]()
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