Point of View

Shipler's Arab and Jew is told in the third person, as a journalist. He shifts to the first person when reporting interrogation of subjects directly. Chapters open with lyrical depictions of people and places that firmly and effectively set the mood for the topic at hand. In Chapter 18 and the Epilogue, he includes verbatim records of teens' interactions, which touchingly show the evolution of their thinking, from the stereotypical to truly compassionate.

The bulk of the book is made up of a reporter's interviews, observations, and reflections on events during the five years Shipler served as the New York Times bureau chief in Jerusalem (1979 -84). He introduces a myriad of characters, important historical figures, bureaucratic functionaries and common folk, and gradually develops their portraits, returning to them from a variety of perspectives to add detail. This can challenge the reader's memory, but imparts a sense of...