Summary

In Part 4, “The Gigantic Dream,” Coates reflects on his trip to Palestine. On his last day, he saw the Book of Names at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. Containing over 17,000 pages, it lists the names of millions of Jews “murdered in the Holocaust” (116). An overwhelmed Coates he had to sit down to reflect. Yad Vashem reminded him of the National Museum of African-American History and the Whitney Plantation in New Orleans. He reflected on global genocides and his own writing history. He particularly tried to understand Yad Vashem in the context of a Jewish state and Zionist ideology.

Coates reflects on his trip to Jerusalem, where he visited the Al-Aqsa complex, or Temple Mount. The site “is holy to both Muslims and Jews” (122). He and his fellow travelers entered through the Lion’s Gate on the Palestinian side. They were...