Apeirogon

Beautiful, like everything McCann writes, but definitely a departure. It's not the first time he's used non-fiction to frame his work, but it's very hard here to see the line between non-fiction and fiction here. The structure might be the first thing one notices. It is in 1001 sections, a reference to One Thousand and One Nights, the classic work of Arabic literature that is mentioned several times. but the structure is meant, I'd guess, to approximate an apeirogon, a figure of countably infinite sides, a circle made up of straight lines, thus counting upward to 5oo and then back down to 1. But that gimmick aside, the book is about the inhumanity of occupation, and while the book is about the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the message is larger than that. Perhaps not my favorite of McCann's books, but also, perhaps, his most powerful.

Apeirogon is such an incredibly clever and affecting novel. With great skill and attention to every detail, Colum McCann delivers 1001 vignettes that come together seamlessly in the story of two grieving fathers, Bassam and Rami. There are so many pieces in this novel–all related to one another, but many loosely. It's fascinating how McCann successfully pulls together all this material–including nods to his own earlier novels–into a cohesive narrative.

And yet, it's so terribly convoluted for a reader. It's a little like viewing a huge mural shaped around a specific theme, and trying to mentally put all the pieces together. Because of this, I wonder if Apeirogon is a novel best read slowly, and repeatedly. It's a difficult task to take everything in. This is a novel that is brilliant and incredibly touching, but so meandering that it is too easy to get lost. I won't be surprised to see McCann net a nomination for a couple large Prizes with this one, but it's not likely to ever be regarded as one of his more accessible works.