The Yellow Wind: With a New Afterword by the Author

by David Grossman

Book Overview

With a new introduction by the author.The Israeli novelist David Grossman's impassioned account of what he observed on the West Bank in early 1987 - not only the misery of the Palestinian refugees and their deep-seated hatred of the Israelis but also the cost of occupation for both occupier and occupied - is an intimate and urgent moral report on one of the great tragedies of our time. The Yellow Wind caused a sensation upon its original publication...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374293457
• ISBN13: 9780374293451
• Release Date: March 1988
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

So little has changed

Grossman's message in The Yellow Wind is simple, and has been declaimed in other situations, at other times: occupation of one people by another degrades the moral and political life of both occupied and occupier. In The Yellow Wind Grossman allows both Arabs and Jews to speak their own opinions about the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in their own words, although there is a significant authorial intrusion at various times. Grossman's analysis is penetrating, deep and involved. His command of the political situation of the first 20 years of Israeli occupation of the Territories is multifaceted, his perspective humane and intense, and as his forward and afterward show, the essential themes of the book are still relevant, twenty years after its publication. In the end, it is the common people, both Jews and Arabs, who lose from 100 years of conflict. The cycle of violence and fear without end becomes a kind of tragic nexus for Israelis and Palestinians which no one is capable of resolving, which only worsens with time, every attempt at a solution only highlighting the complexity of the conflict. Everyone in the region, Grossman explains, is touched by this conflict. David Grossman's son was killed in the 2006 Lebanon war. Knowing this, and then reading this book, adds to the pathos and veracity of his claims.

About People?s Feelings--Not About Politics or Agreements

This book is more important today than when it was orginally written, in 1988. It contains a new afterward by the author. The author, a journalist, gives his impressions, and relates various converstaions, as he travels all over the West Bank, and through parts of both Israel and Palestine. He presents views from both sides of the issue very well. The book is not about politics, or various peace agreements. It is about individual people's feelings. I have read many books on this topic, and this is one of the BEST. I feel that I understand MUCH better why all the peace agreements come to nothing. To sum it up in a nutshell, the extremists on both sides will EACH never accept less than ALL of the land-that is why nothing works.

A Great Contribution to Historiography

An excellent read, and certainly the least biased book on the subject I've ever read. I was introduced to this book while reading a passage in THE OTHER ISRAEL written by Assaf Oron, a Sergeant Major in the Israeli Defense Force Reserves. Assaf is one of the reservists who has refused to serve in the occupied territories after years of serving there.In THE OTHER ISRAEL, Assaf wrote, "A copy of THE YELLOW WIND..., which had just come out, crossed my path. I read it, and suddenly it hit me. I finally understood what I had done over there [in the occupied territories]. What I had BEEN over there."This powerful passage taken in context moved me to buy and read the book that moved a soldier to completely change his outlook on the conflict, and I am so fortunate I did.Grossman's book is written from a uniquely humanist point of view in regard to what life is like for both Palestinians and Israeli citizens since 1967. He spent 7 weeks in the occupied territories, both in the camps and in the settlements to make a genuine attempt to see the immediate world around him through the Palestinian and Gush Emunim settlers' eyes.This book does not bog down with the intricacies and interpretations of various peace agreements, nor does it bother to delve into the well-known positions held by political leaders on both sides as so many other books on the subject do. Rather, Grossman focusses entirely on those who are most affected by the situation in the region: the people.The book was written originally in 1988, and has an afterward by the author written in April 2002. As Grossman says in his afterward, "Nothing has changed." This book is as fresh and revealing today as it was 15 years ago. I really gained a lot by reading this book. You will too.

A true masterpiece

David Grossman's "Yellow Wind" is superb with a richness and texture to his writing that is honesta nd sincere. Grossman was highly criticized for providing the Palestinian story but when one reads this text, it is all sides that he lies within and one can hear the injustices of both the Israeli and the Palestinian.I think this text is wonderful and easy to read!

Timeless Prose; Ever-Important

"The Yellow Wind" doesn't need me to praise it. But I see few reveiws for it here. So, I must say that this book is more important today than when it was written in the late 80's. It shows all that has come to pass between ethnic rivals and it shows why. David Grossman is my hero, and will be yours too if you read this book, which is Highly Recommended!