book-review, memoir, Non-Fiction, read around the world

Jerusalem – the heart in four chambers

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Jerusalem Drawn and Quartered by Sarah Tuttle-Singer was a memoir I was very much drawn to read.  The premise of the book was to live for one year within the walls of the old city, time spent in each one of the quarters.  I was excited to read the stories about how each section was, the differences and the similarities. 
What the book ended up being, however, was a woman that is still processing traumas.  From the onset of reading the book, you learn of the author’s love of Israel, how she came as a teen and how she fell in love with the place.  Her mother had done the same thing, and had passed on this love of the country. 
You are then plunged into half stories and innuendo on her mother’s death, a possible sexual assault, a stoning, an abusive relationship, and a divorce and another sexual assault.  The story telling of this is all in the backdrop of explaining the different parts of Jerusalem, friends and acquaintances.  She spends 3 days at a time in the old city, so she can be with her children the other days near the kibbutz they live on with their father.  She is not a resident in any quarter, but a short time visitor.  She is always looking for the rooftop, echoing a story of her grandmother’s first time in Israel and being caught kissing someone on a roof before being sent to Chicago.  There are sparks of conversations and insights that I wish the author would have explored more:  
  • The person who’s fiancé was born in the old city, but left in 1967 to be with his father in Jordan, and cannot get a visa to come back, so the fiancé needed to chose between the person she loved or the city she loved.
  • The Muslim family that invited her in one night when she was out near dark and it was not safe. This matriarch, with a girl and boy just like the author’s, was never fully developed.  We never learn of the ways of the family, just the fact that both mothers wanted their children to go out and save the environment together.  The common ground between the two were only explored on the surface. 
  • The Arab man that sat with her over coffee to tell her that his family fled in 1948 to stay safe from the war. They came back when it was done and someone else was in their house.  They want their house back. 
  • The Muslim tailor that gave the author’s daughter her first Jewish Star necklace, the taxi driver that thanked her for making friends with Arabs and apologized for all the terror that had been done on behalf of his people (which the author reciprocated). 

All of these were mentioned, but not examined in anything more than the observation that these things happen. 

A major part of the story is her processing her mother’s death, an abusive relationship, a possible assault, a stoning and more.  I have tried my best to see if these are to be metaphors for the city of Jerusalem, but I am just not convinced these are.  The loss of innocence, the spilling of blood, the abuse of those you love – while there may be some similarities, they remain too vague to be real, in my opinion.  That is why I am so unsure about what the point of the book was.  To me it was more of an exercise to see if she could be strong for herself and her children, while putting herself in danger with stupid decisions (really – why on earth would I feel this woman is strong because someone followed her to a hotel and she yelled at him, when earlier she just stood and took it when someone undressed her when she didn’t want it at a different one?)  She kept relaying both sides of herself – again not sure if was supposed to be metaphor for the city or not, but it made me not like her.

After reading the book, I want even more to understand the differences between the quarters.  Why they are there, what motivates them, and what commonalities or assumptions that everyone has – so we can break down barriers toward a real peace. 
In this time of forgiveness and atonement, I was hoping for more.
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Published by k4books

Full time Mom, Wife, and Worker. Avid reader, serial volunteer, and dog lover.

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