City of a Thousand Gates: A Novel

by Bee Sacks

WINNER OF THE JANET HEIGINGER KAFKA PRIZE FOR FICTION

“The novel showcases the humanity, tragedy, and complexity of life in the West Bank. . . . The characters’ interwoven lives will stay with you long after the book's denouement.”  —Entertainment Weekly

“Sacks is an extraordinarily gifted writer whose intelligence, compassion and skill on both the sentence and tension level rise to meet her ambition. She keeps us constantly on edge. . . . City of a Thousand Gates makes a convincing case for a literature of multiplicity, polyphonic and clamorous, abuzz with challenges and contradictions, with no clear answers but a promise to stay alert to the world, in all its peril and vitality.”  —Washington Post

Brave and bold, this gorgeously written novel introduces a large cast of characters from various backgrounds in a setting where violence is routine and where survival is defined by boundaries, walls, and checkpoints that force people to live and love within and across them.

Hamid, a college student, has entered Israeli territory illegally for work. Rushing past soldiers, he bumps into Vera, a German journalist headed to Jerusalem to cover the story of Salem, a Palestinian boy beaten into a coma by a group of revenge-seeking Israeli teenagers. On her way to the hospital, Vera runs in front of a car that barely avoids hitting her. The driver is Ido, a new father traveling with his American wife and their baby. Ido is distracted by thoughts of a young Jewish girl murdered by a terrorist who infiltrated her settlement. Ori, a nineteen-year-old soldier from a nearby settlement, is guarding the checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem through which Samar—Hamid’s professor—must pass. 

These multiple strands open this magnificent and haunting novel of present-day Israel and Palestine, following each of these diverse characters as they try to protect what they love. Their interwoven stories reveal complicated, painful truths about life in this conflicted land steeped in hope, love, hatred, terror, and blood on both sides.

City of a Thousand Gates brilliantly evokes the universal drives that motivate these individuals to think and act as they do—desires for security, for freedom, for dignity, for the future of one’s children, for land that each of us, no matter who or where we are, recognize and share. 

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Middle East, Literary Fiction, Israel, Audiobook

394 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 2, 2021

Reviews

[Jaidee (lost in Vegas for a few days) · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 "unflinching, superlative, astute" stars !!!

7th Favorite Read of 2021 Award

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Harper Collins Canada for an e-copy. I am providing my honest review. This was released February 2021.

I am uncertain how to write this review. This book frightened me, shook me, moved me. This book was courageous, sour, hopeless. I did not know how to think, what to feel, who to blame, what the fuck ?

This debut novel takes place in Israel/Palestine and follows the lives of more than a dozen characters as they navigate one of the most controversial yet holy places on our earth. Ms. Sacks has created a political drama of such relentless movement and passion that I was often breathless, nauseous, afraid. These are portraits of such complexity, such love, such vitriol, such conflict.

Ms. Sacks dives deep not just into politics and faith but into the very dark psyches of her characters exploring trauma, gender, sexuality. She never sugar coats anything but presents the world both inner and outer as conflicted, primal and complex beyond reason, beyond hope, beyond redemption.

This is a novel that should not be under the radar as this is a book that transcends any radar.

Ms. Sacks, I cannot wait to see where your insight and knowing and creativity takes you next.

[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

City of a Thousand Gates is a thoughtful literary portrayal of life and conflict in contemporary Israel and Palestine. With a cast of over twenty uniquely voiced, nuanced characters, it’s an ambitious endeavor that’s surprisingly intimate. While the number of characters challenged me, the author drew them distinctly enough to separate them easily.

I was in awe of how Rebecca Sacks made connections between the disparate characters in ways one would never expect. Overall, I highly recommend this novel for fans of literary fiction, with immersive storylines and who have the patience to allow a story to come together because this one does so in a masterful way.

I received a gifted copy.

Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader

[Elyse Walters · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars - rating up -
The beginning had great energy tension….
Including the description of the large cast. …
Then a terrific opening suspenseful scene that could result in Hamid, ending up in jail because even though he worked for a Jew - he was crossing borders without legal documents to do so…..
But soon - very soon — the flow of continuity dropped off.
It would pick up at times - family stories- parties in Tel Aviv - etc. but with no real plot - and writing that felt like journalist writing- I was just bored most of the time.


‘In parts’ - it was engrossing - but overall, my goodness I thought this book (unfortunately) was a real mess.
NOT because of Palestinian-Israeli conflict and controversy….
NOT because of lack of exploring the psychological aspects of humanity ….
But because - (again, unfortunately)- I found seventy percent to be a complete boring slog —
The ‘tie-ins’ were left hanging -
I was constantly referring back the the list of characters-

About THE SEX….(needs to be mentioned)… its obsessive -
I didn’t mind - but it wasn’t a turn on …. It was just descriptive- telling - not feeling -
but…
….. its definitely visual -in your face graphic …
AND…..
along with the sex and sexual fantasies detailed … a burned dinner of mushrooms and tomatoes happens….
because - after all - ‘leave it’. ( I found it funny)

Lots of profanity- again not a problem in itself for me —
but the opportunity of real authentic depth of portraying
the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflicts falls short.
It’s there — but much gets loss in its own sloggy prose.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book. In places, I did love the book - lyrical and tragic, shaped by two factions, unwilling and unable to see just how alike they are with their covered women, richly spiced food, and intertwined histories.

The second half was better than the first, but alas, the heart of the story, a tragedy really, was obscured by gratuitous, extraneous nonsense. It was almost as Sacks had a need to purge certain things from herself, weaving them into the narrative like detritus collected in a flood of thought.

That purge, the detritus, detracted so heavily from the book: the weak, insipid Vera, the explicitly extraneous Amir, the vapid Rachel and Emily, obscured and detracted from the narrative so heavily it was confusing.

Disappointed, even as there were some beautiful, thought provoking parts.

[Umar Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ambitious, but fell way short. I wanted to like this book and at times I did. A few of the main problems.

1. The universalization of American concepts of race focusing on whiteness. Israel and Palestine aren't places where whiteness is the main focus (although colorism definitely exists). Instead differences such as level of religious observance and brand of faith (on both sides) and Ashkenazi-Mizrahi on the Israeli side are far more important. The author put American concepts of race into Palestinians repeatedly and displayed a lack of familiarity with the culture. When a Palestinian academic visits Chicago she wonders if there are white supremacists on campus and is told don't speak Arabic while alone. That read like a bad Twitter account from a woke college freshman. The author should visit Chicago and will see Arabic is freely spoken in the streets. It ain't East Turkistan.

2. Israelis, particularly men, were repeatedly treated in a reductionist manner rooted in a snobbery and classism rooted in well-heeled American suburbia.

3. The author doesn't know Islam and Palestinian culture well enough to do POV chapters with Palestinian and Muslim characters.

4. The moralizing of Emily , an American, and the German, yes German, character towards Israelis borders on the comical in its absurdity.

The book did well at times in discussing character backgrounds, spousal jousting quarrels, and sex. On balance it fell way short of its lofty ambitions.

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

There were so many characters in this, I had to check the list in the front almost every chapter to know who each person was. I couldn't even keep the Israelis and Palestinians straight. Some of them could have been left out and not altered the story at all.

The writing in this was very repetitive and boring. There were some scenes that had nothing to do with the story and could have just been cut to shorten the book, such as the three pages Emily spent describing anal sex with her husband.

[Sarai · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is disappointing on so many levels. I wanted to like this novel. It is so biased, does not take into consideration Israeli's and Palestinians who are neighbors and work with each other, and their feelings. This book is stereotypical instead of looking beyond the propaganda.
The book goes on and on about tragedy on one side but barely looks at the other.
I kept reading hoping it would get back to the topic of life between Israeli's and Arabs, but the constant insertion of the characters and their sex lives added nothing to the story.
The repetition of phrases was annoying. I gave this book 2 stars because it started out promising.
I will try and finish, but with so many great novels to pick from, I probably will not.

[יהודה טראוב · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author is, unfortunately, a typical naïve American left-wing (don't get me wrong, I am a left-wing liberal myself) pro-Palestinian young woman, just out of college, with limited background or knowledge of the history, tradition, customs and culture of either Israeli Jews or Arabs. She did spend some time in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Bethlehem, where, as she writes in her acknowledgments, she befriended a group of Palestinians. She picked up some contemporary Hebrew and Arab names, expressions and slang, and with this rather scarce baggage she set out to write a "balanced" novel about life in Israel and the West Bank. This book is replete with inaccuracies and innuendos, some of which may appear offensive to the Israelis and some others to the Palestinians. Being so "balanced", it may fare well with American or European readers, but I doubt that it will be translated at all into either Hebrew or Arabic. Nor did I find any literary or stylistic breakthrough in it.
And oh, I almost forgot: The occasional foul language and ample dealing with "juicy" sex scenes do not add any extra value to the book either.
The only person I came to like in this novel was professor Samar Farha and the only chapter I really liked was "Samar's Fast".

[Faith Bugay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Would rate this 0 stars if I could. I get that she is telling the story of a bunch of people but I couldn’t really root for any of them. No one seemed like they were getting any where. Just a bunch of people in an impossible situation complaining a lot. And too much unnecessary sex and description of it. Honestly I am keeping this on my list of books I read cause I got more then 50% through it before I started skimming and threw in the towel.

[Barry Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

Being attracted to the book by its subject of the irreconcilable Palestinian-Israeli conflict, I was enthralled to believe it would tell a story of the great city of Jerusalem and its melting pot of great delusions. What I found was what I call a typical MFA's attempt to use flowery words to paint a novel of intense emotion, that wondered away from the issue. The characters, created from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and one, the observer from the outside were so subsumed with their sexuality that their feelings toward the main issue was lost in many instances.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new interpretation of the movie “Crash.” A story that examines both sides of war. Looking into the Israel/Palestine dispute from all sides and explaining how each side lives and thinks. For me, there were too many characters and backstories to keep up with.
#GoodreadsGiveaway

[Paula · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could have been a great book,sadly it's far from that.At some point you think it will soar,but no.Flat,no spark.

[Cherrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Received an advanced e-copy from NetGalley) This is the first book I've read about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The Conflict has been in my periphery for some time now (a decade to be precise) but I have never invested time in doing my research or reading up on it. I am ashamed of the fact and I am making sure that is no longer the case -- especially after reading Angela Davis' "Freedom is a Constant Struggle." CITY OF A THOUSAND GATES was a good introduction for me because Sacks explored the Conflict from multiple POVs. In the beginning of the book, it felt like there were 20 characters but then at the end, I was disappointed the story mainly revolved around 4 characters (who I didn't really feel were the most pivotal of perspectives). Overall, I'm grateful for this book because it was eye-opening to see the literal gates that separated the Jewish from the Palestinians/Arabs (I'm using / because I'm still not sure what the preferred term is). I did not enjoy the writing or the plot unfolding as much as I had hoped. I'm thankful that the novel wasn't glorifying trauma in order to pull at readers' heartstrings -- Sacks describes the facts without over-embellishing and that is more than enough in the context of an active warfront in police state polluted with racial & religious animosity.

[Ginath13 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very ambitious debut novel about the Israel Palestine conflict. I thought the writing was good, i could feel tension just reading and often had to put it down. It was difficult and terrifying. My only complaint is that, like another reviewer wrote, there are quite a few extraneous characters and side stories that I don’t feel contribute to the story in any meaningful way. I had to keep going back to the cast of characters list to remember who some of them were again.

[Katie Bruell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This was an incredible book. My heart sank when I saw the giant cast of characters at the front, but it wasn't hard to keep track of everyone and follow their individual stories. She did such a great job of using all the characters to really make the reader feel the issues. I wanted more time to delve into each person's life and mind.

[Lisa Bernstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author may have thought she was being even-handed; however, I didn't feel like she succeeded. Some of the stories and characters were far more fleshed-out and relatable than others. I was disappointed and frustrated that it felt more sympathetic to one side than the other. I'm being vague in order to let other readers decide for themselves.

[Erika Dreifus]

A complicated book (not least because of the multiplicity of characters and plotlines). I'm looking forward to a book club discussion to help me clarify my own reactions to it.

[Leah Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up for Goodreads.

"The entire place has an oppressive and primitive air, every woman's body angrily obscured by various orthodoxies."

Weaving together the voices and experiences of over 20 characters, the humanity, injustice, complexity, and multitude of costs of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is inflated with living, breathing life.

A 14-year-old Israeli girl is stabbed to death in her bed. A 15-year-old Palestinian boy is beaten to death at the mall. And thus the springboard for Sacks's probing and violent dive into one of the most complicated dynamics in the modern world is launched.

My aim is not to break down the politics, it is to review the storytelling. Sacks opened her mouth wide, shoved in the entire conflict, and slowly masticated on the reality the battle over this sacred land has cost people. To proclaim it an ambitious endeavor is to understate the obvious.

Sacks did not judge her characters, for they did plenty of that on their own. Instead she humanized their similarities. The need to love and be loved. To protect one's children from harm. The necessity of passing down tradition to the future generations. The need to possess autonomy over one's choices and trajectory in life.

Weaving in and out of many points of view and time-frames, I was drawn into the interconnected reality she spun together. It takes quite a bit of skill to represent that many voices without confusion and, with the exception of a few side characters she never circled back to, she achieved it. I spent much of this book feeling apprehensive and fearful and certain at any moment mayhem was going to ensue, a mere flash of what it's like to reside in this region.

Sex, when manipulated correctly in literature, can be used as an intimate vehicle with which to peer directly into a character's interior. Sacks amply employed it with skill and purpose. Ultimately, however, I was left with the pervasive sense that regardless of which people a woman belongs to, she really only matters when giving birth to her husband's child.

[Melisa Austėja Bartninkaitė · Rating 5 out of 5]

Until sometime later in the story, it was hard to engage with the book, mainly because the narrative builds slowly, and there are so many POVs one needs to follow. At some point, in the beginning, I had to force myself to continue reading. Later, it all came together. Getting to see and understand the point of view of a wide range of characters from various backgrounds and some unexpected interconnections between them became the unique beauty of this book.

Contemporary Jerusalem. It all starts with the aftermath of the event in which Jewish-Israeli teenagers have beaten up a Palestinian boy in a shopping mall. The novel recounts the feelings of each family as well as some individuals from both sides, describing how they process this and the following events.

In a way, all stories revolve around the Palestinian and Israeli-Jews conflict. But that’s not all there is. At the same time, the author touches upon topics pertinent to this day and age along the way. Early adulthood, serving the military, coming as a foreigner, discovering and exploring sexuality, seeing the relationship between spouses or the one with parents, trying to get that breakthrough in your career and even navigating the popular app.

Many of the characters are flawed, some even annoying at times, but painstakingly real, almost as any other person one has ever met, and the unbiased portrayal of them makes this book stand out.

[Lia (_Lia_Reads_) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have kind of mixed feelings after finishing this book.

On the one hand, I think that Sacks expertly weaves together the lives of Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. She clearly has an understanding of both sides of the conflict. A review in the Washington Post calls the novel "kaleidoscopic," which is an excellent way to describe the book. Sacks has brought in so many different characters, diving into their different lives to flesh out their experience of Israel. She jumps from a star football player, to a mommy blogger, to a young girl, all with ease, to explore each of their lives in this complicated country.

At the same time, the novel is unwieldy at times. There are moments where the characters intersect, but if you're not reading closely, you might miss the connection. The novel flows roughly chronologically, but it suddenly jumps back in time, introducing a new character. And there are just so many characters that, even for an almost-400 page book, there is just not enough space for them to all be explored fully. So instead, you get a lot of stereotypes of characters instead. There are also moments where plot points are recapped almost verbatim; at first I thought it was because we were seeing the plot from a different character's POV, but then realized that wasn't the case. I don't see the point in this beyond the fact that there are SO many stories going on and Sacks felt she needed to remind us of what was happening.

I am by no means an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so I do not feel qualified to comment on the accuracy of the portrayal. The only thing I will say is that the Palestinian characters felt more like stereotypes than the Israeli characters.

I really wanted to love this book, and at times it was certainly compelling. But I think it would have worked better as a series of short stories rather than attempting to be a novel.

[Sonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

City of a Thousand Gates is an emotionally exhausting read, as it should be considering it's about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Still, I believe it's important to read books that open our eyes to worlds different from our own, no matter how difficult or uncomfortable it may feel. I thought Stacks did an excellent job of shining a brutally honest light on both sides--the good, bad, and the ugly. There's a lot to learn and understand and I recognize this book is only a sliver of education on the matter, but I appreciate the deeply human perspective told through the stories in this book.

There's some strong storytelling here, but too many characters and storylines for real coherence. The story loses something when you have to go back regularly to remind yourself of the character and vignette. A little more simplicity would have gone a long way.

[Larry Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Israelis go to vote yet again today in the fourth election in two years. With criticism between candidates left and right and unclear rotation options for prime minister they will head to the polls for the fourth time in under two years hoping to end the political stalemate that began in December 2018 when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initiated the first election. If you are looking for a contemporary take on Israel, pick up a debut novel by Rebecca Sacks, “City of a Thousand Gates.” It explores the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by testing its boundaries, with twenty-nine main characters from across the grid. The author said she wanted a narrative shaped by the many ways there are to think about Israel. Each character is an interior study, reflecting what they care most deeply about. The result is a panoply of characters that shape a narrative in a world of conflict.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to receive an advanced reader’s copy from Edelweiss. With a large, diverse cast of over twenty characters, including a Palestinian college student working in Israel illegally, a German journalist, a new father and his American wife, an IDF soldier patrolling the West Bank, and others, Sacks weaves all of their stories together to reveal the complicated and painful truths about life in contemporary Israel. An ambitious and panoramic debut, Sacks creates a snapshot of lives shattered by decades of conflict. Similar themes to Apeirogon, but much more accessible, I think. It reminded me a lot of Real Time by Pnina Kass. I will be leading a discussion for AJU on Tuesday, March 2 at 3:00pmCT.

[Aimee Dars]

In City of a Thousand Gates, Rebecca Sacks relates life in the West Bank through almost thirty different characters, some of whom have significant interaction, others who only appear in a few pages. These varied perspectives—Israeli, Palestinian, and even American and German—depict the privilege and opportunities and the challenges and persecution conveyed by group membership.

As might be expected by the title, transition points or check points are critical hot spots of danger that highlight the disparities between groups, depending on which kind of pass one holds. They are the site of heavy surveillance and potential violence, all highly charged because of a spiraling cycle of violence whereby a teenage settler was attacked and killed in her bedroom, and a Palestinian brutally beaten in retaliation.

I thought the book was very well-written, though intense and explicit in depictions of violence. While I think Sacks would argue that the Israelis hold power and control over the Palestinians, I also think she has compassion and empathy for the motives of both groups. She certainly conveyed for me the distress that comes from constant vigilance against violence and the consequences for violating group norms.

The characters are diverse: athletes, professionals, mothers, professors, students, soldiers… With such a large cast, Sacks deliberately gave more attention to some. For me, that meant, more attention to some characters that annoyed me and less to some that intrigued me. (There is a character list at the beginning of the book.) Additionally, some plot lines seemed to be unresolved: if that was the author’s intention, I’m not sure the meaning.

While I’ve never visited the West Bank, the atmosphere of the novel rang true to me, and I think this is a valuable book for increasing understanding of the area and of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I also thought the prose was beautiful.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper for providing an advance e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

City of a Thousand Gates is a book that fits in with current events. It’s a book that I had to muster up courage to read. I’m mustering up the courage to write and post this review. To open myself up to an opinion that doesn’t quite follow the norm.

City of a Thousand Gates takes place in the aftermath of two events: one that strikes fear and hurt into the Israeli people and one that does the same to the Palestinians. Through the lens of roughly 30 main characters, you’ll get a story of pride, love, hate, and hope from every angle. I don’t want to summarize more than that because I think everyone should face this story with an open mind and open heart.

If there’s one thing that I got out of this book, it’s that we’re all humans with human emotions that can change depending on the time and place. It doesn’t matter who we are or where we come from. We all can understand fear and love and anger. The tension between Israel and Palestine is so tough to put into words, but Sacks manages to do this through a myriad of POVs. It sounds cliche to say that it’s nuanced, but that’s the honest truth. Throughout this book, there were moments when I cringed because of my personal beliefs but also moments where I stood beside both the Israeli and Palestinian characters. City of a Thousand Gates is messy. The characters are flawed. But through it all you see the power of a mother’s love, pride in community, the fight for power, and so much more. I will say there were a lot of sex scenes in this book that kind of threw me off track. I don’t think it was truly necessary, but it didn’t change my feelings on the book. Also, I want to give a brief shout out to the beautiful writing. Even though I kept referring to the cast of characters guide early on during my reading, I came to know these characters intimately for the little time I spent with each of them. With a mix of long and short chapters, I was able to understand them on a holistic level.

[Chava · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure how many stars to give this book. I received an ebook ARC. I still prefer a physical book, so I’m glad there was an author talk scheduled that forced me to plow through it to finish in time. It took me a while to get into it because I found the beginning chapters a little disjointed. I kind of knew that the characters would interact with each other, but I didn't know where the story was going. Some people enjoy that, but I prefer to have some idea of what the trajectory of the plot will be. That said, the characters were interesting and mult-faceted, but it was hard to keep track of them, even though I liked how the plot developed to connect them. So, while the beginning was a little confusing, I can see why the author took the time to develop them all. Once I got into it, I enjoyed it. It definitely had a sense of place. There was definitely a lot of tension. I held my breath as Ori Lev was guarding the shack and the jeep kept driving by, and when the bus blew up at the checkpoint, I got the same feeling I do when I hear the news on the radio. Obviously Yael Solomon was based on Hallel Ariel, hy”d, and I felt tremendous sadness reading about her, especially about the window and the room with the bunk bed because I was there during the shiva.

I didn’t see the need for all the graphic sex descriptions. The ending was kind of flat after so much drama, though I could see how Samar would take the conventional route, even though I hoped she would break out and pursue her career.

I appreciated that, for the most part, the presentation of issues in the Middle East was fair and balanced.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. Normally I find many POVs in a novel difficult to follow but I enjoyed how they were woven together. I liked the writing style and as always I love characters that are complex. Some were harder to appreciate than others. It was not an easy read, but it was good.

[Jeffrey Mervosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't always love novels that feature a bevy of POV characters in short intertwined snippets. This is a book grappling with an enormous topic - the intractable conflict between the Israeli state and the Palestinians who it displaced. Perhaps the only way to treat the topic with nuance and balance is by featuring a multitude of perspectives, but for me the sum was less than the potential of some of the individual storylines. There is real tragedy at the core of this novel and many of the human responses to this trauma help explain the complexity and precariousness of any sort of co-existence. But the structural choice also makes some of these perspectives feel a bit trite and token-y, a problem often shared by other 'both sides' works such as the movie Crash.

[Jennifer]

DNF. I wanted to like this one- maybe I’m just not sophisticated enough. The premise is a little bit like “Crash”- MANY slightly interrelated characters. The writing is laugh out loud funny at times but, its choppy style, combined with the MANY characters made for a lot of re-reading paragraphs and sections. I just couldn’t get into it. Quit at page 125ish.

[Stacey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I made it 70 pages. I was hoping for a story that would throw me into the Israeli/Palestinian divide. I wanted to understand backgrounds, motivations and current struggles. 70 pages in and I tossed it aside. What could have been a poignant story for the times was actually a trashy, sexually explicit paperback. Gross.