Issue: December 15, 2016
Ronit and Jamil.
Laskin, Pamela L. (Author)
Feb 2017. 192 p. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen, hardcover, $17.99. (9780062458544).
Israeli-born Ronit’s abba works as a pharmacist in East Jerusalem; Palestinian Jamil’s abi works as a doctor. But when both fathers decide to drag their willful teens onto the job with them, they impart the same stern words of advice: “Don’t look.” Yet in this modern day Romeo and Juliet revamp, Ronit is quick to admire Jamil’s hazel gaze, and Jamil, too, swiftly swoons for the “girl / with the song in [her] voice.” So begin text message trysts, marketplace meetups, and a love as fierce as it is forbidden. Like its predecessor, Laskin’s tale, a series of mostly page-length poems, unfolds in five acts. Alternating between the perspectives of each teen (and, eventually, their fathers), it illuminates a tense but textured land riddled with rockets, roadblocks, and olive trees. Occasionally saccharine but always accessible, the modern verse—flecked with Arabic, Hebrew, and iconic excerpts from the play itself—will ease romance-hungry teens into both Shakespeare’s original and the challenging context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A welcome nod to hope in the face of the impossible.
— Briana Shemroske
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