Bookshelf The

The novel and its characters aren't making an argument for Zionist ideas. Zionism is, instead, the undercurrent and setting against which the action, character development and thematic questions are explored; it is taken for granted and given. This sort of philosophy politics-as-setting allows the reader - or this reader at least - to suspend potential responses or arguments, and to instead explore with the characters the contours of their stories and discoveries.