At times, the fancy prose style seems like an evasion. Abu Srour offers few details about his arrest, interrogation or court case ... This conspicuous silence is debilitating to the memoir, since the reader can never quite trust Abu Srour’s version of events or account of his motives. There’s also little evidence of his interest in other people ... This self-centeredness is eloquent in its own way, as a testimony to the conditions of writing — the punishing solitude of a life lived behind bars.
Extraordinary ... Abu Srour’s humanity shines through, even as he endures an incarceration with no end in sight. Yet enduring is not the right word for his story. He instead speaks in terms of "soaring" ... It is this poetic sensibility that brings freshness to the telling of the well‑rehearsed story of this long-running conflict: we see it anew.
At its best, the narrative is moving and formally inventive, painting a surreal portrait of a political prisoner’s inner world. However, the extensive use of passive voice, selective lack of details—particularly about Abu Srour’s childhood and arrest—infuse the story with distance and confusion that sometimes make it difficult to read.
