Review of DIRT by Sarah Sultoon (New Release)

 3 Stars

Last year I read The Shot by Sarah Sultoon and was wowed, so much so that it ended up on my list of favourite books in 2022; as a result I was intrigued to read Dirt, her latest book, which is classified as a political thriller.

The novel, set in 1996, opens with the discovery of the body of Farid, an Israeli-Arab worker, in a chicken house of a kibbutz located on the border of Israel and Lebanon.  Chapters alternate between the perspectives of two characters, Lola and Jonny.  Lola is a non-Jewish volunteer who came with her best friend to work on the kibbutz.  Because she had a relationship with Farid, the discovery of his body means she will be a figure of interest in any investigation.   Jonny, a cub reporter working for the International Tribune, receives a tip about goings-on at the kibbutz with which he has a familial connection.  He arrives there and gets drawn into uncovering more than one secret at the commune. 

Apparently, the author has some personal experience with life on a kibbutz, and it is her use of that setting which captured my interest.  I know little about life on a kibbutz except what I was told by a former student who volunteered on one for a few months when he was visiting Israel.  Beit Liora is not a socialist utopia:  “Its bounty may be on full display, but the reality inside is never quite the same.”  Residents receive food and shelter, but work hard, rising with the sun.  “In a community where everyone and everything is supposed to sit on the same plane, . . . hierarchies hide in plain sight.”  Volunteers reveal only what they want about themselves so may not be what they seem.  There is heavy security with “tangles of razor wire edging almost every fence,” armed guards, and hidden cameras.  There is an intolerance of differences, and outsiders are treated with suspicion:  “In a community as tight as this, its commanders can’t afford to be seen as anything other than in complete control.”  In addition, the kibbutz has air raid shelters because of rocket attacks from Lebanon.  

For some reason, I had difficulty connecting with either of the main characters.  Revelations about Lola’s home life certainly arouse sympathy, but her behaviour is frustrating.  She is obviously desperate for affection, but her actions towards Tom and Farid make her appear fickle.  She admits to being described as gullible though she prefers to think of herself as trusting and hopeful.  But shouldn’t her painful experiences in the past have taught her to be more wary?  Like Lola, Jonny is also a lost soul damaged by his past and looking for a sense of belonging.  Though he is ambitious and determined to succeed as a journalist, he is also seeking a connection where his mother once lived.  Perhaps their fragility was too overwhelming for me?

I read this book in fits and starts while travelling and that may not have been the best approach.  Because I was not as attentive as I normally am, I kept feeling I was missing things.  Why is there a used condom in the chicken house?  It was brought to the chicken house by someone?  I can’t imagine that people had sex in the chicken house with its overwhelming odour?  I visualize when I read but I had difficulty imagining some scenes.  For instance, near the end, “all three men are thrown back down into the alley between the warehouses, landing in a tangle of limbs, sweat and earth” and then one of them (Jonny) is immediately embraced by a fourth man “so tight it chokes the air from his lungs.”  They’re embracing while lying down?  A scuffle follows “as the men all separate themselves” but the two continue in their embrace, Jonny “still clinging” to the other while the hugger keeps “his arms folded tightly around Jonny” until he “drops” Jonny?  Are these latter two standing?  There is no mention of their rising to their feet.   I found myself pausing while reading because of such gaps in the description of action.  One or two such gaps would not be an issue, but there were several which disconcerted me.

There were some elements that bothered me.  Some are just minor irritations like Jonny’s overuse of “eightieth time” and his frequent inability to see someone’s face clearly because of either the sun or shadows.  I wanted to yell at him to just move.  More seriously, I questioned the actions of one of the founding members of the kibbutz.  Since the collective has existed for almost 50 years, the founder must be older, around 70 years of age, yet he behaves as he does towards Lola?  Much is made of the “freeze setting, rather than fight or flight” as a response to a situation.  But this is a response for everyone?  Lola constantly freezes, it’s a learned behaviour for Jonny, and Tom freezes at a critical moment?  Ambiguous endings don’t bother me, but the epilogue left me confused.  Is it just to emphasize that secrets can never be fully buried? 

This book didn’t engage me as much as I hoped, but the fault may lie in how I read the book in rather a disjointed fashion.  Perhaps I need to reread it when I can be more attentive.