Well before Ariel Sharon undertook with brutal literal-mindedness to erect a wall separating Israel from the territories it occupies, David Grossman was building an extraordinary literary opus devoted in large part to the problem of walls. Grossman's concern has been not just actual walls of plaster, brick or chain-link, though sometimes those as well, but the full range of metaphoric barriers—suits of armor, sarcophagi and second skins—we construct to protect the heart and tender inner organs from all the cruelty, humiliation, and indifference we would rather keep outside. He posed the problem... More >>>