Apeirogon

After his service in the Yom Kippur War (October 1973), Rami began work as a graphic designer making visuals for anyone along the political spectrum. Not long after Rami met Nurit, a woman from a good family and a general’s daughter. They began dating and were soon married. They had four children, and for a long time Rami lived a life of domestic bliss, even among the continual wars and skirmishes of the Israeli state.

After Smadar’s death, Rami begins to speak about it to whomever he can. He worries about repeating himself as he tells the story again and again, but it serves a purpose. As McCann writes, “when he spoke he saw Smadar again. Her oval face. Her brown eyes. Her turn-to-the-shoulder laughter. In a garden. In Jerusalem. With a white band in her hair” (47).

Eventually, Rami and Bassam began meeting almost every day as a part of their Parents Circle group. When Rami used new phrases to describe the event he had described so many times before, it would open the wounds all over again, and he could see in Bassam’s face that Bassam was freshly wounded as well. After a time, Rami and Bassam could finish each other’s stories.