2019-08-24 The Economist Latin America

68 Books & arts The EconomistAugust 24th 2019

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people are being released; the dispropor-

tionate punishment of ethnic minorities is

now widely recognised. California has

been in the vanguard of these reforms,

after the federal Supreme Court ordered it

to reduce prison overcrowding. A quarter

of the state’s prison population has been

transferred to local jails or parole over the

past decade.

Arts organisations are responding to

this shift. Players from the Street Sympho-

ny in Los Angeles help set former inmates’

poetry to music. In the nearby San Fernan-

do Valley, the Tia Chucha Centro Cultural

includes them in its open-mic and theatre

performances. Across the country in Chi-

cago, meanwhile, in a programme called

Changing Voices, young people who have

left the justice system are recasting their

experiences as musical theatre for stu-

dents, judges and legislators.

Many of these projects are supported by

the Art for Justice Fund, a philanthropic ef-

fort which itself illustrates the power of art.

In 2016 Agnes Gund, a New York art collec-

tor, was shocked by “13th”, a documentary

by Ava DuVernay that traced the links be-

tween mass incarceration and the history

of racism in America. She sold one of her

prized works and put $100m into the new

fund. It has since collaborated with scores

of artists and groups advocating criminal-

justice reform. “There’s an urgency to be-

gin to see incarcerated people as they really

are, as human beings, as husbands and fa-

thers and mothers and daughters,” reckons

Helena Huang, the fund’s project director.

“At the most fundamental level, art gives

people a voice.”

Beyond bars

Individuals who have discharged their debt

to society are not the only ones using the

arts for transformation. Alcatraz, too, is re-

considering its mission. It is now part of an

international coalition of “sites of con-

science”, which includes the Nuremberg

trials memorial and aims to use difficult

memories to inspire action. Art exhibi-

tions—such as “Future ids” and a show by

Ai Weiwei in 2014 that focused on the Chi-

nese artist’s own prison experience—have

helped turn this grim facility into a place to

think as well as gawk.

“We have a giant prison system, the

largest in the world, and we are in a unique

position to have conversations around in-

carceration,” says Emily Levine, a park

ranger. The habit of asking hard questions

has spread across the Rock. Visitors disem-

barking from the ferry were recently con-

fronted with some unusual messages from

the rangers. One whiteboard reads:

“2,300,000 usadults are currently incar-

cerated. What do you know about the pri-

son, jail or immigration centre nearest to

your home?” Another simply asked, “Do

prisons make you feel safer?” 7

E

dnao’brienlaunchedherillustrious

careerin 1960 with“TheCountryGirls”,

an incendiary, trailblazing novel that

chartedthefortunesandsexualawakening

oftwoyoungwomenintheIrelandofthe

1950s.Two equallycontroversial follow-

ups,“TheLonelyGirl”(1962)and“Girlsin

theirMarriedBliss”(1964),againdepicted

femaledesiresandaspirationswithcom-

passionatecandour.Almost 60 yearsafter

herdebut,MsO’Brien’snewbook,“Girl”,

evincesanenduringinterestingirlhood.

Despitethestarktitle’ssuggestionofano-

nymity,theprotagonisthasaname.But

sheloseseverythingelsewhensheisab-

ductedandbrutalisedbyBokoHaram.

“Iwasa girlonce,butnotanymore.”So

begins Maryam’s harrowing tale. Seized

fromherschool,sheisbroughttoa terro-

ristcampandinductedinto“theSect”.She

andherfriendsaremadetowearhijabsand

worshipa differentGod.Shewitnessesex-

tremeviolenceandexperiencesit,during

ordealsdesignedtosendmenaway“sated

and battle-maddened”. One militant

chooseshertobehistrophywifeandsheis

no longer “plundered” nightly. But she

losesherstatuswhenherhusbandfalls

fromgraceandshegivesbirth—nottoa fu-

turefighterbuttoa daughter.

Maryam’sluckturnsafteranaerialas-

saultonthecamp.Shefleeswithherbaby

butfacesfurtherhardshipanddangerin

theforestsofnorth-easternNigeria,then

hostilityand prejudice in thecountry’s

capital.Strangersviewherwithfearand

suspicion;somerelativestreatthis“bush

wife”andher“tainted”childwithdisdain.

Sheseekssalvationelsewhere.

In“Terrorist”(2006),hisnovelabouta

radicalisedteenager,JohnUpdike,another

venerablewriter,fellshortofhishighstan-

dards.MsO’Brien,now88,tooka riskin

givingvoicetoa Nigeriangirlwhosuffers

horrificcruelty,especiallyinanagewhen

“culturalappropriation”isoftenfrowned

upon.Butlikeherpreviousnovel“TheLit-

tleRedChairs”(2015),whichdealtwithBal-

kanwarcrimes,“Girl”isa productofrigor-

ousresearchand greatartistry. Maryam

andherplightaretragicallyauthentic.

Attimes,darknessalmostoverwhelms

thereader.Yetit ishardtoturnaway,justas

itisimpossiblenottobacka heroinewho,

thoughbowed,refusestobebroken.“Girl”

isMsO’Brien’smostambitiousnovel—and

amonghermostpowerful. 7

Irish fiction

Nobody’s child

Girl. By Edna O’Brien.Farrar, Straus and

Giroux; 240 pages; $26. Faber & Faber; £16.99

H

e cut an unprepossessing figure:

short, with a large head and a squeaky

voice. Self-centred and humourless, he

used people, including women, then dis-

carded them. He was dogged by self-doubt.

How David Ben-Gurion, a flawed and in

many ways unattractive man, created the

state of Israel is the theme of Tom Segev’s

fascinating biography. Ben-Gurion’s career

began unpromisingly. Born in 1886, he

grew up in a Yiddish-speaking family in

tsarist Poland; his mother died when he

was 11, leaving him introverted and aim-

less. Zionism, then in its infancy, rescued

him, giving him a purpose—and an escape

from a stiflingly dull provincial town.

The story takes off when, not yet 20,

Ben-Gurion arrives in Palestine in 1906.

Life for the early Zionist settlers was hard,

and he was not cut out for it. His route to

power was as a brilliant labour leader. The

trade-union federation that he helped es-

tablish, the Histadrut, became an essential

building-block of the future Jewish state.

Mr Segev is one of Israel’s “new histori-

ans”, who have stripped away the mytholo-

gy around its birth. One legend that he

skewers is that Ben-Gurion believed in the

possibility of peace with the Arabs. “There

is no solution,” he declared as early as 1919;

the Arabs wanted Palestine as their state,

the Zionists wanted it as theirs. The answer

to Arab hostility lay not in compromise but

military strength. Though he paid lip-ser-

vice to peace initiatives, he never changed

his mind. When war came in 1948, he

A life in Zionism

The price of power

A State at Any Cost: The Life of David

Ben-Gurion.By Tom Segev. Translated by

Haim Watzman.Farrar, Straus and Giroux;

816 pages; $40. Head of Zeus; £30