One-sided and superficial

The beginning is interesting and rings true. I was a volunteer in a kibbutz as well and now live on another kibbutz with my wife. The only thing that annoyed me in the beginning was the choice of having a non-Hebrew speaker read this book laced with Hebrew. Later on it becomes more and more obvious that the author has bought into the anti-Israel narrative that is so rampant amongst leftists in the western world. No voice for the Israeli point of view, only Israel bashing. This is one on the few books I didn't manage to finish reading using Audible. I stopped reading 2 hours and 16 minutes from the end...

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Narration is offensive

My main complaint about this book is the narration: Every time Hebrew speakers are quoted, which is often, the narrator gives them a fake - what he apparently considers to be Hebrew - accent. This is entirely uncalled for and degrading to the people who are quoted. It makes them sound silly and more like drunk Russians from a third rate Cold War action movie. To top this nonsense off, the narrator mispronounces Hebrew names in spite of his silly imitation.

The content starts out interesting and varied, at times entertaining and even amusing. I actually laughed out loud about the German kibbutz volunteer who “makes the party”, knowing exactly from where this little grammatical idiosyncrasy originates.

Soon enough though, the book becomes a political manifesto, pontificating and droning on to the point of becoming unbearable. I did not finish it.