Language

Throughout the novel, Colum McCann uses language as a thematic proxy for identity. Language here refers both to language in the sense of diction or word choice, intimately connected to the labels used to describe on another, as well as to language in the wider cultural and linguistic sense, often on a scale associated with ethnicity and national affiliation. Both manifestations of language as a thematic concept arise quite early and very often throughout the novel, showcasing the mental furniture with which the divides (both real and imagined) in the Holy Land play out and translating that preconceived cultural baggage onto the readers themselves as they move through McCann’s novel.

With respect to language as labelling, McCann cultivates an early thematic framework. In Chapter 58, he describes the original meetings of Combatants for Peace, including the following admission: “The language that they might use for each...