Not worth the time it takes to read it

At its core this is a love story about an Arab man and a Jewish girl and how their lives and loves play out over decades of time. Though I did enjoy the love story aspect of the book... that is about all I enjoyed. There were so many things in the book that just didn't seem rooted in any reality that I am familiar with! For starters, women are portrayed as emotional idiots. The female characters are intelligent in many aspects of their lives but when it comes to matter of the heart, they fly off the handle are are likely to act like toddlers. Also, the females are constantly "competing" for male attention. If there are women like this, I don't know them. Also, this whole idea of the father and step mom teaching a son how to make love to a woman is ridiculous! Children do not want to discuss any of this with their parents. The parents are way too involved with their kids personal life. It's not realistic. I found the book to be highly misogynistic to be truthful. My advice, don't waste your time!