The Tallest Man in Ramallah
MICHAEL
CHABON ROAMS THE WEST BANK WITH SAM BAHOUR
I.
The tallest man in Ramallah
offered to give us a tour of his cage. We would not even have to leave our
table at Rukab’s Ice Cream, on Rukab Street; all he needed to do was reach into
his pocket.
At
nearly two meters—six foot four—Sam Bahour might well have been the tallest man
in the whole West Bank, but his cage was constructed so ingeniously that it
could fit into a leather billfold.
“Now,
what do I mean, ‘my cage’?” He spoke with emphatic patience, like a remedial
math