Drivel

That's the best word I can think of for this:

Midway through Salt Houses—the stunning debut novel by Hala Alyan about four generations of Palestinian women navigating the travails of dispersion and diaspora—I had a disquieting realization of familiarity. I felt like I knew this story—and not because I knew the particulars of the story. Nor am I particularly well-versed in the history of Palestinian dislocation except as the aftermath, as the tragic countertext, of what I know and celebrate of Zionism and Israeli history.