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book_concierge's review against another edition
3.0
Book on CD narrated by Edoardo Ballerini
From the book jacket: In 1945, Jewish refugees by the thousands set out for Palestine. Those who made it relied on the underground to shelter them; taking false names, they blended with the population, joining the wildly different factions fighting for independence. [This book] follows one survivor, Brand, as he tries to regain himself after losing everyone he’s ever loved. Now driving a taxi provided – like his new identity – by the underground, he navigates the twisting streets of Jerusalem as well as the overlapping, sometimes deadly loyalties of the resistance.
My reactions:
I really like O’Nan’s writing. I like the way he gets inside the character’s psychological makeup, how he reveals his characters strengths and flaws, hopes and fears through the action of the story. This book is a very contemplative one. Brand – or Jossi Jorgenen as he is known in Jerusalem – is forced to think through the various possibilities each time he’s given a task. Is this simply a taxi fare? Or is there a coded message in the destination or time of pick up? Can he trust his landlady? What about Eva, the woman he loves and who professes to love him? Are the leaders of the resistance confident in his loyalty to them? Or will he be taken into the desert and shot, his body left for the carrion eaters to dispose of?
This is a slim volume but full of information about the time and location. I found myself searching google for more details and for pictures of the city to better understand what was happening and where the action was taking place.
All that being said, it was perhaps too intense for me, at least at this time. Yes, there is plenty of action, but I was left feeling tense and ill at ease. I’ve got enough of that in real life these days.
Edoardo Ballerini is a marvelous voice artist and narrator. I think I would listen to him read anything, even a receipt for dry cleaning.
From the book jacket: In 1945, Jewish refugees by the thousands set out for Palestine. Those who made it relied on the underground to shelter them; taking false names, they blended with the population, joining the wildly different factions fighting for independence. [This book] follows one survivor, Brand, as he tries to regain himself after losing everyone he’s ever loved. Now driving a taxi provided – like his new identity – by the underground, he navigates the twisting streets of Jerusalem as well as the overlapping, sometimes deadly loyalties of the resistance.
My reactions:
I really like O’Nan’s writing. I like the way he gets inside the character’s psychological makeup, how he reveals his characters strengths and flaws, hopes and fears through the action of the story. This book is a very contemplative one. Brand – or Jossi Jorgenen as he is known in Jerusalem – is forced to think through the various possibilities each time he’s given a task. Is this simply a taxi fare? Or is there a coded message in the destination or time of pick up? Can he trust his landlady? What about Eva, the woman he loves and who professes to love him? Are the leaders of the resistance confident in his loyalty to them? Or will he be taken into the desert and shot, his body left for the carrion eaters to dispose of?
This is a slim volume but full of information about the time and location. I found myself searching google for more details and for pictures of the city to better understand what was happening and where the action was taking place.
All that being said, it was perhaps too intense for me, at least at this time. Yes, there is plenty of action, but I was left feeling tense and ill at ease. I’ve got enough of that in real life these days.
Edoardo Ballerini is a marvelous voice artist and narrator. I think I would listen to him read anything, even a receipt for dry cleaning.
eowyns_helmet's review against another edition
A beautiful, nuanced, engrossing read. The story is set in a post-World War II Jerusalem still occupied by the Brits, among Jewish guerrillas allied in a cell that carry out bombings meant to shake loose the occupiers and create an independent Israel.
But as reviewers have noted the writing is spare, quiet, with a pervasive melancholy. It seems everyone, including the Latvian refugee Brand, is deeply damaged, just trying to reconstruct a simple life with simple pleasures. But the ghosts of the past haunt everyone and the violence is quick and severe, lurid in its intensity. In our current hyper confessional culture, the reserve of those who have seen and suffered atrocities is searing.
I marked many passages. Here is O'Nan writing about what it means to be a survivor. "He wasn't weak enough to kill himself, but wasn't strong enough to stop wanting to. There was always the question of what to do with his old life, memory seething in him like a disease. Not only his sorrow, but the guard stomping on Koppelman's face, the dog shaking the child, the wheels of the train slicing the idiot Gypsy boy in two -- atrocities so commonplace that no one wanted to hear them. Everything he'd witnessed was his now, indelible yet unspeakable. His best chance was to forget, and so he kept on, letting the meaningless present distract him."
WOW.
O'Nan doesn't give more detail about any of these events, making them all the stronger for being shards of memory. Later, he revisits one memory in more depth, the site of the massacre where Brand's wife was likely murdered. After Brand's release from the camp, "he'd taken to the train out through the leafy countryside to Crow Forest the same way they'd been marched in the snow, but the ground had been dug up by the Russians, the bodies carted away in dump trucks and tipped into secret graves with the German dead, a second desecration. He walked the turned earth, searching for a scrap of cloth, a button, the steel frames from a pair of eyeglasses, any clue as to what had happened there. It was May and the first shoots of grass had sprung up, fringing the mounds with green. All around, weeds and thistles grew knee-high, thriving reminders of the relentless business of life. He stood in the clearing, looking at the trees on all sides reaching for the sun, the birds flitting from branch to branch, calling to one another, and knew he had to leave."
On a smaller level, I noticed how the place names gave so much texture -- Queen Melisande's Way, Kilimanjaro Supper Club, Zion Gate, Street of the Martyrs.
But as reviewers have noted the writing is spare, quiet, with a pervasive melancholy. It seems everyone, including the Latvian refugee Brand, is deeply damaged, just trying to reconstruct a simple life with simple pleasures. But the ghosts of the past haunt everyone and the violence is quick and severe, lurid in its intensity. In our current hyper confessional culture, the reserve of those who have seen and suffered atrocities is searing.
I marked many passages. Here is O'Nan writing about what it means to be a survivor. "He wasn't weak enough to kill himself, but wasn't strong enough to stop wanting to. There was always the question of what to do with his old life, memory seething in him like a disease. Not only his sorrow, but the guard stomping on Koppelman's face, the dog shaking the child, the wheels of the train slicing the idiot Gypsy boy in two -- atrocities so commonplace that no one wanted to hear them. Everything he'd witnessed was his now, indelible yet unspeakable. His best chance was to forget, and so he kept on, letting the meaningless present distract him."
WOW.
O'Nan doesn't give more detail about any of these events, making them all the stronger for being shards of memory. Later, he revisits one memory in more depth, the site of the massacre where Brand's wife was likely murdered. After Brand's release from the camp, "he'd taken to the train out through the leafy countryside to Crow Forest the same way they'd been marched in the snow, but the ground had been dug up by the Russians, the bodies carted away in dump trucks and tipped into secret graves with the German dead, a second desecration. He walked the turned earth, searching for a scrap of cloth, a button, the steel frames from a pair of eyeglasses, any clue as to what had happened there. It was May and the first shoots of grass had sprung up, fringing the mounds with green. All around, weeds and thistles grew knee-high, thriving reminders of the relentless business of life. He stood in the clearing, looking at the trees on all sides reaching for the sun, the birds flitting from branch to branch, calling to one another, and knew he had to leave."
On a smaller level, I noticed how the place names gave so much texture -- Queen Melisande's Way, Kilimanjaro Supper Club, Zion Gate, Street of the Martyrs.
robynryle's review against another edition
4.0
Story of Jerusalem under the British Mandate. Sparse. Suspenseful.
jewelkr's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I try to even the lifetime score I have of reading books written by white men by avoiding reading books written by white men, but I picked this one up in a local Mystery Store and was interested because it is set in Jerusalem in 1947.
Like other readers, I found it a little slow to start which is weird because it is a short book that moves through a lot of events that occur within about a week. I was annoyed early on by Brand/Jossi’s typical dichotomy between the “whores” who serviced the sailors and his girlfriend, who services politicians in aid of the rebellion even as he waits in his taxi to drive her home from her sex work. As I’ve said before, entering the mind of a man in love is disturbing. I don't know if this was intended by the author as a measure of the main character's inner conflicts, or if it's because that's how men see women. It didn't stop me from reading on.
The author’s writing is very good; I found little else to editorialize about. I did worry that a non-Jewish person was portraying a Jewish character, and one that survived the holocaust, a very difficult headspace to imagine, much less put down on paper. But he does a good job of it. Enough detail to provide context, just enough violence and gore to help the reader understand Brand/Jossi’s inner conflicts. I concluded that the author is an ally and has spent a lot of time with Jewish people. He also documents in his acknowledgement the amount of research that went into the plot.
The book does not get into the politics of the then but does raise questions about the politics of the now which I won’t get into because I am not Jewish, Israeli or Palestinian. It provides an awful look into the behavior of the British who had not yet started relinquishing the colonies – violating Holocaust survivors two years after their rescue from the Nazis and denying those same refugees entry while at the same time abusing the Palestinians – oh what a party. There are further glimpses into Brand’s past which are poignant but not sentimental, as he lives with his own guilt and the ghosts of the people who did not survive. I wish O’Nan wrote something besides suspense as he has quite a gift for conveying the suffering of the human condition in very few words.
laurensalisbury's review against another edition
1.0
I think I'm going to have to accept that O'Nan isn't for me. This attempt at a political historical thriller was too boring to make it through. I found myself skimming, waiting for Brand to get his crap together so I could give a damn about him. I gave up this quest about 80 pages in.
beyond3va's review against another edition
4.0
When I first started the book I had no clue what it was about and the real life historical background. Really enjoyed the writing and the history lesson! Great read, short but engaging!
zzzrevel's review against another edition
4.0
I am always interested in World War II books (fiction and non-) so this book was fascinating, albeit it is Post-WWII. The novel tells a story that has some based-on-true events depicted which I had not previously known about the Jewish-led rebels inside Palestine. Very interesting reading and intriguing plot, and somewhat of a love story to boot.
mslaura's review against another edition
4.0
Ratings (1 to 5)
Writing: 4.5
Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Emotional impact: 3.5
Overall rating: 4
Writing: 4.5
Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Emotional impact: 3.5
Overall rating: 4
middle_name_joy's review against another edition
2.0
After the fabulous [b:Last Night at the Lobster|673915|Last Night at the Lobster|Stewart O'Nan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442939054s/673915.jpg|2248501], I was eager for another Stewart O'Nan novel. I chose City of Secrets for the post-WWII Jerusalem setting and the element of Jewish spies. Sounded like a book written especially for me. Alas, CoS fell short of my expectations, retaining O'Nan's sparse, emotions-driven narrative style, but leaving too much context unspoken.
While I know a fair amount on the Zionist movement following WWII, I was not as up to speed on the rebel groups who fought for the Holy Land and raised hell against the British in that time period. Unfortunately, CoS did little to explain the why of action sequences and turncoat suspense. I was often confused, not to what was happening, but what it meant in the bigger picture.
All in all, this was an atmospheric historical fiction novel that could have had a stronger impact if more of the backstory had been fleshed out.
While I know a fair amount on the Zionist movement following WWII, I was not as up to speed on the rebel groups who fought for the Holy Land and raised hell against the British in that time period. Unfortunately, CoS did little to explain the why of action sequences and turncoat suspense. I was often confused, not to what was happening, but what it meant in the bigger picture.
All in all, this was an atmospheric historical fiction novel that could have had a stronger impact if more of the backstory had been fleshed out.