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Title: confusing with a cast like "War & Peace," yet nteresting
Review: Having lived in Jerusalem as well as in Palestine and Israel, I am astounded at the detailed and intimate knowledge the author has of Israel, and of the the religious fanaticisms ruling that place and its time. Jerusalem today feels like South Africa in the days of Apartheid, with everyone hating everybody.The most surprising evocation was Robert Stone's use of the term "Paskudniak," a Russian pejorat- ive, long out-of-usage, used in this case in the setting of a cafe for old time leftists in Jafo. It was a chiascoro illumination of a vaguely remembered landscape.Even with its impossible large cast, none of which them filled out in depth, the book held me spell- bound, mostly because it triggered so may faded memories.
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