I'm looking for good, English-language fiction that's set
in Israel or on Israeli themes. Any suggestions? I'm not
looking especially for ancient kingdom stuff, although if
you have something really spectacular, let me know anyway;
otherwise, it's the modern country I'm interested in. Please,
so other people don't get mad at me, answer by e-mail in-
stead of posting; the crossposts are going to get too weird
otherwise. My e-mail address is: r...@quads.uchicago.edu. I
don't think it's the same one as the 'r' command will give
you; be forewarned.

Thanks, everyone!

        -Nora Rivkis

Amos Oz is about the most famous present Israeli writer.
Try _A Perfect Peace_.
--
Self-righteousness has killed more people than smoking.

John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305

r...@ellis.uchicago.edu (nora gayle rivkis) writes:

  Are works in translation acceptable?  If so, there's one really safe bet,
  with long-term staying power, good narrative flow, and a really interesting
  cast of characters.  First-class writing throughout.  Starts strong, too:
  "In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth..."

  Cheers, Tim Bray, Open Text Systems

        Which translation?

        I found that the two sections went together poorly. I
enjoyed the first section more, despite the apparent lack of
plot, since the activities of one obscure rabble-rouser was
not, to me, as interesting as an account of the real movers & shakers
in Roman-occupied Judea would have been. That's not a valid
complaint, I know (That an author chose not to write a book).

        I couldn't find fault with the Romans. 'Render unto Caesar
what is Caesar's' sounds like a typical leftist call for violence.

        Is this one of the first 'shared world' anthologies?
When is the third section due? Revelations was pretty clearly
an excuse for a sequel, even if it did claim there wouldn't
be one.

        On the whole, I prefer the version without the later
book pasted on.

                                                James Nicoll

In article 9...@watdragon.waterloo.edu, jdnic...@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (James Davis Nicoll writes:

Yeah, I'm usually that way about sequels, too.

Seriously, though. Here are some selections:

        "Mila 18"             Leon Uris
        "Exodus"              Leon Uris
        "The Source"          James A. Michener
        "Cast A Giant Shadow" Edna Ferber (?)
        "Rambo IV"            (couldn't resist :->)

      Jonathan B. Horen | Tel: (415) 856-8000 | If Karen Carpenter and Mama
    TechWriter/SysAdmin | FAX: (415) 941-8943 | Cass had only shared that
   Renaissance Software | email: ho...@rs.com | ham sandwich, they would
175 S. San Antonio Road | Los Altos, CA 94022 | both be alive today.

Nice suggestion, but Nora was looking for fiction, and what you're
suggesting is definitely non-fiction.

Paul Ward
--
Paul A.S. Ward                         |
Dept of Elec. and Comp. Eng            |    Space available for
University of Waterloo                 |          Rent.
w...@vlsi.waterloo.edu                 |

Also A.B.Yehoshua, a brilliant Isreali writer with shades of Faulkner.

I said I preferred things set in the modern state. And if you don't
get flamed for calling it fiction, I'll be rather surprised. But a
nice comment.

        -Nora RIvkis

        >I'm looking for good, English-language fiction that's set
        >in Israel or on Israeli themes. Any suggestions?

Would Leon Uris' "Exodus" be too obvious?

William Smith
Tek     Wilsonville

                         ^^^^

Given the criterion of "good", _Exodus_ would be obviously ... wrong.
I'm still not sure, after all these years, what it takes to make a good
historical novel, but I know Leon Uris hasn't got it.

Also: This may sound odd, as I have loudly disparaged Michener in the past,
but you might try _The Source_. Of course, it's a good 25 years out of
date.

--
    "Life is short; mess about."              -- Witold Rybczynski

     ...!cs.utexas.edu!ccwf!jzimm

->In article <11...@pogo.WV.TEK.COM> willi...@pogo.WV.TEK.COM (William Smith) writes:
->
->>       >I'm looking for good, English-language fiction that's set
->                         ^^^^
->>       >in Israel or on Israeli themes. Any suggestions?
->
->>Would Leon Uris' "Exodus" be too obvious?
->
->Given the criterion of "good", _Exodus_ would be obviously ... wrong.
->I'm still not sure, after all these years, what it takes to make a good
->historical novel, but I know Leon Uris hasn't got it.
->
->Also: This may sound odd, as I have loudly disparaged Michener in the past,
->but you might try _The Source_. Of course, it's a good 25 years out of
->date.
->
->
->--
->    "Life is short; mess about."              -- Witold Rybczynski
->
->     ...!cs.utexas.edu!ccwf!jzimm

As a child, I found "Exodus" very exciting, and "The Source" rather boring.
As an adult, I might change my mind if I reread them, and I am of course
ignoring any historical accuracy of the plots.

Then again, I liked "Azeet, the Paratrooper Dog" when I was a kid also,
so you might want to ignore me.

Brian Sutin                             su...@helios.ucsc.edu
Lick Observatory, UCSC                  Santa Cruz, CA 95064

I 'll add a few:
"The Book of Abraham" Marek Halter
"The Children of Abraham" Marek Halter (sequel)
"Oh, Jerusalem" Collins and LaPierre
"The Menorah Men" Currently Forgotten

There are also, in English, some really nice biographies of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda,
Sarah AAronson (NILI) that border on fiction as to their detail and probable
accuracy.

I will look at home for more titles.
--
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|      Ben Pashkoff                 B...@VMSA.TECHNION.AC.IL            |
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