Customer Reviews

Damascus Gate

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(33)

 

 

The range of evaluations for this book in the customer reviews is all the way from one star to five. Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Robert Stone's Damascus Gate, I have to wonder why the numerous one and two star reviews. The most frequent criticisms are ones that are quite true: the book is long on description, it is very complex, there are a lot of characters and much of the situation in which the plot unfolds must be inferred since the author doesn't spell it out for us.

Nevertheless, the writing is brilliant. This is a book for people who love reading; not for people who simply want a good story with familiar characters and a predictable conclusion. Stone spends a lot of time in this book really setting the stage before the plot is even unwound. To readers who are impatient to 'get on with the story', this approach is going to be frustrating. But to readers who appreciate what Stone does with language and can revel in the images created, this part of the book is a pleasure in itself.

I would not recommend this book to everyone. It does require more effort and concentration than a typical thriller (just as Le Carre does) and the pleasures derived from the character and plot presuppose a reader more in tune with Graham Greene than with Grisham. The author wants us to think long and hard about what we are reading and he has done an admirable job of creating a scenario where all the forces that have made the middle east a consistently unstable place are shown coming together in the crisis situation the plot leads to. I found this book very satisfying.

You have to wonder about a book that features no fewer than 47 recommendations spread over 6 pages and the front and back covers. Daphne Merkin (The New Yorker) states that this is "[t]he definitive book about Israel," and other reviewers are no less ecstatic. I found Damascus Gate to be a good book, with significant strengths and weaknesses. It was the quality (and quantity) of the reviews, however, that prompted me to write this comment of my own.

Another recent author who has written about Israel, Herman Wouk, has his narrator in Inside, Outside (Avon, 1987) make the following point: "That is an absolute literary gold mine, alienation." This, I believe, goes a long way towards explaining the reception of DG among its enthusiastic middle- and high-brow critics. DG is really the definitive book, not of Israel but of alienation.

The main protagonist is a detached Catholic/Jewish writer, the product of an illegitimate union, who fervently wants a faith he cannot himself embrace. Lucas, alternately admitting and denying his identity, suffers from physical alienation as well: he is largely impotent (although cured by a good woman, thank you for asking). Stone also invests him with a fashionable drinking habit and a mysterious source of income.

How can any reviewer with intellectual pretensions not fall in love with Lucas? He is a tortured soul enjoying a pleasant bohemian lifestyle in interesting surroundings. This was my college fantasy as well. Stone sets the mood for this wonderfully: the pages are littered with erudite expressions in Latin, Hebrew and Arabic; there are references to Noam Chomsky, Fats Waller, the Zohar, Miles Davis, Sufism and "the Jew-despising [T.S.] Eliot" (p. 136). It makes you want to congratulate yourself for that humanities degree you took.

There are two primary problems with DG. First, for a "thriller" it is surprisingly slow ("turgid" would be another description). The book only picks up about half way through (our first dead body - and not a very interesting one - appears at p. 177), and only a critic of literary fiction, who presumably does not ordinarily read actual thrillers, would be surprised by the ending.

The second problem is more serious, and is the flatness of the characterization. All Stone's characters sounded much the same to me, even Sonia, who is female, one half African-American and a sufi. Apart from a few cursory efforts by Stone to imbue her language with "color," Sonia's speech is much like that of Lucas, or any other character.

Stone's tin ear tends to eliminate any depth of character, and perhaps the most damning criticism of DG is that, when the book offers "study questions" about what Sonia (Q 15) and Lucas (Q 19) will do after the conclusion of the story, I could no more imagine them doing anything than I could imagine puppets at the end of a show reaching up to cut their strings and running off to lead productive lives in journalism and international humanitarian relief.

Having made these criticisms, I should mention also that DG has some excellent moments: Lucas running from an enraged mob in the Gaza Strip; a gathering of savior and disciples, who make their final "preparations" before entering Jerusalem; and the rumored appearance of Salman Rushdie at a riot in the City.

Stone is at his best when narrating a rapid series of events. Leave him alone with a character's thoughts, however, such as those of Lucas after he spends an unintended vigil at the Holy Sepulchre, and you get the awful dreck found at pages 295-296. At his worst moments, Stone seems to disappear up his own pyge (erudite, eh?), rather like the ouroboros symbol/metaphor that appears throughout DG.

I appreciate novels which have ideas and make me consider the validity of my world-view. Stone is not a favorite of mine, but this is a novel of such profound beauty that I can't find the words to describe it. I hope those who look for meaningful, richly textured novels as a source of personal joy will give this book a chance.

A really great book on the nature of faith and a darn good thriller as well. Difficult subject, but this is one heck of a writer. I liked it so much I returned to it for a second reading. One of the most interesting novels you'll read, _if_ you like to think.

I agree with the reader who found his hope for the American novel renewed by this book. Robert Stone is a unique, powerful presence in literature and this is a wonderful book of the human spirt. The search for meaning, set against the backdrop of the Holy Land at millennial's eve, is a Stone triumph. The elements of mystery and thriller simply add to the novel's power. Not an easy read, so I understand some of the reaction to it, but it remains unforgettable and worth the effort.

Getting close to page 150, I put the book aside in exasperation. I'd just finished reading an almost page-long description of a room that wasn't entered -- a room that was, evidently, irrelevant to the story (was there any relevance to the Holman Hunt reference?) -- followed by a description of the clothing of a guy in another room ("A man in an ugly brown lightweight suit, wearing a tie the color of faded broccoli pizza..." ) who then said "Hi there, fella." Faded broccoli pizza? I'd grown tired of the lengthy descriptions, the pointless dialog, the meandering plot (actually, there may have been no plot -- the "meandering" was probably due to my effort seek order in chaos), the blizzard of characters introduced (then left behind) for no apparent reason. But, most of all, I was annoyed by the passing references and especially by the italicized non-English words on almost every page, a literary device used to make those in the know feel smug and knowledgable, and the rest of us feel awestruck at the author's erudition (by the way, I'm familiar with both Holman Hunt and "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" (not "...Louis Napoleon," as the author has it) -- Ha! so there!).

Fortunately, I picked the book up again and eventually discovered a fine novel, with an interesting plot, great pacing, and excellent writing. One scene, an execution, is among the best fiction passages I've ever read -- absolutely rivetting. Anyone who enjoys snappy dialog, deep plots, realistic settings (however, I've never been to Israel, so I take no sides on the "realistic/ not" debate over this book (although I don't believe that riots in Israel are as ubiquitous as they appear in "Damascus Gate")), and mysteries to unravel will enjoy this book, as long as you can hurdle two major obstacles: (1) Not one of the characters in the book is sympathetic: They are all jerks, imbeciles, egomaniacs, or a combination of the three; (2) This would be an outstanding 200 to 300 page novel -- unfortunately, it is 500 pages, so there's a lot of stuff to wade through. Perhaps a tougher editor could have removed most of the first 200 pages.

I've never read a Robert Stone novel before this, so I can't place this in context of his other work. I get the impression that Stone had a fine, perhaps great, novel in hand, and tried to take it to another level. That attempt was not successful.

In my edition (the 1st paperback?) there is a map at the front where the white/gray/black overlay of Israel and the surrounding area is the mirror image of the text (with, e.g., city names), making the map difficult to read. I'm afraid that the editors' attention to the map (obviously, none) reflects their attention to the text. It's too bad.

I guess I'm also left wondering what the NBA nominators were thinking. Yeah, this is a fine book, and I'd recommend it to my friends, given the caveats above, but...

"I thought it was pretty bad," he said airly. "How could you?" she asked drily. "I don't know. Maybe the novel had too much 'schmeiihuqie,'" he said, referring to the Babylonian god of pretentiousness. "Didn't you read the reviews? All those smart people couldn't be schlemiels," she said. "Perhaps it was trahison des clercs," he said, realizing he was in love with her. "I think I need a Prozac."

A quite beautiful novel, written with a style and grace most authors only dream of. The story of the search for spiritual meaning is moving and the thriller aspects very exciting. Stone is a sophisticated author who challenges one's mind and richly rewards the reader. Especially in this, one of his finest novels yet.

A novel of such power, intelligence, and beauty that words fail to convey my reaction. Unforgettable characters and atmosphere. The depiction of the Holy Land is beautifully accurate. One of the most moving novels I've read, from the pen of a true master.

I have to admit I am flabbergasted, no: stultified, by some of the reviews of this book (and of some other books on this site, as well). Robert Stone is one of our five or six greatest living American authors (DeLillo, of course; I was going to say William Gaddis, but he, of course, is no longer with us; Cormac McCarthy; Denis Johnson...). This book is difficult, it is not easy, its dialogue and even its narrative structure are heightened and reach pitches of hallucinatory intensity, then slow down (or speed up even further) and let the characters talk to one another the way I hear people talking or trying to talk to one another all day long. Who talks like this, another reviewer asked. I'll tell you -- almost everyone around you every moment of every single day -- the problem is, most people nowadays won't listen, even to their own inner thought processes. The problem is, everyone expects dialogue in a novel to replicate the lobotomized rhythms of a television show. Robert Stone not only writes like a poet in terms of the intensity of his language and the facility of its movement and the power and depth of his imagery, but he also is one of the few working novelists out there labeled brilliant who know how to construct an old-fashioned plot (and I mean old-fashioned in the sense that it can contain anything and make sense -- by the end). The man can just plain flat-out write, and if people don't want to work hard at their art, then they should be quiet and turn on the television. The most difficult pleasures present us with the most difficulties, but they are the most rewarding. Easy pleasures are, well, they're all around us, and that's why no one is happy. We think we're fulfilling ourselves, when we're just letting ourselves off the hook. Robert Stone, I'm not embarrassed to say this (though I'm sure you'll never read this -- why would you?): I WANT TO WRITE LIKE YOU. Not imitatively, but with your spirit, restless questioning, your soul-expanding and mind-boggling sinuousness. Thanks for making me take a closer at myself, my own life, the way I'm living it, and the world around me. Everyone interested in humanity should read this book.