Customer Reviews

Jerusalem Poker

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jerusalem Poker deserves to be in Amazon's top 10 sellers list and the only reason that it languishes, instead, at about 315,940 is that no-one knows about it. I wouldn't know about it either if I hadn't happened upon it in a second hand bookshop in about 1983. I count its discovery as one of the most serendipitous literary finds of my life and I regret that its author, Edward Whittemore, is dead and I can't tell him so.
JP is the second in Whittemore's Middle East quartet but can stand (magnificently) alone. While the first book, Sinai Tapestry, introduces some of the characters who make Jerusalem Poker so memorable, it is less accomplished than JP and might not appeal to a reader who has not already been converted to diehard Whittemorism by first reading Jerusalem Poker.
JP tells the stories of three men, Cairo Martyr, Munk Szondi and O'Sullivan Beare, who fetch up in Jerusalem in the aftermath of the First World War and who, in the dank back room of 3000-year old antiquities dealer, Haj Harun, begin a 12-year poker game in which the fate of Jerusalem itself is at stake.
Whittemore's real main character is the city of Jerusalem itself, faithfully defended throughout all the years of its existence by poor gentle old Haj Harun in his faded yellow cloak and rusty Crusader helmet, usually ignored, often reviled and always befuddled about which of Jerusalem's many attackers he is currently facing.
But Jerusalem and Haj Harun are just two of the beguiling characters conjured by Whittemore's inventive and original mind. Szondi, Martyr and O'Sullivan Beare, and a host of minor players, some weird, some mad, all memorable, career through history, adventure, misadventure, tragedy, love and time to end up somehow entangled in the affairs of the ancient city.
Jerusalem Poker defies synopsis, description or analysis. It is the sort of novel that seizes the reader with the first paragraph and drags them through pages of wonder, humour, pathos and fabulous prose until spitting them out at the end, winded, delighted and doomed to reread it at least several more times.
If you have ever been bemused by the seeming lunacy of Middle Eastern politics, Jerusalem Poker will lead you, sometimes gently, sometimes bloodily and frequently humorously through some of the historical thickets from which the madness arose. Or, if you are the sort of reader who likes to be possessed by a book, to fall in love with its words and cherish its characters and ideas, Jerusalem Poker is the one you've been looking for.

This is an exceptionally clever and broad-ranging book. If you like Pynchon but prefer a slightly more realistic, less-{in love with his own cleverness} style, try this---maybe we can get this back in print.

Jerusalem Poker and Sinai Tapestry are the two best books of the four books which make up the fantastic Jerusalem Quartet. A broad ranging story which spans decades and continents where characters paths intertwine like the fibres of a fine Persian carpet. The novel is centered around a twelve year long poker-game between an arab, a christian, and a jew. Where the stakes are the entire city of Jerusalem.

If you like to read good, no, Great writing, you owe it to yourself to read Whittemore. Get all five of his novels and I assure you that you will not be left wanting.(Except for more.) Unfortunately, we have been robbed by death of this giant of literature. Few can match the epic humanity and scope of Edward Whittemores' characters, places and dreams. He is sorely missed even though relatively few readers have even heard of him. Hopefully the re-release of his books will at least partially remedy this literary injustice.

I woke up this morning thinking of this book, though it must be at least 15 years since I read it. Jerusalem Poker is a wonderful fantasy that brings together an Irish fugative gun-runner, a salesman of mummy dust and a garlic-cruching son of an international banking family in a friendly game of poker, and tells their stories by turn. I suppose the friendliness of the game is as much a fantasy as the rest of the book, which is too bad, but it's nice to indulge such fantasies every now and then.

I purchased Sinai Tapestry and Jerusalem Poker in the news stand of the St George Hotel subway stop in Brooklyn Heights New York over two decades ago.I loaned them out one too many times, and they were eventually lost. These are two of the most memorable and creative tales I have ever read and I have been attempting to re-acquire the books ever since. I am stunned to see that all of E. Whittemore's books are O. O. P. Whatever happened to such a talented writer? He certainly knows how to spin a tale and imprint it on your psyche. After all the years, I can easily visualize many of the scenes Mr Whittemore put to paper, and can't wait to have copies in hand again.

Old Earth Books will be reprinting this and the other four Whittemore novels. Google the web for "Edward Whittemore".

Jerusalem, the historic and holy city, is always a draw. So when I heard of this series of obscure but supposedly literary novels focused on the city, I decided to give it a try. The first one, Sinai Tapestries, was amusing. I figured the second one, Jerusalem Poker, would get better. It didn't. Boring and repetative. How many times can the author milk the same conceits, phrases and stereotypical characters? Too many times for me.