A Palestine Affair: A Novel [Hardcover]

Jonathan Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2003

This swift and sensual novel of passion and politics transports us to British Palestine, where the Arabs, the British, and the Jews mingle in a scene of colonial excess and unease. It is 1924, and Mark Bloomberg, a disillusioned London painter, arrives in Jerusalem to take up a propaganda commission. When he and his American wife, Joyce, accidentally witness the murder of a prominent Orthodox Jew near their cottage, they become embroiled in an investigation that will test their marriage and their characters. Joyce, an ardent Zionist, is pulled into an affair with Robert Kirsch, the British policeman investigating the case, while Bloomberg, transfixed by the desert light, attempts to capture on canvas the complex, shifting truths of the region.

Like Kirsch, whose brother was killed in France in 1918, all of the characters here have come to Palestine to escape the grief of the First World War, and are forced to confront their principles and their hearts in the midst of a culture in the throes of painful emergence.

Lushly detailed and compellingly cinematic, A Palestine Affair illuminates a lesser-known aspect of the history of the Middle East as it tells a powerful story in which love proves to be, ultimately, a force as strong as politics.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This tightly knit novel of political intrigue and romance by Wilson (Schoom) is set in 1924 in Palestine under the British mandate. English Jewish painter Mark Bloomberg has left London (where he was besieged by terrible reviews) for Jerusalem, hired by a Zionist organization to produce paintings of "Life Under Reconstruction Conditions. Progress. Enterprise. Development." He's there with his American wife, Joyce, a Protestant socialite who is more enthusiastic about Zionism than he is. At the opening of the novel, a man staggers into Mark's home and dies in his arms from a stab wound and recent beating. He's dressed-mysteriously-as an Arab, but is actually an Orthodox Jew, Jacob De Groot, a thorn in the side of the Zionists for his agitation against the formation of a Jewish state. His murder is investigated by Robert Kirsch, a 24-year-old British police captain who, like Mark, is a secular Jew, and the British governor, Sir Gerald Ross. Their main suspect is a 16-year-old Arab boy named Saud. Gerald doesn't know if he's guilty, but he's sure that if his case is publicized there will be riots. To prevent this, Ross commissions Mark to paint ancient structures in Jordan and sends Saud with him. There, Mark does his own detective work on the De Groot murder, and comes to a different conclusion. While Mark is away, Robert stumbles into an affair with Joyce, whose relationship with her husband is unraveling. The book has a deliberately inconclusive ending, but throughout Wilson draws a vivid picture of Jerusalem and its soon-to-become vicious political rivalries. Wilson is exceptionally attuned to the range of opinion and complex sense of identity of the Jews living in Palestine, as well as the subtle but potentially explosive tension that characterizes everyday interactions under colonial occupation.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

It is 1924 and the Zionist movement is beginning to gain momentum. Tensions run high between Jews and Palestinians and between Zionist and Orthodox Jews, and none of the groups quite trust the British, who have a mandate to rule the area. To this intrigue Wilson [The Hiding Room (1995)] has added the usual ingredients of a first-rate thriller-murder and gun-running as well as the introspective themes of a middle-aged artist whose career and marriage are on the down slope, his wife's own search for an "identity," and her lover's coming to terms with his. The result is that the book is not quite a mystery and not quite a thriller, but a period piece in which the historical moment is thoroughly saturated by the human element. The plot suffers a bit in that some of the characters you expect to play greater roles in the story don't, and some of the subplots just fizzle out. Still, the main story, with its theme of loyalty versus betrayal, is well written and carries the novel. Frank Caso
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; 1 edition (May 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375422099
• ISBN-13: 978-0375422096
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,503,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Romance, politics and murder in the Middle East, August 14, 2003

By 

M. J Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Palestine Affair: A Novel (Hardcover)

Talk about a fast paced read! I got so involved in this novel I read it in almost one day! The Palestine Affair is an immensely fast and enjoyable novel, and also very British in its form and content. This isn't that surprising, since Jonathan Wilson was born and educated in England. In fact, the style and setting reminded me of Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky, with the theme of strangers trying to come to terms with being in a strange and foreign land. And like the Sheltering Sky, The Palestine Affair is a tightly plotted, gorgeously written, and sophisticated saga, which uses the immense beauty of the Middle East to startling effect. The struggles of the three main protagonists of the story - Joyce, her lover Robert and her husband Mark Bloomberg - are portrayed with a deft understanding, emotion and compassion. The only problems I had with the story was that I didn't quite believe the fact that Joyce, a nineteen twenties girl, would so readily enter into an affair with Robert, while she still seemed so devoted and committed to her husband. And I also felt that some of the supporting characters tended to fall into stock stereotypes, and they weren't developed as well the three main characters.

Despite this though, The Palestine affair, is still an interesting and exciting mixture of three part love affair, espionage thriller, and murder mystery, using the history of Jews, Arabs and the English occupation of Palestine as a vivid backdrop - there is no doubt that Wilson has an immense passion and cultural understanding of this part of the world and it shows in his work. And like the artist Mark Bloomberg, Wilson writes as though he is painting a scene, and he really succeeds in bringing the sounds, smells and gorgeous visual imagery of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas to life, just Mark tries to do in his paintings. Some of the descriptions of the desert are stunning, lushly detailed and incredibly cinematic - just beautiful to read.

This story also does a good job in evoking the kinds of troubles and religious conflicts that were facing Palestine at the time of the British occupation, and it does a fine job showing the "culture clash" between the Jews, Arabs and the occupying British, and the British's almost flippant attitude towards the different cultures of the area. You can see how many of today's troubles between the Israelis and the Palestinians have been festering for years and also how they both seemed to seethe under British rule. If you really want to have a cultural escape and by educated about this part of the world, you should read this book. But The Palestine Affair also works as a good, solid piece of work and a first rate literary thriller.

Michael

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars First rate beginning that slows down, July 11, 2003

By 

Thomas W Cooney (Berkeley, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Palestine Affair: A Novel (Hardcover)

I would actually give this novel 3 1/2 stars. The first 50 pages are commanding, making this reader think of Graham Greene on one page and Lawrence Durrell on another. However, some of the writing in the second half seems too au courant in lingo and pacing. Some jarring point of view switches and a rushed conclusion cause this strong novel to miss its initial ascent into the upper echelon.

A good read nonetheless.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Going Beneath the Surface, September 20, 2003

By 

Bill Pieper, author of the novel WHAT YOU WIS... (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Palestine Affair: A Novel (Hardcover)

While Jay Gatsby and Scott Fizgerald partied, 1920s Jerusalem saw very serious people indeed setting the stage for all that followed in birthing Israel from a reluctant Palestine. Bringing alive the days of the British Mandate after WW1, this love story cum suspense drama really delivers -- sex, loss and betrayal,as well as the little known beginnings of modern terrorism in the Middle East.