Customer Reviews

Sinai Tapestry

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Edward Whittemore wrote five novels between the years 1974 and 1987. His most important work is the Jerusalem Quartet of which Sinai Tapestry is the first volume. I first read this novel in 1979 or thereabouts and was instantly infatuated by the setting of the novels, the eccentric characters and the unusual writing style of the author. The four books which make up the Quartet treat the reader to a rather bizarre history of the Middle East.

I have re-read all of Whittemore's novels several times over the years and still find them an enjoyable and unusual reading experience. Edward Whittemore has been sadly neglected for many years and has never really received the acclaim he deserves.

Many of the other reviewers of Whittemore's novels on Amazon have bemoaned the fact that these books have been out of print for many years, hard to come by and expensive secondhand. The good news is that all of his books are about to be reissued by Old Earth Books. I have created a web page devoted to Edward Whittemore's life and work....

What can anyone say about a book like this,except that it is too short and ends too quickly for my taste. A wondrous, whirling, spinning dream that takes you into a world that is at once fictional and all to real to anybody with an imagination and the good sense to use it. I've been through numerous copies,( and lent not a few of them out to friends, never to see them again), but that's what a great book like this does, makes the rounds and gives so much to those who have the good fortune to chance upon it. The people who inhabit the world of Strongbow, O'Sullivan Beare,Haj Harun and the rest are so alive with their dreams that they can make a lesser man feel mundane and useless. Edward Whittemore is most definitely one of, if not THE, greatest storytellers of this century. Get this book.

Sinai tapestry is a dream work with very real characters. People driven by strange desires weave their lives together through two thousand years of biblical myth. Contemporory events become the fulfillment of ancient prophecies and obsessions.

I am delighted to find that Edward Whittemore finished the quartet, of which I have only read the first book. As a work of bold imagination it ranks with the best while being far more earthy than Lawrence Durrell's Alexander Quartet. I am disappointed that his books are OOP -- he is vastly under-appreciated.

My belief that most writers would wish to have written this book (or any of the 5 Whittemore novels,) but also that most infinite players (J.P. Carse) would wish to have been a character, no matter how small, in the Sinai Tapestry, is commensurate with my belief in the future of human kind.
There is an abundance of knowledge of the locations, of the people and events.
There is empathy and compassion (a lethal combination).
The absurd and the mundane live side by side, connected with love and humor, and a deep sense of the philosophy of the human condition.
Whittemore has an intelligent, fun and erudite style which flows, yet makes you go back to read the same sentence or paragraph over again.
There are cloying associations of the mystical and the down-to-earth, leaving the reader wondering even after the culmination of each episode.
The characters belong to the events, the events belong to history and to the world, and the world belongs to us, thanks to Edward Whittemore.Jerusalem PokerQuin's Shanghai CircusNile ShadowsJericho Mosaic (The Jerusalem Quartet, Volume 4) Finite and Infinite Games

The books written by Edward Whittemore are not for everyone but his style appeals to me and the humanity in each of the five books are as beautiful as they are heart breaking. It is a shame that this author passed before he could continue writing.

I managed to find the first volume of Whittemore's "Sinai Tapestry" at our local public library. True to form, it has the same weird touch that characterized his first novel (Quin's Shanghai Circus), but lingers more on each of its characters. Whittemore is writing for the long haul, and what may look like a singular book on the surface is obviously only part of the whole. This, I think, is my problem with it. I was so amazed by Quin's Shanghai Circus, that I expected more of the same here. The ingredients are the same; the cake tastes different.

This volume introduces the characters, including: Skanderberg Wallenstein, who discovers the original Bible and a disturbing secret about it, and so decides to write his own; Haj Harun, antiquities dealer who has been alive for over three-thousand years, and sometimes having trouble keeping his centuries straight; O'Sullivan Beare, the umptiumpth son of a poor Irish fisherman, caught up in another war in the Middle East; and Stern, son of Strongbow, who feels it is his destiny to try to build a new world in a land that fiercely resists anything but tradition. Whittemore's trademark method of interweaving the background of his characters while continuing an overall plot puts all these characters in touch with each other, sometimes working together, sometimes at ends.

The details and some sections here are as good as anything I've ever read, but the novel didn't congeal for me, and I was disappointed. Maybe I had expected too much. I'll still finish off the series, as I find the books, but unless the succeeding books somehow cast new light on the first volume, this one was a wash for me.

I first read this book in high school. I thought it was by far the best book I had ever read.

It was full of clever language, oddball characters and beautifully described scenes. It seemed full of mystery; a very gripping read. It had a kind of dark but fierce humor I had never encountered in a book before.

15 years later I tracked a copy down in the local library, eagerly anticipating reading this fine novel again. Left me flat. Insert obvious remark about rivers and stepping into them twice.

And you might wonder if the years have killed my soul, but I assure you they have rather awoken it.

You should find a copy of this book and read it.

Old Earth Books will be reprinting all five of the Whittemore novels. For details Google the web for "Edward Whittemore".