Customer Reviews

Exile (Thorndike Paperback Bestsellers)

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

At one time I was an avid reader of Richard North Patterson's books which I always enjoyed. But it had been some time sinceI picked up one of his books and with thsi in mind I couldn't wait to begin Exile: A Novel. And what an excellent read this turned out to be.

David Wolfe seems to have everything. A good job as a lawyer in San Francisco, engaged to a wonderful woman, he also is being slated to run for Congress. But with one phone call that about to all change. Thirteen years before, Hana Arif a Palestinian woman studying in the United States, met David at Harvard where he was a law student. They had a love affair for several months but she returned to the Middle East against David's protests and married a fellow Palestinian. Now her phone call to David is to say she is visiting the states with her husband and their 12 year old daughter. When she asks David to meet them for lunch, he is hesitant realizing his former feelings for Hana. A few days after David hears from her, the Prime Minister of Israel is assassinated while he is visiting San Francisco. And all fingers point to Hana as the woman who masterminded this assassination. When Hana is arrested for the murder, she asks David to defend her. But David a Jew while thinking about Hana must decide if he will risk everything to defend her or if he is willing to let somebody else do this and possibly fail.

This was an excellent novel which doesn't take sides, but tries to explain the plight of both the Jews and the Palestinians. Two people who feel that Israel belongs to them and with little hope of settling this in the near future. The author offers novel while filled with suspense also offer readers a view of both sides and the difficulties of this living in Israel and those who are exiles from this country. I highly recommend this book.

The middle east conflict is, in my opinion, the hardest problem facing humanity in the whole world. Understanding all the nuances, from both sides could be a major academic undertaking. Getting perspectives from key, leading figures could require incredible access for interviews and a huge amount of research and reading.

Richard North Patterson takes all the boring, grunt work out of this and turns the process into a gripping read with great characters. He's done way more than basic homework, more like a dissertation, but being a great novelist, he's weaved in an education on the middle east conflict that not only provides a satisfying stimulating, stay up until you drop in the middle of the night read, but also a serious education.

My Kudos to Patterson for doing more than just writing a brilliant novel. This book could contribute to progress towards peace.

Some years ago, my wife and I were dining with an Israeli couple in Haifa. We were discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Finally the Israeli man said: "You Americans think all problems have a solution. This one doesn't." Richard North Patterson has written a splendid book that uses the story of a Palestinian woman accused of complicity in the assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister and defended by her Jewish former lover to create an even-handed compassion for both sides of the bitter tribal conflict. Once hooked on the legal thriller aspect of the story. we avidly follow the lawyer's dangerous exploration of the conspiracy wherever it might lead. It takes us to Israel, to the West Bank, and to Lebanon where we meet a variety of people who have been touched and wounded by the conflict in a variety of ways. The legal theatics are gripping, as they always are in a Patterson novel, but this time the deeper impact of making this journey is a more profound empathy for the people caught up in this tragic situation in which everyone, according to their own lights, is right . For this book, 5 stars is not enough. I recommend it to you with all my heart.

This is an excellent mystery, filled with suspense while at the same time giving the reader a view of the complexity of the emotions and views of all sides of the Israeli Palestinian conflicts. The authors descriptions and detail made me feel as if I too had visited Israel and all of the places his character traveled to. The arguments and views of all sides were impressive and believable. This story opens a lot of thought for the reader to explore further. The history and the past was well researched.

This book is long and offers a lot of details. Some may not enjoy this much detail, I personally did, as I felt it necessary to the story.

I cannot see where a Jew, Arab, or a Palestinian would feel in any way slighted by this book, as it appeared to be fair of all sides.

Of course this is a novel. As a mystery, it is well written, well researched and one I found difficult to put down once I started.

I highly recommend this novel to anyone who loves reading.

There was once a time when Richard North Patterson wrote straight thrillers and was one of the better at them. In recent times, however, his books have turned much more political, focusing on hot button topics like abortion, gun control and the death penalty. Exile continues with this trend, with a story about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Patterson's books may be getting more controversial, but they're not necessarily getting better.

The protagonist in Exile is David Wolfe, a secular Jewish lawyer in San Francisco who seems to have it all: he's successful, he is about to marry a beautiful woman who he loves (and who is more devoutly Jewish) and he's about to embark on the political career that he's aspired to. Into this ideal life pops an old lover from his college days: Hana Arif, a Palestinian. Their star-crossed romance ended because of her arranged marriage to Saeb, a Muslim with rather extreme views. Hana is in the United States along with her husband and daughter, speaking out against Israeli policy.

A terrorist attack in San Francisco kills the visiting Israeli Prime Minister and Hana is implicated through hearsay and circumstantial evidence. Despite his better judgment, David becomes her lawyer, destroying his political career and threatening his engagement. The case involves a possibly large conspiracy, and David will eventually need to travel to Israel to seek important evidence.

Compared with his other recent books in which Patterson definitely supports a particular viewpoint, his treatment of this conflict is much more evenhanded, which is sure to anger people on both sides. I can live with politically slanted stories - even if I don't agree with the politics - but the stories need to actually be good. While I agree with a lot of what Patterson says, this novel is just average.

It seems Patterson is more interested in lecturing than in entertaining. From a storytelling standpoint, this book has issues, with the foremost being the relationship between David and Hana. I never really understood why the two of them were so deeply in love; their conversations seem to only focus on Israeli-Palestinian issues (which they do not fully agree on) and I could never see where they emotionally linked. Lust, I could see, but not love. In addition, Patterson gives us a plot twist towards the end of the book; sadly, most readers will have figured it out long before David, and it's implausible that David would not have even guessed the possibility of this twist long before he actually did.

The biggest problem, however, is that this book feels more like an educational piece that is told in story form to make it easier to take. That is, I felt that the plot was almost incidental. For a book that tops 700 pages (in paperback), that's asking a lot of the reader, and my patience was tried more than once. Patterson has enough skill to make Exile passable, but this is not a good book. If you're a Patterson fan, this one is a disappointment.

This is an important book for the times we live in. Patterson deftly examines the Palestinian vs. Israeli problem with great skill and seemingly unbiased reporting. Both sides are portrayed with great emphasis on the violence and futility suffered by both sides. As with Patterson's novels on abortion and gun control, this novel takes a very difficult topic and renders it infinitely readable and understandable for everyone. I always anticipate Patterson's novels and this was well worth the wait. REaders will certainly benefit from this portrayal of both sides of a seemingly hopeless struggle.

The most amazing element contained in EXILE is the depth of historical and political detail. Richard North Patterson has created a very realistic plot, using Arab, Israeli, Iranian and American cultural, religious and political anomalies at the core.

David Wolfe is a successful San Francisco attorney and a Harvard Law School graduate. He is engaged to be married and has the potential to be the first Jewish-American president. Life holds great promise for David until he answers a phone call from Hana Arif, his old college sweetheart. Hana has many aspects to her character: she's a Muslim, a college professor, a wife, the mother of 13-year-old Munira --- and the keeper of a great secret.

When Israeli Prime Minister Amos Ben-Aron arrives in San Francisco, he attends a dinner in his honor at the home of David's fiancée, Carole Shorr. Ben-Aron was visiting and touring the United States to gather support for his Israeli/Palestinian peace initiative.

EXILE reads like a history of Arab/Israeli relations, within the context of the families featured in the book. It is history that is dead-on, with consistent relation to current events, in both global and personal terms. Honor, dedication, heritage, patriotism, blame and martyrdom are represented in great quantity. To me, the most interesting leitmotif was the power and understanding of personal courage and its lack of limits when one is confronted with fighting for their deeply ingrained beliefs. Those beliefs may be political, romantic, paternal, maternal, idealistic or religious.

When Ben-Aron is murdered by a suicide bomber during his stay in San Francisco, Hana is suspected of having inside information. And when her husband Saeb, also a professor from Birzeit University (near Ramallah), cannot provide an acceptable alibi for Hana's whereabouts at the time of the murder of Ben-Aron, Hana is taken into custody. Knowing no one in San Francisco other than David, Hana asks him to help with her defense.

Taking Hana's case has very grave ramifications for David, not just in his personal life with Carole but with his political aspirations as well. Hana had motive, with her anti-Israeli sentiments, and no credible alibi during the time of Ben-Aron's murder. To defend Hana, David travels to Israel to track down leads and meet with Hana's friends and family. He is desperate to exculpate her.

At the end of the day, the U.S. government has only Hana Arif. They have no Israeli conspiracy, no Palestinian splinter groups, no Iraqi involvement --- no one to blame except a woman who has an American education, Arab sentiments and an Arab name.

EXILE will cause you to revisit our civility (or lack thereof), our discriminatory tendencies, our impatience with those unable to speak English, our distrust of cultures foreign to us, and our impassioned disregard for those with whom we have no common thread. If nothing else, EXILE will give you a new perspective.

--- Reviewed by Marge Fletcher

Mr. Patterson's experiences as an attorney shine through in this work and so does his research. I can't say which element is more important, but the combined effect is dynamite! He has tried to balance a difficult and contentious issue that troubles many of us at this point in history. The Middle East is a mind-bending problem. You might just learn to recognize and appreciate more than one point of view and be highly entertained at the same time ... at least that is what happened in my case. Kudos to Mr. Patterson. Highly recommended!

Just finished this fabulous read. It's one of the hardest to put down I've read in years. While it is not written with political bias or purpose, you won't find anything better desribing the dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the personal level. The characters are beautifully developed on both sides, and the plot is non-stop exciting from beginning to end. Further, it is contemporary in content, having been completed following the Israel-Hizbollah war. A must read

In his latest Mr Patterson turns to a subject of vast proportion and of potential contoversy; th Israelian/Palestinian conflict. It is a brave writer who aims at unraveling all the problems and emotions whilst maintaining a balanced view and Patterson succeeds very well.

The story in itself is realtively simple. Mr Wolfe, a Jewish lawyer and congressional candidate is moved out of complacency when he is asked to defend a Palestinina professor accused of masterminding the assasination of the Israelian PM in the USA.

It forces Wolfe to question his own beliefs and loyalties ( his father in law is an Auschwitz survivor and the professor is a college girlfriend)and to explore the roots of the emotional divide between the Israelian and Palestinian people. In some desperation David establishes that there is little the two people have in common except total misunderstanding of each other ( and the land of course). He demonstrates that there is no right or wrong and that everybody is the victim of their own beliefs. The values of the one are not very different frome those of the others but the divide has grown too big over the years to be able to have only the minimum for mutual understanding and compassion.

For readers very familiar with the conflict it is at once enjoyable but also sobering reading; to see all the analysis translated in the day to day life of people.

The only bias Patterson admits to is "that only a two state solution aimed at a secure Israel and a viable Palestine holds anyhope of freeing those peoples from their past.

I read, by sheer incident, this book simultaneously with the controversial Carter book. There is a lot you can see about that book and Caerter, but not that Carter is not a peace seeker. In a way the book carries the same message. Also another source came to the same conclusion

In a recent article in Foreign Affairs the founder of Singapore ( another country that fought long against their neighbours, though not so bloody) concludes "to solve the Israelian-Palestinian conflict there must be two states, one for Israel and one for the Palestinians. But the latter must beviable, one for which peace is worth making. The US should urge Israel to encourage such a Palestinian state to emerge and help it prosper-for the Palestininans will have reason to avoid war if war will destroy the future they are building for themselves.

If this books help the world and, indeed the protagonists to come closer to this solution of reason and compassion it has served a good purpose