From Publishers Weekly
Telling a story that has been told--and better--many times before, this sweeping novel depicts the evolution of the State of Israel from 1912 until the present through the activities of the aristocratic, matriarchial and politically diverse Danziger family. Deborah, Tamar and Raphael Danziger found NILI, a group of young Jewish Zionists who aid the British against the Turks during WW I. Despised by both Jews and Arabs because their activities cause vicious Turkish reprisals, the group eventually is betrayed and Tamar commits suicide. Her son Gidonsp ok , fathered by an enigmatic Englishman whose character is modeled on T. E. Lawrence, continues the struggle for a homeland in his own violent way and further divides the family, now headed by Deborah. Becoming increasingly glib, the book begins to unravel with the proliferation of the Danziger clan and their myriad acquaintances, many of whom are stock characters who exist simply to expound a point of view. The author of Somebody Please Love Me has hardly written an even-handed Middle Eastern history. Yet despite the novel's flaws, she graphically illustrates that the dream for a homeland is exacting a terrible toll.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Not so much about people as about a people's struggle for a homeland, this lengthy family saga focuses on the Danzigers, settlers in pre-World War I Palestine. Tamar, fair, headstrong, and patriotic, dies heroically, forming the basis of family tradition. Raphael, organizer of the underground network NILI, is murdered for political reasons. Only youngest sister Deborah carries on the family's dream of a Jewish homeland, becoming matriarch of a large clan actively involved in Israel's struggle. The narrative is at first stilted, the characters stiff, as the author ( Double Standards, LJ 9/1/81; Somebody Please Love Me, Doubleday, 1984) hesitates between flaming romance and historical saga, but the story builds, sweeping the reader along. For large public libraries.
- M. J. Simmons, Duluth P.L., Minnesota
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- M. J. Simmons, Duluth P.L., Minnesota
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
