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Better Together
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
A Little Too Close to God is a candid, funny, passionate, and deeply personal portrait of present-day Israel. David Horovitz, an English journalist who emigrated to Israel in 1983, now faces the painful question of whether to stay in his chosen country, where, he writes, "I care about what's happening with a passion that simply doesn't apply anywhere else," or to raise his three children in a safer, saner place. Horovitz deftly weaves personal concerns with political analysis. He is a liberal and a committed supporter of peace with the Palestinians, but his book also accounts for the most convincing arguments against reconciliation--arguments conveyed lightly, through family anecdotes about his relationships with a brother-in-law in the West Bank and an Orthodox cousin. No one will finish A Little Too Close to God with any doubt about where Horovitz stands regarding Israeli politics, however. His book is, finally, a strong attack on the idea that Israel is invincible. He sees a great deal of violence and moral failure in his society (at one political rally: "I felt as if I were among wild animals, vicious, angry predators craving flesh and scenting blood."). He sees so much of this sort of thing that he cannot believe that Israel can afford to do anything but compromise. --Michael Joseph Gross
From Publishers Weekly
The editor of the Jerusalem Report (an English-language news magazine published in Israel), Horovitz is at his best when describing his mixed feelings about raising his family in the Israeli cauldron. Indeed, one of the most moving parts of this book is the introductory chapter, as Horovitz--who immigrated to Israel from Britain in the early 1980s, soon after high school--describes his reaction to hearing that terrorists had bombed one of his favorite lunch spots a day after he ate there with friends. He is in touch with the strong sense of community--what he calls the "cocoon"--that keeps his family from leaving the country. With the help of his keen journalistic eye and a witty writing style, he concentrates on the pressures that persistently pervade the cocoon. These pressures affect day-to-day decisions, sometimes in seemingly absurd ways: Horovitz describes how he and his wife have told their children how to respond in case terrorism occurs near them. Horovitz devotes much of the book to the difficulties of the stumbling peace process--which he and his wife strongly support--and on the increasing fragmentation of Israeli society as epitomized by the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. As the book's title implies, Horovitz, a liberal, secular Jew, has little stomach for the views of Israel's hard-liners, who oppose territorial compromise with its Arab neighbors. But while partisan, the book is no polemic. With the help of an Orthodox cousin and a brother-in-law who lives in the West Bank, Horovitz lays out the arguments for and against reconciliation with the Arab world. He's managed to write an engaging book that introduces the reader to the personal struggles emanating from the conflict in the Middle East. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
A Little Too Close to God is a candid, funny, passionate, and deeply personal portrait of present-day Israel. David Horovitz, an English journalist who emigrated to Israel in 1983, now faces the painful question of whether to stay in his chosen country, where, he writes, "I care about what's happening with a passion that simply doesn't apply anywhere else," or to raise his three children in a safer, saner place. Horovitz deftly weaves personal concerns with political analysis. He is a liberal and a committed supporter of peace with the Palestinians, but his book also accounts for the most convincing arguments against reconciliation--arguments conveyed lightly, through family anecdotes about his relationships with a brother-in-law in the West Bank and an Orthodox cousin. No one will finish A Little Too Close to God with any doubt about where Horovitz stands regarding Israeli politics, however. His book is, finally, a strong attack on the idea that Israel is invincible. He sees a great deal of violence and moral failure in his society (at one political rally: "I felt as if I were among wild animals, vicious, angry predators craving flesh and scenting blood."). He sees so much of this sort of thing that he cannot believe that Israel can afford to do anything but compromise. --Michael Joseph Gross
From Publishers Weekly
The editor of the Jerusalem Report (an English-language news magazine published in Israel), Horovitz is at his best when describing his mixed feelings about raising his family in the Israeli cauldron. Indeed, one of the most moving parts of this book is the introductory chapter, as Horovitz--who immigrated to Israel from Britain in the early 1980s, soon after high school--describes his reaction to hearing that terrorists had bombed one of his favorite lunch spots a day after he ate there with friends. He is in touch with the strong sense of community--what he calls the "cocoon"--that keeps his family from leaving the country. With the help of his keen journalistic eye and a witty writing style, he concentrates on the pressures that persistently pervade the cocoon. These pressures affect day-to-day decisions, sometimes in seemingly absurd ways: Horovitz describes how he and his wife have told their children how to respond in case terrorism occurs near them. Horovitz devotes much of the book to the difficulties of the stumbling peace process--which he and his wife strongly support--and on the increasing fragmentation of Israeli society as epitomized by the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. As the book's title implies, Horovitz, a liberal, secular Jew, has little stomach for the views of Israel's hard-liners, who oppose territorial compromise with its Arab neighbors. But while partisan, the book is no polemic. With the help of an Orthodox cousin and a brother-in-law who lives in the West Bank, Horovitz lays out the arguments for and against reconciliation with the Arab world. He's managed to write an engaging book that introduces the reader to the personal struggles emanating from the conflict in the Middle East. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
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