Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #101627 in Books
• Published on: 1920-01-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 640 pages

Customer Reviews

Epic Account of the Birth of Israel
This remarkable book documents the struggle to be born by the Jewish state of Israel by amongst others , holocaust survivors It IS by in large historically accurate (as historical novels go) And you get to know the characters intimately-the dashing soldier/hero Ari Ben Canaan who falls in love with Kitty Fremont,the American nurse who reluctantly-despite her misgivings- works with the Jews and grows to change her condescending and slightly prejudiced attitude to a genuine love for these people There is the vivacious and beautiful Karen Clement-a young German Jewish girl who was raised by a Christian family in Denmark-in order to escape Hitlers holocaust and Dov Landau who has lived through the worst horrors imaginable during the dreadful Nazi occupation of Poland .We live throught he trials and tribulation of those trying to set up a small homeland against overwhelming odds,violent Arab hordes and the bigotry of the British Empire This is a truthful account and also looks through the eyes of Arabs British and others It is a FACT that the Arabs did attack and destroy Jewish settlements from 1921 and that their leaders wanted to anhilate the Jews from the face of Palestine from the beginning,with any Arabs willing to reach an accomodation with the Jews slaughtered

A gripping story
I read this book when I was fourteen, yet the story is still vivid in my mind. Exodus is beyond a literary work. It is more than that. Historical sociological, philosophical in range, it challenges the reader to confront stereotypes, to see reality with another man's eyes and to judge fairly.
Even though the book started slowly, the pace ,plot and challenges intensified with the introduction of the Palestinian Jews. Still I will say that Leon Uris deliberately did that since he was writing the book for the international audience.
The pogroms in Czarist Russia are told, the anti-Semitism that followed the Dreyfus affair in France and Western Europe , which prompted the emergence of the Zionist movement are clearly spelt out as the motivating factor for the creation of a Jewish state. Even holocaust is clearly unveiled as the final catastrophe that made the creation of a Jewish state inevitable.
The book gives a good picture of plight of the Palestinian Jews under the Ottomans and later their struggles against the British in the mandate. It shows the complicated nature of the different peoples in the land, such as the alliances between Druses and Jews, understanding with Bedouin tribes and intra-Jewish differences. Israel's proclamation of independence and defiant victory against the Arab states seeking to annihilate is well written in this book. The characters that enriched the story are brought out to be so lively and natural. Ari Ben Canaan, his uncle Akiva, the rest of the Ben Canaan family, Kitty the American nurse who fell in love with a land and people she had not wanted to know, the angelic Karen, the rebellious, Dov, David and a host of other characters made the plot rich.
However, what struck me about this novel of close to five decades is the author's presentation of the Palestinian refugee problem. Their plight hasn't changed. Who is responsible in a world where so much has changed? What is the solution? I think that while Israel must act in good faith for peace in the Middle East, the Arab States should accept responsibilities too for the refugee problem. The answer is approach. How to approach a tragedy with the intention to heal. I read DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE and was inspired by the people's approach to human disasters. South Africa is another good example.

I recommend DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, THE DA VINCI CODE

A Book That was Life-Forming
I first read Exodus back in 1972 when I was 15. It made the biggest impression ever on me - I am half-Jewish (on my father's side) so was not brought up in the faith. However, reading this book made me feel a connection to my roots which will stay with me for the rest of my life and made me hold firmly to the Zionist cause.

It is more and more important when anti-semitism and anti-Israeli feeling is becoming rife that people read this book and see the sheer guts and determination that brought this proud people to their Homeland.