Rating: 
Summary: Wow
Review: Has hastily been added to my list of "most influential books ever read." Altough this is indeed a very, very long read, and slows down a bit towards the last third, it is well worth the time and effort. This is more than just history; this is story. Read this book to understand the history behind and development of the Jewish people and their religion; to learn of the atrocities committed against them by ignorant oppressors -- both political and religious -- of whom Christianity is arguably the historical chief; to witness the enduring legacy of the Jews. A deeply moving tale told by a remarkable storyteller. Extremely well-researched, and extremely well done.
Rating: 
Summary: Very enjoyable, but not without its shortcomings
Review: If we take the Source as a history of the Jews, which I think is what the author intended (as opposed to the history of "Makor" in the Holy Land), then I have to say that this is an excellent book. Michener writes with passion about the sufferings and resilience of the Jewish people, and his narrative explaining the origins and development of rabbinical Judaism is enlightening. The rich diversity and beauty of Ashkenazi and Sephardi culture come to life in Michener's book. One cannot help but feel a sense of empathy for the Jewish people as they struggle through exile, inquisition, pogroms, and exploitative officials. Michener also does a good job of desribing the various inhabitants of Galilee through the ages, and through the clan of Ur, one gets a sense of how the Palestinian people came to be -- Canaanites and Philistines who were first Hellenized, then Romanized, and finally Arabized. This book does so many things well that it is easy to overlook some serious flaws. Michener almost romanticizes Jewish history and suffering, and while his chapter "Rebbe Itzik and the Sabra" offers a compelling contrast between secular and religious Jews, it gives a woefully lopsided view of the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. The book seems to argue that the Jews "deserve" the land more because of their suffering and because "they can manage it better." It fails to establish the connection of the Arabs with the land -- as though the Palestinian Arabs "deserve" to be exiled -- even though the character Jemail Tabari supposedly is a descendant of people who lived there 12,000 years ago. Indeed, an examination of the chapter "Twilight of an Empire" reveals unforgivably stereotyped Arabs -- flat, colorless, without culture, dirty, corrupt, and often cruel. While Michener mentions Arab massacres of Jews, he neglects to mention the Deir Yassin Massacre or Hagganah massacres of Arabs in 1948. Read this book if you want to learn more about Jewish history and religion (on these merits, I would rate it 9/10). On the other hand, I would rate the book's historical accuracy about 7/10.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, wonderful book
Review: This has to be, hands down, one of my favourite books of all time. It not only presents a gripping story (or multiple stories, each rivetting) but it also served to reinvigorate my own faith.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling and Emotional
Review: The Source is a sweep back through time to the Jewish people of the Middle East. The story takes us back to the days when the gods were little statues, monoliths on a mountain, and child-eating fires. It moves forward through time to the mid-sixties. The author uses the tool of mini-stories, one per chapter, to show the evolution of one era to the next. Individually, the chapters (stories) are well-written and emotionally compelling. Some will break your heart. Some will make you cheer. Overall, the book does an excellent job of showing how the Jewish people feel about themselves, their homeland, each other, and their religion. They are not over-simplified but shown in the full complexity of their feelings and experience. This is what the book does really well. The only complaint that I have is that some parts of the book are historically questionable. Many will feel that the story shows a bias against certain religious/ethnic factions. The author also occasionally gets a little lax about using modern verbage in inappropriate settings. For example, I can't imagine someone in the pre-Christian era using the word 'cronies'. Overall, though, the book is good and worth reading for a picture of the Jewish feelings that may have been manifest in different periods. It is also excellent as pure fiction. I enjoyed it a lot.
Rating:
Summary: A great epic portrayal of the history of the Jews, but...
Review: Departing from a digging in an archeological place where important ancient pieces are dug up, Michener reconstructs the whole history of the Jewish people from the early beginnings of Judaism to the contemporary sabra fighting for Israel independence in the XX century Every chapter develops over a period in history and relates to a piece found and later traced to that specific time Positive: Though recreated with some fictional contents, is an excellent book for all Jewish people interested in a general overview of the history of their ancestors and that will surely contribute to the strengthening of their identity Negative: Almost no reference to the Holocaust, the worst atrocity ever perpetrated in the history of mankind, was made Nazism and Hitler look almost non existent
Rating:
Summary: The long and the short of it...
Review: This is a long book; but it's basically a long book of short stories tied together by framing short story and by a family line beginning when the first caveman dared to set foot outside the cave. The stories basically involve "salt of the earth" Jews on the periphery of all the great Biblical and historical events. The idea was probably to give some insight into how and why the Jews have survived as long as they have as a cultural identity. But unless "because they're stubborn" is insight, I can't say it did much there. The use of God, as a character, is an interesting one. It was a bit jarring at first, but after a while, you begin to realize that you only ever hear "Him" through another character, and that character is always alone. The highlight of this book is the very human stories, particularly those in the ancient times. The story of the Hoopoe, the clever-but-homely architect who connects the town to its water source, is one of the best I've ever read. When the Jews encounter the Greeks and the Romans and the early Christians, their interactions are also quite interesting. Particularly in the sense that it's easier to relate, in many ways, to the lifestyles and attitudes of these other groups, than it is to the "stiff-necked" Jews who seem reactionary to the point of mania. (But then, this is why they survived.) Michener seems very at home in the older days, perhaps because he had freedom to write without having to worry too much about political concerns. More modern stuff is almost glossed over. At the same time, it's in the post-Luther era where the book really began to drag for me. It's worth finishing, but it is stronger in the early parts.
Rating:
Summary: Classic blockbuster that condenses history with great drama
Review: I am not sure James Michener is still in style (he was sure hot in the Sixties, but tastes do change.) However, his blockbuster novels all attempt to condense wide expanses of history by telling stories from the viewpoint of fictionalized individuals. In "The Source", Michener cleverly uses the archaeological levels of a tel (mound) being excavated, each level becoming a chapter moving up from the bottom level which is earliest history, to most recent. As the contemporary archaeologists unearth foundations and shards, the story of people whose dust forms the tel is told. This makes what could be dry history vital and in some of the stories, gut-wrenching. As always, Michener goes for great drama, sex, blood, guts and heroism are all drawn with the exquisite skill of a born storyteller. In particular, the story of Urbaal and his fatal attraction to a temple prostitute, and the story of the Jews of Safed, who escaped the Inquisition, are unforgettable. I rate this as great as "Hawaii" among Michener's novels. It's a good novel to read in light of the current conflicts in the Middle East, though, as a novel, the history is of course not always consistent with current scholarly though, so read it for the superb storytelling.
Rating:
Summary: The attachment of a people to their homeland
Review: The Source is definitely a highly entertaining and extremely interesting work, and I seldom lost interest, and yet there are several aspects of the book that I found frustrating and disappointing, and are simply historically incorrect. I did not enjoy Chapter 6, 'The voice of Gomer', simply because the interaction between G-D and the Prophetess Gomer was for me disturbing.
I think Michener forgot here that he was writing a novel and not rewriting The Bible.
The dialogue treats G-D almost as a character in the novel, which for me is unacceptable.
Surely we should have been allowed to judge the actions of Gomer towards her son's wife on our own religious and Biblical understanding, rather than Michener presenting this as the result of a direct commandment from G-D, on a par with Biblical events.
I found the whole chapter tacky and irreverent. Then he often deals stereotypically with the Jewish people and several Jewish characters.
In the final chapter, for example, he makes me wonder if he actually has a good attitude towards his subjects.
He dwells almost entirely on negative perceptions of Judaism, representing a highly prejudiced view of religious Jews. He seems to have believed that ALL religious Jews in Israel, are archaic and intolerant fanatics who throw rocks at cars on Saturdays, whereas he is only drawing on a very small fraction of observant Jews in that country. He in fact has a stereotypic view of modern Israel, and all sectors of it's society, and although he tries to present a benevolent view (I don't believe he is driven by malice), his understanding comes off as somewhat limited. The secular Jews of the Kibbutzim too are represented in a highly stereotypical fashion and he also wrongly presents Israel as having only ultra-secular and ultra-orthodox currents, with no in-between. It also seems from his equally stereotypical picture of an American Protestant minister visiting Israel, that he does not have a positive attitude towards Christianity either. Also there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that the Arabs living in Israel, those who are today referred to wrongly as 'Palestinians', are descendants of the Canaanites., and in fact all historical facts point to these people as being Arabs originating from Arabia.
So I don't know what he means by referring to the Arab archaeologist, Jemail Tabari, as a 'scion of Ur', and a 'descendant of Jabaal the Hoopoe'.
He never refers to these Arabs as 'Palestinian', simply because when this book was written in 1965, the label ' Palestinian' had not been invented to refer to these people.
Nobody used this term in 1965. It only became fashionable later! Nevertheless there is much in this incredibly long book, that does depict the experiences and spirit of the Land of Israel, and the Jewish people, who originated in this remarkable land. He introduces throughout the story, various beautiful and strong-spirited Hebrew women, who have kept the flame burning, such as the enchanting Kerith, wife of Jabaal the builder, in 'Psalm of the Hoopoe Bird', the lovely and gentle Elisheba in 'The Saintly Men of Safed' and the tough and idealistic Sabra,, Illana Hacohen in 'Rebbe Itzic the Sabra'. He does illustrate the depth of the attachment of the Jewish people to their homeland, which was never broken, as well as the cycle of persecution, and the attempts by so many different groups throughout history to annihilate the Jews. All of this, is being repeated in the latest struggle today, of the Jewish people to hold onto their rightful homeland and survive, against an evil people, supported by a world in which it is fashionable to hate Israel.
A world, which, is once more, creating a great injustice against the Jewish people.
The young Hellenist Jew, Menelaus, in 'The Gymnasium' who is so determined to cut of all connections with his Judaism, reminds me of the leftwing Jewish intellectuals who find it fashionable to side with the enemies of Israel, by embracing pro-Palestinian left-fascism. In 'King of the Jews' we learn about King Herod, and observe the portrait of a tyrant and about the cruel persecution of his people, and in 'Yigal and his Three Generals' we see just how fierce is the will of the Jewish people to rule their own land. The discussion between Count Volkmar and a Jewish Rabbi in 'The Fires of Ma Couer' illustrate how wherever Jews are, they always remember that their only true homeland is Israel, and 'The Saintly Men of Safed' explores the flowering of the spiritual life of Judaism in the town of Safed in northern Israel in the 16th Century, as well as how Safed was a town where Jews came from around Europe, to escape persecution.
Therefore we read in this chapter about the humiliation suffered by Jews in Spain, Germany and Italy during this time. In 'Twilight of an Empire' we see even in the 19th century how the Arabs conspired with a powerful Empire to deprive the Jews of land in their own homeland, and how a young Jewish traveller from Russia comes across Jews whose ancestors always stayed in Israel throughout the Diaspora.
There was always a significant continuous presence in that country. And then there is 'Rabbi Itzic and the Sabra' which draws on the sacrifices and ideals of the young Jews who fought and died to reestablish the State of Israel. Michener therefore provides much insight but as I have showed in the first half of this review there where some things he got wrong.
Rating:
Summary: Makor
Review: The Source is more about a town and the surrounding Galilee in Israel than anything else. The novel starts out with a group of archaeologists just beginning a dig in a hill where the town of Makor used to be. While the story of the archaeologists is very important, most of the story is made up of short stories about the town of Makor and the Galilee. The stories are mostly about one character, and what happens to him or her during some turbulent times in history. From the Agricultural Revolution in 10,000 B.C. to the Israeli War of Independence, each short story occurs in an important time. There are also several links to each story from another, meaning this is novel is not just a collection of short stories.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction. James Michener combines historical fact and storytelling to make an enjoyable experience that really makes you understand what life was like for our ancestors. After the introduction of the Archaeologists, you will be in a different time and a different place, and the only thing that can lead you around are the words on the pages.
Rating:
Summary: Especially relevant for today...
Review: The Source should be required reading for all Americans. Nowhere else will you find such a well-told, in-depth explaination of the world's greatest religions and a history of the eternal struggles in the Middle East. It brings to life the drama and reality of life in Israel, and why there may never be peace in this beautiful and ancient land.
| 
