Rating: 
Summary: Jerusalem: Up Close And Personal
Review: The middle east has often been called "The Holy Land," where the world's three great religions--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--come together. No where is this more so than in Jerusalem. It is in this hotbed of conflict and hatred and hope that a Mulligan stew of religious cults, fanatics and their sympathizers, and other individuals of varying interests meet in _Demascus Gate_, Robert Stone's true to life, fascinating, but sometimes unfocused novel. At the center of the novel is Christopher Lucas, an American journalist who goes to Jerusalem to do research for a book he plans to write about the various religious cults in Jerusalem. Lucas is the perfect protagonist. His father, whom he barely knew, was Jewish, his mother was Catholic, and Lucas, himself, was brought up as a Catholic. Like Cain, this rootless man seems destined to roam the earth, never to find a place to permanently settle. Lucas meets and becomes romantically involved with Sonia, a comely African-American and Jewish nightclub singer in Tel Aviv. Sonia is a practicing Sufi, which is an offshoot of Islam. Lucas and Sonia stumble upon a group of quasi-Jewish fanatics, who may or may not be involved in a plot to bomb and totally destroy Islamic mosques on the Temple Mount. They naively believe that if this site is totally destroyed a third Temple could be built, therefore attracting the promised Messiah--a "built it and He will come" type of philosophy.Sonia and others get caught in an Intafada-like riot of Palestinians and utilize a dark, underground labyrinth to escape. These caverns contain the statue of Sabazios, "its fingers raised in a gesture of benediction." This God-like figure was embraced by followers of "Zeus and Persephone, or with Hermes Thismegisters and Isis. Alone he was the Lord of Hosts." Sabazios was also embraced by Jews and Christians alike. It is fitting that this figure of universal love and brotherhood should be situated in this crazy-quilt of religious denominations that makes up Jerusalem. In the midst of this harrowingly frightening and realistic melee the author injects some much needed ironic humor. Lucas teases an elderly Muslim tour director and then jokingly spreads the rumor that the elderly man may be Salman Rushdie, which only adds fuel to the rioters' fire, even though Rushdie's beliefs have little to do with those of this rebellious mob. What fun the great Alfred Hitchcock would have had pulling together into a seamless whole this frequently loose jointed book, which sometimes seems to veer off in different directions. Hitchcock frequently utilized the theme of an innocent and unknowing man (Christopher Lucas in this book) who is trapped in dire circumstances beyond his control, oftentimes in foreign and exotic locales. This master film director often chose dark espionage movies to play out this theme. I also wonder how Hitchcock would have dealt with the character of Janusz Zimmer, the shadowy Israeli operative whose manipulations were central to the outcome of this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Incisive look at religion and politics
Review: There are a lot more negative reviews here than I expected to find. Many reviewers seem to be complaining that the book cover contains too many positive reviews, like it's Mr. Stone's fault that all those elitist, liberal, East coast reviewers liked his book. Truth be told, there were some elements in this book that were a bit irritating. Most of the characters speak in a coy, sardonic fashion that would drive me crazy if I heard it in real life. They also tend to be unconvincingly brilliant. I just haven't met too many drug abusing musicians that have read voraciously on every subject under the sun, and can quote by memory ancient religious texts in several languages, but there are a couple of characters like that in D.G. Nevertheless, the positives of the book totally outweighed these concerns. First of all, D.G. is set in a city that is constantly in the headlines, and he does a pretty good job at depicting the political undercurrents at work. While many will naturally complain that Stone wrote too favorably of one particular group or the other, I thought he was relatively dispassionate and balanced. The political action is kind of at the margins, however. Stone is more concerned with spiritual matters. I liked the idea of the main character, Cris Lucas, writing a book on religious fanatics. This gives Stone the chance to introduce all sorts of eclectic characters. Many people complain that Stone focuses too much on these "fanatics," and does not feature enough "average" Israelis. However, Stone has always written about marginal, disaffected characters, these are the people who interest him. If you don't want to read about people like this, then don't read Stonee. And not many novelists have written convincingly and intellectually on religious fanaticism. Besides, millenialism is hardly a marginal ideology in this day and age, just turn on the television and check out all of those suave evagelists urging Christians to support Israel. Stone has some very interesting things to say about this. And, while the main character, Mr. Lucas, may at times seem too "hip," I found him to be likeable and could sympathize with his spiritual plight. All in all, I would recommend this book to anybody who is interested in the Middle East and can read about political and spiritual matters objectively and intelligently.
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