The Haj

Rating:
Summary: Another Hit by Uris!
Review: This book was a good book by being descriptive and showing truth. The fictional characters are able to connect with you as you flip non stop through the pages. It is truly a book by the great Leon Uris.

Rating:
Summary: Leon Uris doesn't know anything about arabs
Review: This novel is not only very poor since the historical point of view, but is full of falsehood in everything related to the arabs way of life, traditions, culture, moral, etc. If Mr. Uris wrote a novel like this on the israelis, he was called anti-Semitic or something worse. This book is disrespectful toward serious readers.

Rating:
Summary: Truth Is Subjective: The Haj Bears Proof
Review: Is Leon Uris trying to deliver a biased message which slanders the Arab people--or is he presenting a people as they truly were, which is interpreted by Western viewpoints as libelous? I choose the former option, and give The Haj five stars. Let me point out that two of the three protagonists, Haj Ibrahim and his son Ishmael (the other being Gideon Asch), are depicted throughout the book as deviants from the apathetic cycle of village Arab life. The Haj must seek peace with Jewish settlers while maintaining a delicate facade with his villagers. Ishmael reaches up and above his pre-ordained station by making himself invaluable to the Haj by way of education. These are forward-looking characters, at least in their hearts if not always in their deeds. That is what makes The Haj such a success as a novel--it is about the battle to overcome adversity and tradition, even in the most rigid of circumstances.

Rating:
Summary: Very good story, but biased to some degree
Review: Leon Uris never pretended to be an "objective" observer. He is Israeli and writes from Israeli perspective. Given that, this book is less biased than his other books, like "Exodus". It is a *very* engaging and suspenseful story. I could not put it down from start to end. This quality alone compensates a great deal of his lack of "objectivity". In the final analysis, many of his negative points about Arabs are more-or-less true, especially as things were back in 1948. I still like this book even though it is more biased towards the Israeli side than the "pure objective" book would be.

Rating:
Summary: The Haj was an outstanding novel
Review: I think that what was so remarkable in Mr. Uris novel was his ability to re-create an era and characters that existed and lived in a not-so distant past. I do not think that Uris wanted to critize anybody. Imagine if we were to write a novel about the United States in the 1940's-50'surely we would see some marked differences. Uris transports us back in time with very realistic characters. I know that Middle Eastern people could be a very passionate people with strong emotions. This is exactly what you feel when you read The Haj.

Rating:
Summary: an example of very good FICTION
Review: I really enjoyed this book, except for certain parts:

Uris knows how to tell a good story. He can string readers along and get them to feel any emotions that he wishes them to feel. It was very hard for me to stop reading this book.

However, if one looks at it as an historical novel, "The Haj" falls far short of expectations. Uris does have numerous (and by what I can tell, accurate) events in his novel, But the prejudice that he shows against the Arabs and his idea of causality contribute to making this book not exactly the best way to learn history.

I gave this book a high mark, though, because "The Haj" is a novel, a work of fiction, and as such, is intended to show the viewpoint of the author, and doesn't need to stick to historical accuracies, but the reader should be warned to take everything Uris says with a grain of salt.

Rating:
Summary: A book written with a poison pen ...
Review: Unecessarily & unrealistically divides people into good-guys and bad guys. I read this book after having spent a year on an Israeli kibbutz. A Finnish friend said of Uris's style: ".. if [Uris] wasn't biased, his story wouldn't be exciting". I wonder if that's what Uris had in mind while hammering out "Exodus" and "The Haj". **PS: Any of my Kibbutz buddies out there? It's "Harry" aka "Ren" and "Harendra" from Zimbabwe. I live in Australian now.

Rating:
Summary: Propaganda.
Review: I lived in the United Arab Emirates for 12 years and never once was I treated badly by an Arab. I also had the privilege of knowing Arab men who treated their wives and families with love and respect. Therefore, I was all the more disgusted when I read 'The Haj'. Mr. Uris criticizes everything about the Arab way of life but never mentions the Arabic number system (which I used in giving his book a 1), Arabic poetry (the Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayyam, for example) or the Arab contribution to the field of chemistry (an Arab first isolated nitric acid). He even has something against first-cousin marriages; although these happen in many societies, the Arabs get singled out for allowing this monstrous practice to happen since it produces deformed children (any scientific backing on that one?). The characters are caricatures....the father, Haj Ibrahim, is a traditionalist who will not tolerate an impure woman, his sons cheat him (in the time-honoured 'Arab' way of life), only the Jews are brave and intelligent and uphold the equality of men and women. Please do not read this book unless you have first read something that describes the Arab world with the objectivity and the insight that Mr. Uris lacks.

Rating:
Summary: How could this book be any better?
Review: Add factual/historic accuracy, real drama, realistic characters, lots of editing/trimming, a non-racist perspective, and this book could have been something.

Rating:
Summary: How could this book be any better?
Review: There is no way it could. This novel about the life of a once proud and powerful man in Palestine and his struggles to keep his familiy's values together inline with tradition is beautifully told and whether the reader sympathises with the Palestinians or the Jewish viewpoints there are still many things to be taken away from this novel. First, not only is it entertaining to read but it is also informative. Before I read it I had no idea what happened in Palestine and how things got to be in such turmoil. It was very edcational. If historical education is not your thing then how about the idea of family values? Haj Ibrahim tries, even when he had no home, his family and his people were what he cared for. It is that type of leadership that is lacking in other parts of the Muslim religion according to this book. Whether or not it is a slam against Islam or not I will leave up to the experts, but it does make an outsider wonder just why with a higher population, by quite a bit, the Arab states aloud the Israili's to remain?