Rating: 
Summary: Not recommended
Review: I was very disappointed. This is an immensely talented author. But the book is boring, the worst sin in a novel, and though the setting is well-drawn, I have seen Jerusalem depicted even better in William bayer's PATTERN CRIMES, now out of print. In the end this is a well-written, intellectual novel with characters one doesn't care about. Sad, since this author's novel set in Central America, Red Flag At Sunrise, is a great book!
Rating: 
Summary: Requires a lot of the reader.
Review: Fabulous evocation of setting. You see, hear, and smell the Holy Land. Stone does require the reader to have alot of background knowledge of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions and the Israeli-Palestine conflict. More than this layman had. I found myself wishing he would explain some foreign phrases and terms. I was past the middle of the book before the plot began to firm up for me. An interesting book, but you really have to want to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Dog Soldiers visit the middle east?
Review: This is a great story, and Mr. Stone tells it very well. At certain points I felt like my head was spinning trying to keep track of all the organizations and people involved, to say nothing of their various psychopathologies. But I think that was at least sometimes part of the author's intent - after all, Jerusalem is a confusing place.The book might have benefited from fewer, and better developed, characters. The characters were certainly interesting, but with the exception of Lucas and Sonia they kind of drifted in and out of the story a bit too much. In a way, this book was like Dog Soldiers Visits Israel or something - there was a lot of overlap in terms of the characters and their hangups, drug problems, etc. Although I enjoyed Dog Soldiers, I was hoping for something different.
Rating: 
Summary: You will not want the story to end.
Review: Damascus Gate is a terrific book about a fascinating place. The only problem is that you will find yourself ordering and reading all of Stone's other books. It is a worthwhile experience to read them all over a short period of time. While Dog Soldiers and Outerbridge Reach are great books, you will gain a greater appreciation for how great an author Stone has become.
Rating:
Summary: Disjointed and dispiriting
Review: Do we really need 448 pages of well-written and sometimes sparkling prose to tell us that When the Going gets Unstable, the Unstable Fall to Pieces? I found it difficult to keep straight all the characters and their individual pathologies, and even more difficult to care. After finishing the book, I did not find I had more insight about the theological, political, ethnic, or psychological roots of the Palestinian Question. The book did provide an intense sense of physical location.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone who has ever been to the "Holy Land"
Review: Mister Stone has been there. While the plot may not take you to the place you want to be, the story is gripping. As this century comes to a close, I can't think of a better novel that synthesizes the political/religeous landscape better. If you have been to Isreal, there is no better book to read RIGHT NOW, than this one.
Rating: 
Summary: A Robert Stone novel that may not be as depressing...
Review: The scope of Damascus Gate is considerable larger and the plot more complex than some of Mr. Stone's previous works. The reader is given a picture of Israel and Gaza complete with details of religious history and political machinations. The view is still bleak, but on a much larger scale. The characters are still facing their own demons, but the private turmoil is framed in a larger context. Mr. Stone's style seems somewhat smoother and more flowing than in his earlier works. This softening, if I can describe it that way, carries over into his characterizations. I found the protagonist, Chris Lucas, to be more symapthetic than Ray Hicks of Dog Soldiers or Gordon in Children of Light. Having said that, the intensity still builds and the characters are still on the verge of losing it. Although some do, the reader is left with hope for others, as was the case in Outerbridge Reach. All in all, another winner, though some may find it less intense and less depressing than his earlier works.
Rating:
Summary: unique thriller set in Israeli bohemian religious undergrnd
Review: fresh, different, exlnt characters a cool read
Rating:
Summary: A bitter pill, but one that's good for you.
Review: I began reading this book with very high hopes because of Robert Stone's reputation. However, this is not a book for those who don't have a photographic memory. Unless you can remember, 200 pages later, a name or Hebrew phrase mentioned briefly, you'll be lost, as I was throughout a good deal of this book. The rest of the time I just didn't care. Perhaps it is because Stone is so buy piling up the information that he doesn't pay attention to his characterizations. His characters, particularly his women, are hollow and lifeless. Their conversation is ridiculous, as if Stone mixed up Jerusalem 1992 with some bad dream from the '60s. Having complained about all that, I must say I learned a tremendous amount from this book about the current state of our world. At one point, I was forced to find a Jerusalem travel guide to make sense of all the sites -- religious and otherwise -- that Stone visited. After a while, I realized I was reading the book not for an interesting story or characters, but for a lesson in social science and geography.
Rating:
Summary: A fine work from one of the masters of American fiction.
Review: Robert Stone is unquestionably one of America's finest living writers. His novels appear at approximately five-year intervals and each bears the stamp of greatness. His prose is flawless and his plotting seamless. His vision is tragedic, but his characters are not so much undone in the end by fatal flaws as undermined throughout in their interaction with treacherous situations. Damascus Gate undertakes the daunting task of piloting a collection of Stone types - opportunists, do-gooders, zealots, sociopaths and, in Lucas, the main character, an equable Everyman - through the bewildering maze of Arab-Jew conflict in Israel. He provides unforgettable images of nightly news places like the West Bank and Gaza, even-handed treatment of many shades of Arab and Jewish political sentiment and wraps the whole brew into a right-wing Jewish plot to destroy the Temple on the Mount and restore the Temple of Solomon. I can't say that there is a best Robert Stone novel, but Damascus Gate is an altogether worthy addition to his oeuvre.
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