Damascus Gate

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful, original novel
Review: "Damascus Gate" is one of that rare breed of novels written for the thinking person. It is by no means an easy read; the prose can be dense and full of double meaning, the writing presupposes an understanding of Middle Eastern troubles, and the pacing is sometimes uneven. However, it is all of these elements that make this such a great novel.

The very fact that it is not easy to read is what makes it so thought-provoking. The reader must really take his/her time to absorb and digest every word. The plot itslelf is complex enough; like a literary Ludlum, Stone navigates a maze of drugs, guns, greed and fanaticism. Furthermore, beyond this, ultimately satisfying, surface, is a compelling look at the nature of belief and faith, and non-belief and a lack of faith, and how each can cause intolerance and mayhem.

"Damascus Gate" is a powerful, exciting novel. It is also a novel that will leave you thinking about a lot of different issues, and about yourself. In my opinion, those are usually the best kind.

Rating:
Summary: Much Ado About Nearly Nothing
Review: I feel like a survivor of this book, after having emerged more or less unscathed from the rubble of its 500 pages. Although I admit it did have its moments of interest, they were few and far between. I found most of the characters totally unsympathetic, boring, and unrealistic...I really could not get myself aroused sufficiently to care whether they made it through to the end with me. I felt it was a lot of work, slogging through the pages and pages of background religious history which was poorly presented. Makes me feel even less interested in visiting the "Holy Land" any time soon.

Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: A fine novel of tremendous depth and beauty. Thoughtful readers of literature will find Stone's work simply unforgettable. One of the best books of the last decade of the 20th century.

Rating:
Summary: pointless, dull , not worth the effort
Review: If you want to learn anything relevant, accurate or reasonably illuminating about modern Israel, go elsewhere. Every major (and most minor) characters were born, brought up and educated either in the USA or in Europe. Not a single one speaks or understands a word of Hebrew or has even a casual relationship with the ordinary, run of the mill Israeli citizens who are all around them; people going about their own prosaic affairs, intent on getting through the day peacefully and amicably. In short, the unspectacular folks who manage to stay out of the clutches of the police that populate most western countries. No such citizen of Israel exists in 500 pages of unremitting prose. The single Israeli character of any substance who appears in this book is a vicious, sadistic brute who maims and murders young arab boys. No other (Jewish) Israeli is worthy of mention. How about a book embodying the spirit of late 20th century American life based exclusively on the Montana Militias or the suicide Millenium cults which sporadically hit the headlines. That would give you the same enlightened perspective of the USA as Damascus Gate gives of Israel.

Rating:
Summary: threw it out after 200 pages
Review: the charactors are not believable, the whole religious thing is boring, and there are too many mistakes in terms of how Israel realy works. It is almost as though stone spent too much time doing research on religion and not enough on the nature of the place.

Rating:
Summary: Almost as murky as the labyrinth at the book's end
Review: I'm afraid that the NAYS really do have it on this one. At best the book is a diamond in the rough -- some facets sparkle; others are dull. What redeems Damascus Gate are the occasional passages that spring from real situations like the conflicts between Palestinians and Israelis. In one section there is a surreptitious visit to the concenration camps of the Gaza strip, overtaken by a subsequent uprising, and Lucas' desparate nightmare escape on foot while pursued by a revenge-sodden mob.

The treatment of religions (the leitmotif of the book) is harsh and cynical. Stone seems not to have met anyone who might embody the better traditions of Judaism, Christianity or Islam. He reserves some sympathy for Sufisim which reveals the countercultural penchant of the American hipster for the ecstatic/exotic. Stone, however, is bold enough to attempt to create a new, syncretic faith through the deluded, pathetic De Kuff, an incarnation of "the Jerusalem Syndrome". I could not understand why anyone would give De Kuff's soft-core universalist "theology" serious consideration, especially the worldwise Sonia, but she does - for awhile.

Roughly midway through the story, there is a curious confessional encounter between Lucas (who laments his lost his childhood [read childish] faith) and a French Jewish Christian monk. The monk tells Lucas, in effect, that his faith hasn't grown up - an unintentional insight by Stone that applies to all of his characters here, whether the faith is Communism (Nuala and Rashid) or truncations of the 3 great monotheistic traditions or Stone's new age concoction via De Kuff. This gifted writer took a wrong turn through Damascus Gate.

Rating:
Summary: Big investment, little pay-off
Review: I'd been meaning to read this book since it first appeared in 1998, so when I finally got around to reading it, I was very excited. At first I was enthralled. As someone who has always been extremely interested in middle-eastern history and politics, especially in regards to the Jewish/Palestinian conflict,I found Robert Stone's descriptions of Jerusalem and the politico-religious climate dynamic. I was immediately drawn to the characters of Raziel and de Kuff and couldn't wait to find out what they said and did next.

But then, somewhere toward the last third of the novel, my interest started to wan and I had the sneaky suspicion that this was all going to prove to be much ado about nothing. The book appears to be densely plotted and multi-textured. The characters are numerous and varied to the point where the reader might start to wish they'd kept a cheatsheet from the beginning to keep track of them all. Unfortunately, with the exception of the characters mentioned above, none of them are that developed, and by novel's end they start to irritate, or rather the reader starts to search for more depth than what appears to be there. I found this especially true for the novel's central protagonists - Christopher Lucas and Sonia. Each of them appears to be in conflict with their identities, their religious beliefs (or lack of belief), and the way they are symptomatic of what is referred to as "The Jerusalem Syndrome" - intense and previously unrealized feelings of religious affiliation bordering on extremism. But while they continuously find themselves in situations that one might think would cause them to really examine their system of beliefs, they seem as shallow and, well, uninteresting as they were at the beginning.

There are however some terrific nail-biting set pieces here. My favourite sequence occurs about 300 pages into the book, centered around an ill-timed adventure into the Gaza Strip. I found myself scanning ahead to find out what was going to happen next. In fact, I found this to be more exciting than the novel's climax.

Not to say that this is a bad book. There is a lot to recommend. Present-day Jerusalem vividly comes across. The reader feels like he or she has actually been there. Stone is also terrific at creating dialogue for his characters - and there is a lot of dialogue, perhaps too much. I just felt for a novel of this length, the pay-off should have been more dramatic.

Rating:
Summary: Damascus Gate revisited
Review: While I must admit I enjoyed this book merely for the chance to relive a year of my life in Jerusalem as a student at Hebrew University and revisit some of the places I knew, I felt the characters were rather hollow, as has been mentioned by other reviewers. I have vivid memories of real Israelis and real Palestinians with whom I lived and studied and am almost angry to see how superficially they are treated here. Almost angry. I realize it's only a work of fiction. The twists and turns of the plot are what kept me reading. Mr. Stone definitely has a way with description and action. He described my feelings about the Church of the Holy Sepulcre exactly. Although I only gave it three stars I still recommend the book but, as has also been said elsewhere, it's not for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: A chore to get through
Review: While the book may provide some insight into the Mid East situation and Jerusalem in particular, I found the story very long winded with little action and with not wholly believable characters, events etc.

Rating:
Summary: Bland and disappointing
Review: Robert Stone's book, while entertaining to a degree seemed like it wanted to be more of a novel of ideas and it never quite got there. Stone's presentation of faith commitments(variety of Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities) seemed distressingly superficial with a strong preference for a universalist position, i.e. all faiths are many roads up the same mountain. That is always the position of an outsider to faith traditions and so is incapable of shedding any light on the traditions themselves or providing any insight to the readers. This is especially unfortunate because the friction of Jerusalem in this novel is the friction of a variety of faiths and the secular humanist observers. It is bland like Joseph Campbell is bland. Parallels are nice, but in the end don't explain any community's point of view. Unfortunately Damascus Gate is more like your average/mediocre thriller then it would like to be.