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Rating: 
Summary: Crossing the Bridge of Intolerance
Review: Kanan Makiya succeeds where many other authors failed. A historical novel about the interplay of religions. Like Amin Maalouf, Kanan writes eloquently and with great authority about a subject difficult to most readers. He destroys long held views about identity and shows the human underneath the religious dogma. A truly wonderful work, I felt I was there and close to the characters, I had a difficulty in putting the book down, and I was upset at having finished it. I reread many segments. Please keep writing kanan, please keep enlightening us, so that more people can cross the bridge of intolerance.
Rating:
Summary: Crossing the Bridge of Intolerance
Review: Kanan Makiya succeeds where many other authors failed. A historical novel about the interplay of religions. Like Amin Maalouf, Kanan writes eloquently and with great authority about a subject difficult to most readers. He destroys long held views about identity and shows the human underneath the religious dogma. A truly wonderful work, I felt I was there and close to the characters, I had a difficulty in putting the book down, and I was upset at having finished it. I reread many segments. Please keep writing kanan, please keep enlightening us, so that more people can cross the bridge of intolerance.
Rating: 
Summary: A "novel" which educates, rather than entertains.,
Review: Theologians and serious religious scholars may be fascinated by this academic study of the seventh century interrelationships of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity (Coptic, Orthodox, and Roman) and the holy sites in Medina, Mecca, and Jerusalem. Less a novel than a thesis, the book uses the characters as mouthpieces for historical research rather than as living humans: they remain flat and lacking in those unique personal characteristics which make fictional characters come alive and communicate with the reader. In prose which is as archaic and poetic as the Bible, the Torah, and/or the Koran, the author uses Ka'b, a Jew who becomes a trusted advisor of the Muslim Caliph Umar, to tell the early religious stories and legends, sometimes common to all three religions, which infuse the Holy Land, its religious sites, and shrines. Because Ka'b is a teacher, he can preach to his subjects, including the reader, with impunity. While this is effective in conveying a great deal of information about the history of these sites, it perpetuates the distance between the reader and the subject matter and does not allow for the kind of identification with a character which can make this information come alive and remain with the reader. The formality of the style and the enormous amount of abstraction in the story-telling sometimes make the actual sequence of events difficult to follow. Events affecting these sites are described, but the reasons behind them are not always clear--unless, of course, you already have a great deal of knowledge of the people and places important to all three religions and understand their historical practices and traditions. This scholarly work succeeds in showing the common threads of the three major religions and their common interests in the holy sites as they existed in the seventh century. It is less successful in providing keys to the disputes which surround these sites in the present day.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for people of all faiths.
Review: This was a wonderful book. I had roughly two minutes to select a book at the library and this one was it. This book moved me to tears in several places. The imagery was spectacular and the characters came to life - it was like I was there. I have recommended it to all my friends as a must read. This book served as an excellent introduction to Islam and has increased my desire to learn more about it. Mr. Makiya please write more!
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