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Summary: Brought me To Israel
Review: My mother found this book on Amazon.com. She insisted I read it. It took me a while to even open it up. But once I did, I couldn't stop reading. I read it over dinner. I read it after dinner. I read it long into the night. I just finished "Coming Home to Jerusalem" and here's my take: I will never get closer to the people of Israel or to the people of Palestine--short of going there for a decade!! than I did in this travel book. And, even then, what would I know that Wendy Orange hasn't showed me? What amazes me is that this American Jewish woman seems to have completely given herself, for years, to studying the "situation." That is a gift for me, making the indecipherable far more clear. This is what any good writer does: She or he enters a strange land and makes it her own, and in the process, makes it the readers' home as well. BRAVO to Orange and Thanks, Mom.
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Summary: A book with a Warm Heart--what I need right now
Review: Another Israeli signing on here. I live in Zichron Yaakov and am only visiting USA now. In Israel, in Palestine: the ground is burning, the bombs are flying, the people are getting afraid and everywhere hearts are cold. "Coming Home to Jerusalem" helped me get through the last weeks before I left home for a month. Sometimes these days in Israel, I wake up screaming because of the blindness and the misery taking over so many here. Wendy Orange is a good neshama. She knows the situation. She doesn't know the political solution--unfortunately no one does. But she knows how to keep, in hard hard times, a warm heart. You should read this and nothing else right now, to keep your heart warm in cold times.
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Summary: Beautifully Written Book
Review: My first impression when reading Wendy Orange's book was of its beautifully descriptive prose. As I became absorbed in reading it, I came to realize that my pro-Israel sentiments needed to be tempered by a better understanding of the Palestinian people--as differentiated from their leaders. Read this book with an open mind and you will be well rewarded.
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Summary: For Intelligent Readers Only
Review: If you are terribly biased, whether against all Palestinians or against all Israelis, this book is not for you. "Coming Home To Jerusalem" challanges readers to break through their stereotypes of each ethnic group: to see Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs in everyday situations, not easy in today's climate, but more important than ever. Because it is so intelligently rendered and so persuasive against war, if you are the sort who prefers to see in black and white, this book will rock your worldview, this book will force you to examine your prejudices or will anger you. As Orange says, there are "a thousand shades of gray" in the Middle East. She doesn't just say so, she shows us how that is so, and in compelling, unforgettable ways. Her tour of the Middle East is full of complexity and subtlety, so that requires all readers to draw their own conclusions. She gives the raw material through gorgeous writing and direct examples of what goes on in the Homelands of two peoples--NOT on the front lines, NOT mainly in the fire of war-- but in homes, offices, shops, and on street corners on BOTH sides of the Green Line. If you believe that All the land belongs to one side or the other, then you will be upset by Orange's descriptions and portraits. The whole point of this book, what I believe after reading cover to cover twice: is to break through and undermine stereotypes. Those who refuse to do so seem to be the ones who throw epithets against this small book, what I consider a masterpiece, one of the best books of 2000, a book that has changed my life. How? That would take a long book review. Just read it. Except those who are too rigid to open their hearts, what Orange did, at great personal odds. The best book out on Israel in the 1990's!!
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Summary: A Rare Book: Gets Better As it Goes...
Review: I have an unusual view of "Coming Home to Jerusalem." I see the early chapters, especially chapters 3-5, as weak compared to the power of the rest of Ms. Orange's text. The personal details in the Israeli section are not as strong as in the Palestinian sections where each scene carries far greater resonance--at least for this reader. Despite this imperfection, Orange does deliver the goods (just mis-typed "gods"--and come to think it, she does deliver the gods hovering above Jerusalem very well). If anyone wants to know why there has been such violence lately, they will find all the background information here, after page 80 or so. Had Orange's earlier chapters had the power of the later ones, this valuable book might have gotten more press attention. I fully agree with the Belief.net reporter, who writes that this memoir is the unusual memoir that is not self- involved, yet definitely self-aware, a distinction worth repeating. Those readers willing to confront their pre-existing biases and opening their conscience may get rattled, and that's a risk, obviously a good one in my opinion, with reading this book. (For proof of this possibility, I recommend reading the wonderfully honest Michael Charton. How rare to hear how a book that radically changed someone's previous world view. Still, I feel that many readers should jump to page 80 which is where this book takes off. As a professor of Mideast Studies as well as English Literature, the great virtue I find in "Coming Home..." is in its pure readability, often lacking in Israeli /Palestinian non-fiction narratives. I plan to use it as text in my classes, once it comes out in paperback. Five stars despite early weakness.
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Summary: Written like a Novel
Review: Think about the Middle East and immediately we picture handshakes and stones, agreements and violence. We have these mental snapshots that are so repetitive we zone out, right? Why is there war? What happened to the peace? How did we get into this twilight zone in Jerusalem? There are books galore on this region, but all the brilliance has not led to any harmony. In "Coming Home to Jerusalem" Wendy Orange tells us a STORY. This book reads like a novel, with days of peace, days of harmony and days full of terrifying violence between Israelis and Palestinians. But even hearing those words can turn any of us OFF because we've heard the same refrains, the same ideas, over and over. What Orange accomplishes in showing political life as a story is that she really gets beneath stereotypes, beneath the "breaking" news, into something closer to "permanent" news. I feel her style of writing somehow brings the two sides together. In addition, she shows us the land. But at the center of "Coming Home to Jerusalem" are people-- not "terrorists"; not "occupiers"--but people, none of whom is really at home and all of whom want nothing more than home. People trying to live--often poorly, sometimes courageously-- through almost permanent crises. A revelatory read!
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Summary: MUST READ THIS
Review: This book is the best I've read on the peace process from a human (and humane) point of view. I'm an Israeli but I live in Manhattan. Reading "Coming Home to Jerusalem" has given me a new view of what's going on back home. I'm sending it to many friends. You will want to also. Orange "gets" Israel. I say that about very few Americans. She "gets" more than the Israel I know. That is good news for readers, especially Americans and especially during these horrible times. It will give you hope, distant hope, but HOPE.
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Summary: Timely and Wonderful Book
Review: My sister sent me this book from Israel. My best friend sent it from New York City. And I had already read it! I guess this is what is called word of mouth.I understand, all too well, why there is a buzz around Ms. Orange's timely and wonderful book on my home country. I am an Israeli and of course am very worried about what's going on right now. How wonderful is it to read a book that 1) brings me back home, with all the views and people and places I miss so much and 2) that addresses the immediate conflict, not by describing what's going on this minute but by describing what has led to the build up to the current mini-war. Orange gives detailed descriptions of the last decade among both Israelis and the Palestinians. I am not left wing but neither is the author. She just brings you into both homelands and that's a great feat. Amazing, really. If it helps me to understand, I know this book, a page-turner, will help you Americans to understand the Mideast as few other books can or do. Read it ASAP!
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Summary: I love this book
Review: (I wrote this review 2 months ago, as the current flare up of conflict in Israel was beginning.) I was so sorry to see this book end. I kept stretching out finishing it because I knew I would miss it once it was over. Wendy Orange writes with so much honesty; she shares so much of herself that I feel I know her quite well. I'm experiencing Israel with her. Her personal style is what drew me into the story and into the politics of Israel. I have been vaguely acquainted with Israeli politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades, but I never had a sense of place. This book gave me an entree into this world that I probably could not have gotten without visiting there. I have a vivid picture of the landscape, of the countyside, of Jerusalem and of various Palestinian villages. I also have a sense of the Palestinian culture, something most Americans are ignorant about. Now when I read about Israel in the mainstream and alternative press, I feel a clarity about the struggle there and have some idea about the geography. I'm so sad to read about the war between the Israeli army and the Palestinians. After reading Coming Home to Jerusalem I feel connected to these sad events. I hope the author will return to Jerusalem and write more about this important place. It is crucial that Americans learn about this story. I thank Wendy Orange for this great and timely book.
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Summary: A book that is also good company
Review: I don't know what to say here that others haven't said already. Except that I found this book by "accident"--if you believe in accidents--which, often, I do not. It was lying on a friend's table and I HAD to have it. I rarely read a book all the way through without getting restless or putting it down for a week or more. This book was instantly almost spookily familiar--the author's way with words, the way she found herself in so many precarious situations and worked her way through them, with her mind, with her heart and with her salty sweetness. (By salty: I mean: Not saccharine, but alive as well as kind. I have rarely felt as home in anyone else's mind as I did here. So, when the current war broke out, while I wasn't prepared, I was so much closer to the feelings on both sides of the green line, if such a "line" still exists, and was SO glad I read it. I think you will be too. I still have to return this book to my friend; he had just bought it, has still not read it! But I find it such good company--if that doesn't sound too weird. I find it most comforting in the way that our most treasured books ARE comforting. This is my first review. I don't like the idea of being rated so I feel a little self-conscious. But I very highly recommend this to everyone who loves to read or who loves Israel.
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