Damascus Gate
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.65 (830 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0684859114 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 528 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-07-21 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
American journalist Christopher Lucas is investigating religious fanatics when he discovers a plot to bomb the sacred Temple Mount. Ambitious, passionate, darkly comic, Damascus Gate is not only Robert Stone's biggest and best novel to date, but a timely and brilliant story of belief, power, salvation, and apocalypse.. On the cusp of the millennium, Jerusalem has become a battleground in the race for redemption. A violent confrontation in the Gaza Strip, a race through riot-filled streets, a cat-and-mouse game in an underground maze -- as Lucas
"Interesting, but ultimately sloppy work" according to A Customer. Stone tells an interesting story, but ultimately leaves lots of loose threads. Characters are never developed fully, and even the main character, Chris Lucas, remains something of a cipher-- we learn about him at age 10, but that's it-- nothing to fill us in on where he's at. Stone knows the Arab Old City very well, but his descriptions of the rest of the city, and of the rest of Israel are sparse and sound like they were written after consulting a Frommer's Guide. It's as if he wanted to set up a Casablanca-esque Jerusalem in the Old City, and was annoyed by the Westerniz. A Customer said Not recommended. 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!. As good as I'd heard This was good stuff. I am a Stone reader but usually do not pass his books along to my friends for fear of depressing them too much. The Bear and his Daughter is an excellent example. I liked Damascus Gate and the questions pondered. Lucas is a typical disaffected Stone character who is just a tad less jaded than most of Stone's creations. There are many characters to follow but Stone keeps them all memorable and all interesting. So far this is the read of the year.
Michiko Kakutani The New York Times Gripping.The endgame he plays is masterly: thrilling, coiled, and somehow both inevitable and surprising.James Hynes The Washington Post Book World A stunning novel by a great American author.Daphne Merkin The New Yorker The definitive novel about Israel.Stone brings its tensions and dilemmas into characteristically sharp focus.Brims over with plots, subplots, and an impressive array of incisively drawn charactersthe range of his knowledge is s