Exodus

This book is so massive that somehow it should count as two! I read Uris's Exodus long ago before I went to college. I wanted to see if it would hold up to my memories. It succeeded in that. It is a powerful book, especially when it focuses on the past injustices to the Jews. It made me sick at heart to read of the brutality and atrocities they suffered. The power of what they endured to create a nation sang to me.

The difference this time is that back in college, I took a course titled "History as Seen through the Eyes of the Novelist." Taught by a journalist/historian, the main thought came from the final exam question. Paraphrasing it, the question was, "Every novelist has a reason for writing his book. What was the reason for the show more books you read? Did the novelist achieve his goal?"

It is evident that Uris is pro-Israeli. It comes through in all of his noble characters that I fell in love with. Ari Ben Caanan, his father Barak, his sister Jordana, Jordana's love David Ben Ami, Karen Hansen Clement, and Dov Landau are richly drawn. Kitty Fremont is the American nurse through whom we see so many of the events and people.

However, Uris definitely paints with a broad negative brush when it comes to the Arabs in the stories. "Dirty" and "stinking" are used too frequently to describe the people, and their homes are almost uniformly "squalid." From what I have read about the history, it does seem accurate. However, I feel the loaded words weren't necessary to clarify what happened was wrong. I felt that I was being shoved down a path I would have taken anyway.

My final verdict is this is a 4.5 star book, losing a half star for the reasons above. It certainly accomplishes the author's objectives. It is an important novel in many ways because it clarifies how the roots of what happened during the Holocaust were already in too many countries. The Jewish ghettos, the pogroms, and the existing discriminatory laws made it too easy to ignore what was happening to a people who were already marginalized.

If you haven't read this massive historical novel, it is well worth the time, with the caveat above. show less

All through high school and into college, I had a friend who worked at our local library. Stopping in to visit every now and then, I’d sometimes leave with discards or old beat-up books that were being culled from the shelves. Though I believe by that point I’d already read Uris’s excellent tale of Ireland, Trinity, and Mila 18, his tale of the Warsaw ghetto, for some reason, I hadn’t yet read Exodus. That’s how I stumbled upon my first copy of this book.

Engrossing after even the first few pages, Exodus is, of course, the story of the creation of the State of Israel. Picking up not long after World War II ends, with the displaced Jews of Europe still living in refugee camps, their homes long gone or stolen, they are simply show more looking for a place to live and call their own. With the British cracking down on emigration to Palestine, those Jews wishing to make the trek must rely on luck or skill or guile. The book continues the journeys of these people from a shattered Europe, into Palestine, and toward a hard-won statehood.

So engrossing is the book that one day, about halfway in, I decided to take the old beat-up hardback into the bath with me. I don’t normally take baths. Think I just wanted to escape even further into the book. So there I was, halfway in, enjoying my bath, in the middle of an exciting scene, when I turned the page and . . . there was about a forty page chunk in the middle missing. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I blinked, looked again, but there was no doubt about it. It went from something like page 232 straight to page 280. You could even see the hollowed out chunk in the spine where those pages used to be.

Damn!

So frustrated was I that I did give passing thought to simply jumping ahead. I might even have read a sentence or two further, skipping over the missing chunk, before thinking better of it. Flinging the book aside, I dried myself off, got into my car, went to the bookstore, and bought another copy. And if the same thing happens to you?

You will too. show less

Even though I was caught up in the book when I first read it, I had to leave it halfway through... and when I went back to it some years later, after learning more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (not the American-Israeli fiction, but real history), I felt I couldn't read it, it was so nauseating. Now I work in the Middle East, and see the conflict more close at hand. I could talk with many displaced Palestinians, and hear their side of the story. And the aversion to the book has increased.

The story of "Exodus" could be summarised in one sentence: "Brave godlike Jews defeat cowardly, evil Arabs and build the beautiful country of Israel."

Yuck.

Epic Story of Struggle for Freedom

This book is a war novel, love story and epic adventure surrounding the formation of Israel after WWII. The political intrigue and battle scenes make for an exciting story, but the romance is a bit melodramatic. I enjoy books that inspire me to learn more about a topic. This book made me realize how little I know about the history this book is based on. I definitely plan to do some research about this important turning point in history, which still effects the world today.

Reason read: I've had this on my list of books I wanted to read for awhile and decided it was a good time to read it. I've not read anything by Leon Uris before. this is about the returning of the Jew to the promised land. His research is very good. The part about the ship Exodus 1947 is changed a bit but otherwise very true to history. This part of the book was not well received by actual real-life individuals. And of course it isn't appreciated by those that are anti Jew and pro Palestinian. It is more about Jewish nationalist than those of Jewish faith. I liked it and found it a good review of historical events and the sad state of affairs that continue today.

I desperately wanted a book that explained the foundations of Israel in historical fiction terms snd this book does so wonderfully. But it is more propaganda than historical fiction. All Arabs are smelly, backward and dishonest. All Jews are heroic with God on their side. And there are some out and out lies. There was a ship Exodus filled with Jewish refugees that was not allowed to disembark in Israel but it was not filled solely with children who were holocaust victims who went on hunger strike. This exaggeration made me doubt other claims in the book. Were the Middle East leaders all Nazi sympathisers? Did Israel really have so few arms?

That said, I learnt a lot. It’s just I want to know even more.

It was written in the fifties when show more the narrative was more about why Israel should exist. Nowadays everyone but HAMAS and Corbynites believes it should but we want more about how it can do so peacefully. show less

Rated: A
Great book. Sets the historical stage for the reestablishment of the nation of Israel in Palestine. It brings to light the bigoty, hatred and atrocities suffered by the Jewish people by various nations and people from ancient times to today. One cannot recognized the determination of the Jewish people to return to their promised land without recognizing the God Who gave it to them.