Book Club for April: "City of Secrets"
The book “City of Secrets” by Stewart O'Nan is a fairly short but eventful novel set in Jerusalem, as part of the British colony, soon after World War 2. The principal is a Jew who survived the war and has moved to start a new life from Europe. The book sets out some of his adventures as he joins one of the gangs of Jews who are trying by violence to drive out the British.
Part of the interest of the book is partly because the State of Israel is where rebellions still continue , but now are the Arab population rebelling the current government whose forerunners were the other way round.
But can we in this discussion keep the book on its own story and its skill in based on the history of the 1940s rather than the politics of the 2020s. I’ll offer some questions as starters for discussion later in the month.
book
Part of the interest of the book is partly because the State of Israel is where rebellions still continue , but now are the Arab population rebelling the current government whose forerunners were the other way round.
But can we in this discussion keep the book on its own story and its skill in based on the history of the 1940s rather than the politics of the 2020s. I’ll offer some questions as starters for discussion later in the month.
book
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Comments
1. Did you enjoy or suit the style written? For example: the style of the opening chapter, and the later chapter about Passover with its many phrases in Hebrew?
2. Did you think that there were an unbelievable lot of tourists from Europe or America to be in Jerusalem so soon after World War 2? Did that number make the book less realistic?
3. Did you find that the depiction of various of the characters were deep enough to make them engaging in the story? Perhaps referring to the gang as a whole, as well the individuals such as Brand, Eva, Asher, Lifshitz, or other? (I mean ‘engaging’ as helping to carry the narrative, rather in real life than such a person would be likeable .)
4. Many authors yield much more detailed description of the physical appearance and clothes than this author did? Do you miss it – perhaps notably at the balls at the King David Hotel?
5. As Brand, as a person who came to Jerusalem to Israel because he felt displaced from Europe. But a year afterwards, at the end of the book, he becomes again feeling like a displaced person. Did you find that ending of the book just a bit too neat?
6. Do you have any comment on how well the British Mandate seems accurate or justifiable as the book is depicted?
7. Any other matters you would like to discuss about the book? [I thank Nenya for suggesting that question on another book; it got lots of response that time.]
Very comfortable with the style that it was written in. During my MA days I had an Israeli roommate. My MA was also on an area of Canadian Jewish history and I had at one point been considering pursuing a doctorate in Israel. In 1986, the then future MS.C was hired as a summer student to work on the creation of a local Jewish Museum. Fast forward 40 years and she is the Executive Director and Curator of the Museum. Despite not being Jewish ourselves, Ms.C and I are quite familiar with Judaism with a smattering of Hebrew and Yiddish.
2. Did you think that there were an unbelievable lot of tourists from Europe or America to be in Jerusalem so soon after World War 2? Did that number make the book less realistic?
Given that the Mandate was actively controlling migration to the area, it was a bit surprising the level of tourism.
3. Did you find that the depiction of various of the characters were deep enough to make them engaging in the story? Perhaps referring to the gang as a whole, as well the individuals such as Brand, Eva, Asher, Lifshitz, or other? (I mean ‘engaging’ as helping to carry the narrative, rather in real life than such a person would be likeable .)
I think the characters were drawn at a sufficient depth since the story was primarily told from Brand’s point of view even though it was told in the third person. We were never really privy to information that Brand was not also privy to. I think the secrecy was part of the carrying forth of the plot. The length of the novel did not allow for exploring the characters in depth.
4. Many authors yield much more detailed description of the physical appearance and clothes than this author did? Do you miss it – perhaps notably at the balls at the King David Hotel?
Did not miss it. Tending to give the feel that the Mandate was a dull, grey place and period.
5. As Brand, as a person who came to Jerusalem to Israel because he felt displaced from Europe. But a year afterwards, at the end of the book, he becomes again feeling like a displaced person. Did you find that ending of the book just a bit too neat?
Brand was an idealist. Zionism was his ideal. When the ideal became too tarnished, he needed to move on. Yes, it seemed neat but I am not sure what other conclusion may have been more satisfying.
6. Do you have any comment on how well the British Mandate seems accurate or justifiable as the book is depicted?
By ‘46 the British were looking to get out of the Mandate. It had been expensive on economic, political and moral grounds
7. Any other matters you would like to discuss about the book? [I thank Nenya for suggesting that question on another book; it got lots of response that time.]
I wrote an essay on Canada’s involvement on UNSCOP. If anyone is interested in that topic they might want to refer to Canada and the Birth of Israel by David Bercuson, an admittedly small c Canadian historian. Canada and the Birth of Israel: A Study in Canadian Foreign Policy · Canadian Book Review Annual Online
1. Did you enjoy or suit the style written? For example: the style of the opening chapter, and the later chapter about Passover with its many phrases in Hebrew?
Yes. I thought the book to be both easy to read and a background scene of interest. The opening chapter seemed to me to be a master of setting briefly the background scene and the main character. ( A huge contrast to the March book “Orbital”, especially the overly rich wording of its opening chapter!)
2. Did you think that there were an unbelievable lot of tourists from Europe or America to be in Jerusalem so soon after World War 2? Did that number make the book less realistic?
I didn’t notice it as I first read the book. But my wife, who grew up in Europe in the 1950s, he pointed out that in Britain and several other European countries they were still feeling the economic impact still of the war, thereby making very little of travel to countries even then. Even in America it seemed hard to her that for a few years after the War there would not have been much cross-Atlantic travel, unlike as it seems in the American tourists in Palestine depicted in this book. The only ‘visitor’ figures I could get any indication between 1945 to 1948: that was that in the Jerusalem museum had about 25,000 per year, but that includes not only visitors but also. local residents.
3. Did you find that the depiction of various of the characters were deep enough to make them engaging in the story? Perhaps referring to the gang as a whole, as well the individuals such as Brand, Eva, Asher, Lifshitz, or other? (I mean ‘engaging’ as helping to carry the narrative, rather in real life than such a person would be likeable .)
Brand feels to me realistically depicted as someone who has moved to a new country, especially as almost he loved has been killed in his former landplace. The narrator, even though writing in third person, conveys much enough to feel how Brand is living in a country new to him. Eva has hidden much of his life from Brand, but he too feels much as she lets him. The others are too minor to be seen in much depth.
4. Many authors yield much more detailed description of the physical appearance and clothes than this author did? Do you miss it – perhaps notably at the balls at the King David Hotel?
Being a man, I usually skip over much of such detail if it’s as long as some authors put. Though I do notice the details (still fairly brief but far from non-zero) that almost all meals get depicted in Donna Leon’s crime stories of Venice in Italy. .
5. As Brand, as a person who came to Jerusalem to Israel because he felt displaced from Europe. But a year afterwards, at the end of the book, he becomes again feeling like a displaced person. Did you find that ending of the book just a bit too neat?
While I did feel his departure though understandable in his feeling as yet another war starts to bury his life, just as the former one in Europe. But I still felt it a bit limp to end a novel.
6. Do you have any comment on how well the British Mandate seems accurate or justifiable as the book is depicted?
As far as the story makes it, the British are sick of being involved in yet another war after finally WW2 has ended. That sounds it to be realistic.
7. Any other matters you would like to discuss about the book? [I thank Nenya for suggesting that question on another book; it got lots of response that time.]
I felt it was a lively and mercifully short novel, placed in an interesting part of history. So I am somewhat disappointed that few of our fellows on the Ship seem to have even read it.