Book Overview
Set in the near future within a war-torn Israel, The Jewish War chronicles the rise to power of Jerry Goldberg, a Bronx teen who has devoted his life to hastening the arrival of the Jewish Messiah. Charismatic and ambitious, Jerry changes his name to Yehudi Hagoel and amasses a cadre of followers to help him establish and maintain the God-given boundaries of Palestine. Written with the humor and satire that have won her acclaim, Tova Reich narrates Hagoel's illicit passage to Israel, his coronation as king of secessionist Judea and Samaria, and his ultimate retreat from the Israeli armies.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0815604521
ISBN13:9780815604525
Release Date:March 1997
Publisher:Syracuse University Press
Length:288 Pages
Weight:0.70 lbs.
Dimensions:0.7" x 5.5" x 8.3"
Customer Reviews
3 ratings
Fiction on a High Wire
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
As in most of her other works, Tova Reich has much to say about Jewish Messianic movements in The Jewish War; for the most part, she shows the horrible outcome when Jews try to bring about the redemption themselves, revealing her knowledge of Jewish history, with its failed Messiahs like Sabbatai Zevi and Jacob Frank. But she adds more modern concerns about cults and their charismatic leaders, making the mass suicide at the end, with shades of Jonestown, all the more plausible. As readers of Reich's fiction know she also brings in characters from previous works, here particularly from The Master of the Return. And as in all of her works (with the exception of My Holocaust) Reich balances satire and pathos like a woman on a high wire.
Portrait of spiritual futility
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 18 years ago
The other reviewers' notes on this book's humor notwithstanding, do not expect to laugh out loud, IMHO. Although Reich valiantly attempts to convey an important story through humor, her approach ultimately fails to make good on the best outcome of humor: to take us out of our limited perspectives and connect us to deeper meaning. The book does convey the deep emptiness of fundamentalist thinking and its spiritual depletion. Unfortunately, unless you can follow Reich's path closely, the novel itself has that feel by the end, not having created any larger framework of meaning around the profound futility of what is described.
brilliant satire
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
This is as provocative and timely a book as it was when it appeared in the middle of the last decade. Achingly funny and profund, it goes far to delineate the psychology and religious doctrine that guides Jewish fundamentalists. It is rare to encounter a book so funny that never diminishes the complexity it aspires to portray. Reich is a magnificient writer and a very sharp thinker.
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