A quest for treasure amid today's war, vengeance and hatred.
Written: Aug 28 '06 (Updated Aug 28 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Tense, relevant and gripping
Cons: None. I thought it would be overlong but it didn't feel it.
The Bottom Line: The best book I have read in a long time.
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| vodkaboy's Full Review: |
I'd never heard of this author, or the book, but it came up on Amazon's automatic recommendation: "Seeing as you looked at the page for something similar, you might like this." The subtitle on the book says: "The intelligent reader's answer to The Davinci Code. That may be a bit demeaning to the millions of people who enjoyed "Davinci Code" (including yours truly); it also glosses over the meticulous research that went into "DC", not to mention the controversial and potentially explosive conclusion.
Whenever a book becomes a worldwide phenomenen, there will inevitably be people who try to replicate the formula - and yes I have read several "Templar Secret" books in the past couple of years. But The Last Secret of the Temple is very different, much grittier and much more relevant to our times.
There are superficial comparisons that can be easily drawn and no doubt will: the search for an ancient, religious mythological artifact, using clues left centuries ago and some potentially bad news for some if it falls into the wrong hands. Oh, and both start with a murder! However, the stories are played out by very different characters among very different backdrops. And while DC was panned for being contraversial, this book may be even more so as it raises and discusses the issues going on in in the Middle East today, presenting both sides of a twisted, tangled situation.
The Last Secret of the Temple, after a background, historical prologue that is quickly forgotten until later in the book, is set concurrently in Luxor and Jerusalem: modern day Jerusalem, with its tensions and antipathies between different races and faiths. And in these two cities, three people's stories are played out, all very different.
In Luxor Khalifa, an inspector in the Police with a personal passion for antiquities, is investigating the death of an elderly European man who has been living in Egypt for decades. There are some suspicious circumstances around this death; upon digging, he finds connections with another murder investigation many years ago and starts to question the earlier conviction. His superior at first warns him against rocking the boat, but the more Khalifa thinks about it, the more he is convinced that something was not right.
Meanwhile in Jerusalem, two people are leading entirely unconnected lives, not knowing that they will be brought together; uncomfortably together. Layla is a Palestinian journalist who is strong and outspoken in her views in support of the Palestinian cause. She interviews extremists, politicians, would-be suicide bombers, and writes about the discomforts, the injustices and the desparation of every day life for the Palestinians. This makes her less than popular among the Israelis, ironic as her father, a doctor, was killed by a mob for helping an injured Israeli youth. One day she is sent an anonymous message by someone claiming to have information which could prove invaluable to al Mulatham, the secretive and enigmatic leader of a Palestinian terrorist cell.
Then there is Arieh Ben-Roi, a policeman with the Israeli police force in Jerusalem. His peace-activist fiancee was killed at their engagement party by a Palestinian suicide bomber, a loss from which he has never recovered. Worn out, cynical and increasingly alcoholic, his family and few friends want him to move on but he can't. He feels severely bitter and angry towards the Arabs, particularly Palestinians.
And circumstances bring these three together, their seemingly unrelated roles and totally opposing beliefs interlinking and leading them to a common objective, a quest to find a long lost artifact before it falls into hands who would use it to create an even bloodier conflict.
We get to know these three individuals, their stories told sympathetically, the worlds in which they live described through energetic lunchtime debates, or quiet family dinner conversations. Different views are expressed, gossip and rumours and propaganda spread and quashed, contradictions and hypocrisies cited and challenged and some simple, stark realities described, all very real, very down to earth, and very much happening today. We learn of their every day lives through interactions with extremists - a far-right Israeli activist, a Palestinian would-be suicide bomber - but also with people working at the fringes for peace, such as a teacher at a joint Israeli-Palestinian school or a jovial, larger than life priest or a quiet, elderly Rabbi.
All of the people are described objectively, their views portrayed with understanding, even those directly opposed. The judging and condemning is left to the extremists on the other sides so that, cleverly, we are left with sympathy for both views, for all the characters. We feel for the pain and loss that Ben Roi feels; we admire Layla's courage and hardiness but can see the scared girl deep inside. We urge on Khalifa, understanding his desire to just do his job and come home to his wife, but willing him to follow the scent knowing the trouble it could bring.
And as such, the quest for the treasure almost becomes the sub plot, the vehicle for bringing these opposing, disparate people together with the inevitable consequences, and the surprising. They are on a quest for a treasure while those around it are on quests for vengeance and bloodshed. They cannot let go of their beliefs and their hatreds, but they cannot give into them either.
It would be very easy for telling the tale to slip into favouring one view over the other, to portray one side as the victim and the other as the aggressor. However Sussman manages to avoid the trap; we see see anger, pain, aggressors and victims on both sides, as well as normal, peace-loving folk. I am sure there will be some who claim he portrayed something unfairly, but the great majority of readers will come away having learned something about both sides. Maybe not enough to change the views they held before, but perhaps a slightly greater appreciation of the other point of view.
At 680 pages, excluding the glossary and thanks, I did fear that it would be a struggle, but far from it. The style of writing is easy to read, with the descriptive and thoughtful passages enough to build mood without dragging. The pace builds, the tension slowly escalates, the inevitable looms. This is a fast paced book, with action and suspense aplenty, and several twists that completely took me by surprise even at the end, in the last pages.
I wondered if this book would benefit from losing 50-100 pages but flicking through it, try as I might, I could not find one event or scene that I would edit out. Overall, I can only say that I found this quite thrilling, informative, enthralling, even powerful and without a doubt I enjoyed it more than any other book that I have read recently.
I'm not sure why the epinions listing has the book in Spanish, as it was first published in Britain, and yes I read it in English and it is available in English! And thoroughly recommended.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
vodkaboy
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Location: Somewhere over here
Reviews written: 168
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About Me:
I've been thinking. That's an improvement.
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