Reviewed by Jack Smith
I hope you took my advice last month and read “The Hope” by Herman Wouk. If you did, get ready for “The Glory.” Both books cover the birth of Israel and its turbulent history. “The Hope” opens in 1948 and culminates with the triumph of the Six Day War in 1967. As the story resumes in “The Glory,” Wouk portrays the young nation of Israel once again pushed to the brink of annihilation and sets the stage for today’s ongoing struggle for peace. Wouk takes us from the Sinai to Jerusalem to the raid on Entebbe and from Camp David to the lives of historical figures like Golda Meir, a Bronx housewife who, as Prime Minister, steered Israel to several victories. This book is definitely the easiest and best way to read the history of Israel in the 1960s and 1970s. I did start to wonder what the rate of affairs and divorce in Israel was during this time period, because it seems like all of the characters were embroiled in torrid affairs and had turbo charged libidos. This may have occurred due to the thought “party tonight, for tomorrow we die.” These extraordinary novels have the authenticity of all of Wouk’s books and together strike a chord of hope for all of us. These are two of my favorite books and I encourage you to run, not walk to your nearest bookstore or library.
