Martyrs' Crossing

by Amy Wilentz

Book Overview

From the author of the prize-winning The Rainy Season --a "sophisticated and suspenseful" ( The New York Times Book Review ) novel of love, fear, divided loyalties, ruined friendships, and personal... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345449835
• ISBN13: 9780345449832
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 330 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A fascinating look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

At first the title and cover intrigued me, but soon I was drawn into the plot, which will continue to connect to current events for years to come. The story takes place in West Bank and is told from two sides. The book revolves around the death of a Palestinian two-year-old, Ibrahim, whose mother was delayed by Israeli guards, as she tried to take her son across the border to an Israeli hospital. Some parts are told from the point of view of Maria, the Palestinian woman, who is the daughter of a famous Palestinian intellectual living in America, and also the wife of Hassan Hajimi, an imprisoned Hamas member. Other parts are told from the eyes of Ari Dolton, the soldier who was ordered to keep Maria from crossing the border. Controversy ensues over the death; some Palestinians proclaim Ibrahim a martyr and this a new cause to fight against Israel. The Israeli papers portray Ibrahim as simply a future terrorist. But for Maria, her father, and Hassan, this is not a news event, not a new cause, but simply the tragic death of a child. Wilentz manages to show both sides fairly; there is no good and evil. Instead, she paints a picture of a conflict that affects life, survival, and skips over no one. The book, using engaging dialogue, language, and a variety of fascinating characters, is hard to put down. I would recommend anyone interested in history or current events read it to get a more personal, yet not one-sided, view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Passion and Politics: What Is Worth Killing and Dying For?

What novel could be more timely and inviting than an intelligent, literate, readable, suspenseful, emotionally compelling, and thoughtful story treating the question: What--among the varied human experiences of family, friendship, history, culture, religion, tradition, heritage, territory, nationhood, ideals, values, competing loyalties, and the notion of truth itself--is worth living for, working for--and especially--killing and/or dying for? To be sure, Wilentz never comes right out and asks these questions--instead, her beautifully plotted story subtly raises, explores, and offers insight into all of them, by offering a wide range of intelligent characters from varying ages, backgrounds, and experiences, who are arriving at a multiplexity of conclusions and viewpoints while facing intricately intertwined human dilemmas.I know this book will provoke animated and thoughtful discussion in my book club. I was first attracted to the book (when browsing in the "New Book Section" of our library) by Wilentz's beautiful writing style, as well as her very evident intellectual depth. She has clearly spent much time living in and reporting on Israel/The West Bank, but more importantly, she has thought long and respectfully about disparate approaches to politics, patriotism, and violence.This is not a heavy, depressing book, it's a love story--in fact a compilation of moving and convincing love stories about the varieties of passionate human relationships. It's gripping--at times seeming to move inexorably toward a Greekly tragic conclusion (although I found the end surprisingly heartening.) I felt I understood each character's struggle to find integrity and meaning; Wilentz works hard to give each viewpoint a human face and a convincing history and testimony. Wilentz has a talent for character and for realistic thoughts/dialogue. She makes all her characters appealing and believable (sometimes grotesquely so), all worthy of respect and understanding, in their individual struggles to make sense of the most difficult human challenges.Although I'm fascinated with the political and spiritual questions Wilentz raises, and although I've read urgently in the areas of war, peace, politics, religion and philosophy, I have never been to Israel and know no Palestinians. I felt that Wilentz's pen was painfully sharp, cynical, and for the most part balanced, when aimed at the hypocrisies of both "sides," and also strongly empathetic and sympathetic, when focused on the pain and grievances of both sides.But ultimately, this is not a book about Jews and Palestinians. It's a book about home, and integrity, and about the personal qualities, values, and actions that make a person deserve to call a building and a child and a spouse and a friend and a city and a land, "his/her own." And although Wilentz never directly mentions the word "nationalism," I believe this is also a book about whether the concept of nationalism is ultimately helpful or hurtful to human life.I could

Only connect

Better reporters than Amy Wilentz have found themselves caught short by the transition from journalism to fiction (for example Jimmy Breslin, whose novels always leave me hungry for his column). But im Martyr's Crossing Amy Wilentz has vaulted across in her very first attempt. The story takes an incident that could be from today's headlines (and, tragically, tomorrow's headlines as well): the death of a child in Israel. In this case, the child is killed by asthma and the lack of proper medical treatment, not by a bullet. Also in this case the child is Palestinian. But part of the triumph of this book is the way Wilentz's characters--Israelis and Palestinians--are three dimensional human beings, not cardboard caricatures of good and evil.There are terrorists here, and terror, and the cold political calculations of men determined to hold on to power, willing to exploit any tragedy if it serves their purposes. But Wilentz's humane and gripping narrative is a million miles from the wooden gestures of the politcal thriller. The center of her attention, and ours, is the boy's mother, Marina, American born and educated, but drawn back to the Palestine described by her father, a Harvard professor. Wilentz's description of the tensions and passions between father and daughter is superb, as is her portrayal of the almost unendurable sorrow of a mother powerless to keep her child alive. But what makes the novel even more exceptional is Wilentz's equally compelling portrayal of the Israeli who first keeps Marina from passing his checkpoint (and getting her son to the hospital) then valiantly, but vainly, attempts to help.Wilentz offers no easy answers. Instead, she allows both sides the full weight of their tragic collision. Beautifully written, and clearly informed by careful reporting, this is a triumphant fictional debut.

Loved it

I loved Martyrs' Crossing; couldn't put it down. The characters leapt off the page, absorbing me completely. Wilentz's style is simultaneously raw and refined. Very refreshing indeed. Martyrs' Crossing is a work of shocking candor and devastating immediacy and I can only hope to enjoy more fiction from this fine writer in the near future.

I love this book

Martyr's Crossing is a beautifully written and moving story with vivid characters. It has a modern hero in the conflicted young Israeli lieutenant who tries to help a Palestinian woman at a border checkpoint. It has a beautiful young mother whose bravery is heartbreaking. The book has brains and heart and elements of the thriller. It is literary. "He felt dizzy with the past, as if it were suddenly physical," Wilentz writes of a Palestinian man, visiting his Jerusalem home after 50 years away. Reading this book, the past does seem physical, and so does the wrenching present. This book brims with tastes and smells, sounds and texture, so that the place and its people come alive. One thing that strikes me as extraordinary about the book is how political it is without being partisan or overbearing. A good read.