THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 17, 1995 TAG: 9509150636
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY BERNICE GROHSKOPF
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
SACRIFICE OF ISAAC
NEIL GORDON
Random House. 304 pp. $22.
This is a fascinating book. Using the Bible story of Abraham and Isaac as a central symbol, Neil Gordon has written a thriller with a thesis. Instead of a polemic, he weaves his arguments into a tale of suspense with all the essential ingredients: forged documents, a mysterious disappearance, pseudonyms, confused identities, disguises, a missing diary, secret passages and key evidence stashed in a luggage locker in Paris.
It is difficult to discuss this book without revealing too much, but briefly: It is 1989. A distinguished Israeli general, Yossef Benami, national hero, as well as scholar, has died. His two sons are to inherit his sizable legacy, consisting primarily of valuable antiques and works of art. When his younger son, Luke, learns of his father's death, he travels from the United States, where he works as a translator, to Israel; his older brother Danni's whereabouts are unknown.
Danni is a Sabre, that is, a first-generation Israeli, but having deserted the Israeli army during the Yom Kippur war, he now lives in exile. Their mother, a concentration camp survivor who brought Luke to the United States when he was a young boy, has committed suicide. Luke sets out alone to solve some unanswered questions regarding his family history: Where is Danni (aka Maurizio Tueta), and why has he conveyed a message to the lawyer in Israel that he wants his share of his father's estate in cash?
The reader soon realizes, without fully understanding, that part of the story is being narrated by a young Austrian woman, Natalie Hoestermann, who is searching for the truth of her Nazi father's past. Her journey parallels Luke's, although the two do not meet until the close of the book, as Gordon gradually reveals the sinister ways their family histories are intertwined.
A second narrator is Peter Luria (aka Pierre Chevejon), Danni's loyal assistant in his illegal dealings in the trafficking of archaeological artifacts. While it isn't always clear who is telling the story, the events are so compelling that one keeps reading. Gordon's prose is spare, urgent, with a sense of foreboding. He relies on jump-cuts to sustain suspense, managing to keep all of the essential facts in the air, although at times he taxes the reader's willingness to suspend disbelief.
The author knows his locales as well as he knows languages and vividly conveys the atmosphere and warmth of a garden in Florence on a midsummer day, the threatening back streets of Paris at night, or the magic of Hagia Sophia against the midnight sky of Istanbul. A reader familiar with the musical technique of repeating motifs in a composition such as a concerto, symphony or string quartet, will notice how Gordon adopts the same technique to unify his central theme, especially regarding the symbolism of the title, and Caravaggio's painting of that biblical story.
Gordon's diverting tale of intrigue serves as a vehicle in which he addresses moral, ethical and political questions of guilt, responsibility, sacrifice and judgment of one's fellow human beings. To what lengths will one go for the sake of family loyalty? Can one ever justify killing another human being?
While at the heart of the story is the search for truth, central to Gordon's theme is an urgent question on the justification for Israel's present stance on Palestine. The questions he raises and the parallels he draws may not please all readers, but his questions cannot be ignored.
KEYWORDS: BERNICE GROHSKOPF IS A FREE-LANCE BOOK REVIEWER WHO LIVES IN
CHARLOTTESVILLE. by CNB