One of the very best books I have read about Israel is Coming Together, Coming Apart by Daniel Gordis. In 1998, Gordis and his family moved from LA to Israel for a year long sabbatical. Within a few months of arriving, they decided to stay for good.
He would send emails to friends and family back home, describing the reality of day to day life in Israel as the optimism of Oslo broke down. These were no ordinary emails: they were powerful, insightful, colourful and beautiful. Gordis published a collection of them in a fine book called If A Place Can Make You Cry (since republished as Home To Stay).
Coming Together, Coming Apart was the sequel to this book and was just as intelligent as its predecessor. This time, with the backdrop of the impending disengagement from Gaza, Gordis’s unflinchingly humane, considered voice is all the more potent. He comes across as an ever-more thoughtful father and a brilliant man.
Gordis has a new book coming out next month called Saving Israel: How The Jewish People Can Win A War That May Never End. I can’t wait. If the blurb on Amazon and the Introduction which I have read online are anything to go by, this promises to be a magnificent book. I’ll be clearing my diary on publication day so I can spend the day with it.
[...] Democracy after we recently corresponded over email. Can’t wait to read it. Meanwhile, the brilliant Daniel Gordis sent me a copy of his new book Saving Israel. I’ve just finished reading it and will post a [...]
[...] – as they are for every state. Such a book does exist, but Avraham Burg didn’t write it. Daniel Gordis did, and I’ll review here in the coming days. Posted by Chas Newkey-Burden on 03.01.09 [...]
[...] wrote last month about my enormous respect for Daniel Gordis and the thoughtful, personal books he has written about [...]
[...] Gordis, who has written numerous eloquent books about life in the Holy Land, which I wrote about here. His most recent book is called Saving Israel. It is a less personal but more passionate read, [...]