Helpful Score: 3
Enlightenment, September 3, 2005
Reviewer: Warren I. Nissen (Concord, NH)
Pay attention to what you can learn from reading this novel.
The author had done his home work and teaches what one can expect from the Middle East culture in an entertaining way.
It is depressing.
Sensitive, perceptive, laborious...currently pertinent., March 18, 2006
Reviewer: Ernest C. Brockschmidt
I just read The Haj last week, led by interest developed over 4 years of studying the Koran and Islam, and following the printed and broadcast news re Palestine vs Israel. Also, just finished reading all 89 reviews currently listed by Amazon, finding myself in agreement with most of the positive commentary [interestingly, most of which is contemporary and reflective of the current situation]. I find disturbing and reprehensible, criticisms which state that The The Haj is historically inaccurate without substantiating that claim. I would urge any of those critics to come forward and document those supposed inaccuracies. The book impressed me deeply and pointed out psychological characteristics that are clearly demonstrated every day in current events and commentary by hatred-consumed anti-Semites...and,more disturbingly, Anti-"Westerners" in general.The book left me anxious to study more deeply the recent and past history of the Middle-East. I suspect that I will find extensive confirmation of Leon Uris' research. I will say this: I am highly critical of Islamic claims on sacred places dating back only to the 7th or 6th century AD, and usurping the claims of Jews and Christians centuries, and millennia, earlier!
Reviewer: Warren I. Nissen (Concord, NH)
Pay attention to what you can learn from reading this novel.
The author had done his home work and teaches what one can expect from the Middle East culture in an entertaining way.
It is depressing.
Sensitive, perceptive, laborious...currently pertinent., March 18, 2006
Reviewer: Ernest C. Brockschmidt
I just read The Haj last week, led by interest developed over 4 years of studying the Koran and Islam, and following the printed and broadcast news re Palestine vs Israel. Also, just finished reading all 89 reviews currently listed by Amazon, finding myself in agreement with most of the positive commentary [interestingly, most of which is contemporary and reflective of the current situation]. I find disturbing and reprehensible, criticisms which state that The The Haj is historically inaccurate without substantiating that claim. I would urge any of those critics to come forward and document those supposed inaccuracies. The book impressed me deeply and pointed out psychological characteristics that are clearly demonstrated every day in current events and commentary by hatred-consumed anti-Semites...and,more disturbingly, Anti-"Westerners" in general.The book left me anxious to study more deeply the recent and past history of the Middle-East. I suspect that I will find extensive confirmation of Leon Uris' research. I will say this: I am highly critical of Islamic claims on sacred places dating back only to the 7th or 6th century AD, and usurping the claims of Jews and Christians centuries, and millennia, earlier!
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