The Prophet Motive

Fülszöveg

Israel is unique as a country-well, apart from anything else, where else would you find a Hungarian Jew, masquerading as an Arab and buying his camel on hire purchase? But if it's a country unique in its eccentricities it's also a nation unique in its problems.
For a writer it is all too easy to see Israel in terms of absolutes : absolutely right, absolutely wrong —when it's not even absolutely Jewish. Israel is people, and it is the people George Mikes talked to who make this book not only funny, but also informative, lucid and full of insights. Mr Mikes does not shirk the issues : he looks at the old problems : Arab hostility, the Palestinian refugees; and at the new ones created by the Six Day War, like the occupied territories and the changing attitudes of the outside world. He sees no easy answers; but he does show us that, like other countries, Israel is concerned not only with the big problems but also with the small ones - like getting its citizen to drink more alcohol... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Israel is unique as a country-well, apart from anything else, where else would you find a Hungarian Jew, masquerading as an Arab and buying his camel on hire purchase? But if it's a country unique in its eccentricities it's also a nation unique in its problems.
For a writer it is all too easy to see Israel in terms of absolutes : absolutely right, absolutely wrong —when it's not even absolutely Jewish. Israel is people, and it is the people George Mikes talked to who make this book not only funny, but also informative, lucid and full of insights. Mr Mikes does not shirk the issues : he looks at the old problems : Arab hostility, the Palestinian refugees; and at the new ones created by the Six Day War, like the occupied territories and the changing attitudes of the outside world. He sees no easy answers; but he does show us that, like other countries, Israel is concerned not only with the big problems but also with the small ones - like getting its citizen to drink more alcohol and living up to the expectations of American tourists.
In writing a book that is both funny and serious, sympathetic but critical, about a country that so closely involves the emotions, George Mikes has brought off a triumph.
The delightful illustrations by the Israeli artist Jossi Stern-who also designed the jacket-catch the spirit both of the country and of the book. Vissza