Damascus Gate - Softcover

Damascus Gate

Paperback. Zustand: Good. 512 pages. cover creased, spine stained, text lightly tannedIn his earlier novels, Robert Stone has taken us to such hot spots as Vietnam , Central America, and that ultimate sinkhole of depravity we call Hollywood. Th is time around, it's Jerusalem. Given Stone's gift for depicting both political and personal embroilment--indeed, for making the two inextricable--this particul ar city is an inspired choice. For starters, Jerusalem remains a sacred destinat ion for Muslims, Jews, and Christians and a hotly contested one. It's also a mag net for hustlers, fanatics, and millennial dreamers, a generous assortment of wh om populate the pages of Damascus Gate . As always, Stone introduces a (relative ly) innocent American into the picture--a journalist named Christopher Lucas. Th is career skeptic prides himself on his he prefers the kind of story that expos ed depravity and duplicity on both sides of supposedly uncompromising sacred str uggles. He found such stories reassuring, an affirmation of the universal human spirit. Yet Lucas, a lapsed Catholic, has journeyed to Jerusalem at least in pa rt to recharge his devotional batteries. And as he's slowly drawn into a terrori st plot--which involves drugs, arms smuggling, and a plan to blow up the Temple Mount--Lucas sheds his detachment in a hurry. Stone's novel functions as an expe rt thriller, whose slow, somewhat clunky wind-up is more than compensated for by a brilliant grand finale. It is also, however, a dogged exploration of faith, i n which cynics and true believers jostle for predominance. Life was so self-con scious in Jerusalem, the author reflects, so lived at close quarters, by compe ting moralizers. Every little blessing demanded immediate record. It's hard to imagine a more vivid record of these mutual blessings--and maledictions!--than R. Artikel-Nr. 6137h

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