A review by jewelkr
City of Secrets by Stewart O'Nan

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 I try to even the lifetime score I have of reading books written by white men by avoiding reading books written by white men, but I picked this one up in a local Mystery Store and was interested because it is set in Jerusalem in 1947. 

 

Like other readers, I found it a little slow to start which is weird because it is a short book that moves through a lot of events that occur within about a week. I was annoyed early on by Brand/Jossi’s typical dichotomy between the “whores” who serviced the sailors and his girlfriend, who services politicians in aid of the rebellion even as he waits in his taxi to drive her home from her sex work.  As I’ve said before, entering the mind of a man in love is disturbing.  I don't know if this was intended by the author as a measure of the main character's inner conflicts, or if it's because that's how men see women.  It didn't stop me from reading on.

 

The author’s writing is very good; I found little else to editorialize about.  I did worry that a non-Jewish person was portraying a Jewish character, and one that survived the holocaust, a very difficult headspace to imagine, much less put down on paper.  But he does a good job of it.  Enough detail to provide context, just enough violence and gore to help the reader understand Brand/Jossi’s inner conflicts.  I concluded that the author is an ally and has spent a lot of time with Jewish people.  He also documents in his acknowledgement the amount of research that went into the plot. 

 

The book does not get into the politics of the then but does raise questions about the politics of the now which I won’t get into because I am not Jewish, Israeli or Palestinian.  It provides an awful look into the behavior of the British who had not yet started relinquishing the colonies – violating Holocaust survivors two years after their rescue from the Nazis and denying those same refugees entry while at the same time abusing the Palestinians – oh what a party.  There are further glimpses into Brand’s past which are poignant but not sentimental, as he lives with his own guilt and the ghosts of the people who did not survive.  I wish O’Nan wrote something besides suspense as he has quite a gift for conveying the suffering of the human condition in very few words.