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Oranit: Crossed Lines

Name: Oranit: Crossed Lines
Author: Michael Benjamin
ISBN: 978-1508804178

by Michael Benjamin ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2015

Not a breezy read and often downright challenging, but worth the effort.

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Debut author Benjamin weaves a suspenseful mystery set in the Middle East into a deeper meditation on the powerful allure of home or, in this case, a land of one’s own.

Jeannie is a former Israeli soldier and now an investigator for the Shabbak (once known as the Shin Bet). Her father was instrumental in founding Oranit, a new village established in fiercely disputed territory that straddles the border of Israeli and Palestinian controlled lands. An Arab helps with the construction of a controversial wall meant to symbolize the autonomy of Oranit as a village and the political sovereignty of its inhabitants. The Arab, Mahmud, turns up dead, and it’s quickly and not unreasonably assumed he was murdered by the vengeful PLO, enraged over his cooperation with Israeli settlers. A bullet casing is found, however, and new evidence opens up the case, implicating Mitch, the popular and powerful chairman of the village council. When the murder appears to connect to another investigation into Mitch’s possible involvement in land fraud and smuggling from Beirut, the stakes soar. The details of the mystery unfurl slowly and often confusedly, sometimes leaving the reader lost within a patchwork narrative that relies heavily on flashbacks and remembrances. Thankfully, close attention is repaid by an astute view of the conflict over land in the Middle East from the perspectives of concrete, human longings. Oranit is saturated with symbolic power: “Oranit was to be their Garden of Eden. When Jeannie first arrived, there was nothing there but a barren patch overlooking a beautiful leafy forest.” Also, a shocking final twist will leave one’s jaw agape.

Not a breezy read and often downright challenging, but worth the effort.

Pub Date: April 16, 2015

ISBN: 978-1508804178

Page Count: 170

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: May 26, 2015

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.