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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A consistently excellent book of contrasts, 21 Feb 2005
On the surface, the Lux family seems the model of Oxford respectability. The father, Victor, is the archetypal academic: a benign, slightly bewildered figure who is wrapped up in his world of books, ancient civilisations and university rivalries. Jean, his wife, jumps through all the expected hoops and the two children, Eve and Phoebe, are gifted and charming respectively. However, under this facade is a seething bed of emotions waiting to be released. Victor, despite his intelligence, is unable to articulate or even recognise his own intense feelings, while Jean begins to push the boundaries of a marriage in which she would never have confessed to feeling trapped. In the contrasts between Oxford's open spaces and dreaming spires, and its cramped, claustrophobic academic pedantry, Mendelson paints a portrait of the paradox of marriage, and the difference between its outer and inner surfaces.However, the main story concerns Eve: the rejected, self-pitying, hopelessly socially-unskilled, diligent oddball, whose jealousy for Phoebe, her mother's favourite, has crossed into the realms of hatred. At times, Eve's role in the family and Phoebe's unbelievable malevolence seem almost caricatured, but in cleverly taking Eve's point of view, Mendelson manipulates the skewed teenage perception of a world in which she is Cinderella - or rather, perhaps, the Ugly Duckling - and everyone else acts the wicked stepmother. Eve's struggle to find a place in her family and in her own self-consciousness during the troubled period of adolescence is interrupted by the arrival of what she believes to be her prince charming. Charlotte Mendelson's erratic, unusual characters are three-dimensional, and she skillfully moves between perspectives to give at least a brief glance of the inner thoughts of many. A well-paced plot and prose which is at the same time minimalistic and yet manages to capture moments with hard, bright clarity, are fitting framework for a story about rivalry, jealousy, hatred, misery, loss, self-discovery and love. Despite the complex issues this books deals with, Daughters of Jerusalem is unjudgemental, laying out the lives of its characters with a simplicity that leaves the reader to form their own conclusions. Charlotte Mendelson is, above all, a storyteller: if there is a message or a moral to this book it is, unexpectedly, about the unfathomable and beautiful nature of love between lovers, couples, parents and sisters: focussing more on its irrational resilience than fragility. A book which is ultimately strangely uplifting, and a compelling read throughout.
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