- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st ed. edition (18 Jun 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002556073
- ISBN-13: 978-0002556071
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.2 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,118,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
‘Fox is always lucid, and his observations are counterpointed by a fine, dry sense of humour. Oscure Kingdoms succeeds best as a study of obsession… Since we can no longer travel further than our predecessors, today’s travellers must journey deeper. In this, Edward Fox admirably succeeds.’ Katie Hickman, TLS
‘Stylish, informative and very funny… One looks forward to Fox’s next book with great relish.’ A.C. Grayling, Financial Times
Sunday Times
"I heartily recommend this book...with his command of detail and pithy style, he strikes the right tone in a politically sensitive field"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Edward Fox narrates a sinister tale of intrigue, but the question is whose? Several hypotheses are presented, following painstaking sifting through the facts. However, nothing is ever quite what it appears to be, at least on the surface. The book is in the genre of one of the best unsolved murder mysteries. Riveting, because throughout there is a dark side to the story. Danger stalks Dr Glock on several fronts. His archaeological work is fraught with suspicion and strife. There are a number of people and factions who could have scores to settle! Was he assassinated by the Israelis for daring to persist in uncovering evidence of their questionable archaeology or, was he eliminated in mafia style by a more local angst ridden group? The character of the man and his work provide clues. The background of the first Intifada and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank are factors that cannot be ignored. Like a broken potshard, Fox fits the pieces of Glock's life together. In a society where potentially dangerous rumour and counter rumours abound, bringing coherence to the story of Dr Glock's death is no small task. A book that would translate into an exciting film, it has all the ingredients of a local academic and large scale political intrigue to stretch the imagination. A tragic gripping story of a stubbornly courageous man.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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1 review
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
archaeology as a postcolonial text
15 Jun 2006
Format:Paperback
This book reads at first like a not very skillful journalistic whodunnit about the unsolved murder of an archaeologist during the final, more violent stages of the first Palestinian uprising (1987-1993)against the Israeli occupation (1967 to the present). As I read on, however, Fox's choice of archaeology as a prism through which to view the conflict became increasingly more revealing. In addition to exhibiting quite a good grasp of both Palestinian and Israeli everyday life, Fox also explains how archaeology has been used both by Christian colonial or orientalist projects and by the Zionist movement to justify their influence or rule over Israel-Palestine. Even the name, the Holy Land, transforms the region into a symbol connected more to its past and to its textual existence than to its living present. Whereas Christian pilgrims and biblical scholars were more interested in the Christian and biblical past of the area, Zionists, and, later, the Israeli administration, were anxious to expose as much archaeological evidence as possible for the ancient presence and continuous existence of Jewish communities in what is present-day Israel, as well as in the occupied Palestinian territories. Moslem and Arab heritage and remains, abundant in the region, have been consistently marginalised by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Fox explains why it is that many of Israel's most famous archeologists were also generals. And it is no coincidence that the IAA official responsible for archaological excavations in the Occupied Territories is an acting army officer. When Palestinians decided not only to research and record the lives of Palestinians who had lived in the same region prior to the founding of the state of Israel (1948), but also to name that research 'archaeology', they were recognising and challenging a deeply ideologised field in Israel.
In postcolonial studies, archaeology has been used as a metaphor for the attempt to unearth, retrieve and partially regain the lost marks of a culture destroyed by colonialism. In this context, Palestine Twilight reads Palestinian resistance as an anti- or post-colonial project in more ways than one.
However, the book is not a propaganda text for the Palestinian cause. An extensive part of the book describes the mistrust fostered within Palestinian society during the uprising and the widening circles of murder based on accusations of collaboration, coupled with a tightening of conservative norms, expecially dangerous for young Palestinian women.
I learned alot from this book, and recommend it not so much for its literary merits as for its social and political insights.
In postcolonial studies, archaeology has been used as a metaphor for the attempt to unearth, retrieve and partially regain the lost marks of a culture destroyed by colonialism. In this context, Palestine Twilight reads Palestinian resistance as an anti- or post-colonial project in more ways than one.
However, the book is not a propaganda text for the Palestinian cause. An extensive part of the book describes the mistrust fostered within Palestinian society during the uprising and the widening circles of murder based on accusations of collaboration, coupled with a tightening of conservative norms, expecially dangerous for young Palestinian women.
I learned alot from this book, and recommend it not so much for its literary merits as for its social and political insights.
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