- Unknown Binding: 310 pages
- Publisher: Holt, Rinehart and Winston; 1st ed edition (1977)
- ASIN: B0006COSS2
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'Sinai Tapestry' begins with the story of Strongbow (I won’t even begin to relate it), and proceeds in extravagant, grand, bawdy, mad style towards a moving, hugely cataclysmic denouement that is itself followed by a smaller, less epic but equally tragic personal cataclysm. And it seems quite appropriate that Whittemore's novel should have both a big ending (involving a nation) and a small one (involving an individual), for the novel as a whole is about both big things and little things. Or, perhaps more accurately, it is about individuals, little people, doing big things or becoming involved in big events.
But that doesn't quite do justice to the sheer amount of imaginative material there is in 'Sinai Tapestry', the first novel in Whittemore's Jerusalem Quartet. A Victorian explorer (amongst other things) writes a book about (in short) sex that is longer, and more comprehensive, than most encyclopaedias; entire dynastic backgrounds and decade long feats of endurance are related to the reader in a few pages; an original, ancient Bible is discovered along with the knowledge that it written by a blind man and a mad man trained to write; the relationship of a 3000 year old man with Jerusalem is weaved into the main narrative in such a way that it becomes central to the novel. This is a book that chooses all the grand specialist subjects - the millennial sweep of history, the pains and pleasure of human endeavour, love, friendship - and does justice to them all.
Key to 'Sinai Tapestry' is the droll, wry, very distinctive narrative voice (often seeming to be complicit with the madnesses it is relating to the reader) which holds everything together, and draws the reader through the book at great speed. Reading 'Sinai Tapestry' you find yourself periodically having to take a breath, because the narrative, thrashing along from wild image to wild image, isn't going to take a breath for you. Whittemore has given us a narrator - in turns humorous, satirical, and reverent, as required - every bit the equal of his narrative.
So, 'Sinai Tapestry' is a big book (albeit one that isn't particularly long, at 310 pages) from a big writer - a writer who is (and everyone who reads one of Whittemore's books comes away feeling this) criminally under read and under-appreciated. Full of big ideas and imagery, big in scope and ambition, and – ultimately - big in its execution, this isn't a novel that drifts serenely past the reader. It comes boldly up to them, grabs their hands in a firm handshake, and 'insists' that they get to know one another. It comes highly recommended - and I very much look forward to encountering Whittemore again.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
An old favorite and an enthralling reading experience
15 Aug 2001
Format:Hardcover
Edward Whittemore wrote five novels between the years 1974 and 1987. His most important work is the Jerusalem Quartet of which Sinai Tapestry is the first volume. I first read this novel in 1979 or thereabouts and was instantly infatuated by the setting of the novels, the eccentric characters and the unusual writing style of the author. The four books which make up the Quartet treat the reader to a rather bizarre history of the Middle East.
I have re-read all of Whittemore's novels several times over the years and still find them an enjoyable and unusual reading experience. Edward Whittemore has been sadly neglected for many years and has never really received the acclaim he deserves.
Many of the other reviewers of Whittemore's novels on Amazon have bemoaned the fact that these books have been out of print for many years, hard to come by and expensive secondhand. The good news is that all of his books are about to be reissued by Old Earth Books. I have created a web page devoted to Edward Whittemore's life and work....
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Truly Woven of Magic and Dreams
26 Jan 2002
Format:Paperback
What can anyone say about a book like this,except that it is too short and ends too quickly for my taste. A wondrous, whirling, spinning dream that takes you into a world that is at once fictional and all to real to anybody with an imagination and the good sense to use it. I've been through numerous copies,( and lent not a few of them out to friends, never to see them again), but that's what a great book like this does, makes the rounds and gives so much to those who have the good fortune to chance upon it. The people who inhabit the world of Strongbow, O'Sullivan Beare,Haj Harun and the rest are so alive with their dreams that they can make a lesser man feel mundane and useless. Edward Whittemore is most definitely one of, if not THE, greatest storytellers of this century. Get this book.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A haj through desert dreams
16 Dec 1999
Format:Hardcover
Sinai tapestry is a dream work with very real characters. People driven by strange desires weave their lives together through two thousand years of biblical myth. Contemporory events become the fulfillment of ancient prophecies and obsessions.
I am delighted to find that Edward Whittemore finished the quartet, of which I have only read the first book. As a work of bold imagination it ranks with the best while being far more earthy than Lawrence Durrell's Alexander Quartet. I am disappointed that his books are OOP -- he is vastly under-appreciated.
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