Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A return to (superior) form, 17 Jul 2004
The clarity of the writing and the freshness of the description mean that the reader soon becomes engaged by the unfolding of the story, so that the micro-world being created becomes real. It is evident that this story draws upon personal experience yet without being given the impression that "colour" is being introduced because the author just HAS to get this incident in. Nothing is introduced that isn't germane to the plot and, unusually for a book which depends so much upon the unexpressed (to other characters) thoughts of the protagonists, the story moves along at a very fast lick.
Descriptions of the locality are vivid without being florid or over-extended and the characters are very well drawn -- the main ones being satisfyingly fleshed out into three dimensions over the course of the story; the subsidiary characters sketched quickly but memorably with one or two salient features.
What is particularly good, though, is the clarity with which the background to the story is handled. The politics of the Lebanon are absorbed by the reader because the author never preaches or teaches, but instead builds up a picture over the course of the story. It made clear to me what had been only a hazy understanding from newspapers and TV reports of many years ago.
I liked this one just as much as The Monkey House -- and I liked that one very much.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unputdownable. A triumph., 3 Jul 2004
By A Customer
Nick and Reem are all too human, all too vulnerable, yet their differing goals, their developing love for each other somehow make them almost larger than life in this reader's mind. They are still will with me, days after finishing the book. They are haunting my thoughts, even now. An amazing achievement.
The author's sense of place is assured and vivid. All you film makers out there - what are you waiting for?
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The training of a suicide bomber in the Middle East, 2 Jun 2006
This is a very unusual story, and one that is of special interest to all of us who find ourselves shocked and mystified by the mentality of suicide bombers. The events of 11 Sept. 2001, the London Underground bombings in July 2005, and the almost daily suicide bombings in Iraq and Israel makes it important that we try to understand what on earth is going on here.
The story in "This Green Land" (or "Give Me Death" as the hardcover version was called) takes place during the civil war in Lebanon, around 1985 (no exact date is mentioned). There are two main characters: Reem is an attractive young woman from the southernmost part of Lebanon (which became part of Israel) who has lost her home and her entire family. Nick is an idealistic young British man who is working for the United Nations in Lebanon.
Reem and Nick meet in Beirut. For Nick it's love at first sight. For Reem it's something quite different - she's being trained to be a suicide bomber, and she needs Nick in order to be able to gain access to her target.
The story proceeds slowly but surely to an incredible climax. There are many unexpected turns, and many things happen that make us reconsider our prejudices.
John Fullerton's writing style is sure, and he does a very good job of making us understand what was happening in Lebanon at this time, with all of the rival factions and militias, and the terrible breakdown of the functioning of society. We also learn to understand the human emotions involved, and understand why Reem has made her terrible choice.
In fact, Mr. Fullerton is able to make us feel that we are almost involved personally and experiencing what is happening, not just spectators reading a book. He does this through a combination of his up-close writing style and the wealth of nitty-gritty details that are provided. (He worked in Beirut as a journalist during the civil war so he has personal experience with what conditions were like.)
Highly recommended. The lack of the fifth star is mostly due to my feelings that the secondary characters are not as believable as they should be, and that the exact method by which Reem was supposed to detonate the bomb is completely crazy.
Rennie Petersen
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