Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Real or not, it's fascinating, 8 April 2001
By A Customer
The legitimacy of the text is a red herring. This diary of an Italian Jewish merchant's trade mission to China, fictive or not, is a fascinating introduction to both Jewish life and China in the twelfth century. Whether the text is legitimate or David Selbourne is a genius novelist, "City of Light" immerses you in the life and daily experiences of Jacob of Ancona. You travel in his boat as he sails through pirate-infested waters pondering the exotic lands he encounters and his own metaphysical doubts.What most amazed me about the story is that I myself am a Jewish business man based in China, and that my current experiences are surprisingly similar to those of Jacob. This is a terrific read and if you're interested in either twelfth century China, international trade or the history of the Jews, you'd be a fool not to look at it. Were I to voice a criticism, it'd be this. My Mom always says, "If it's too good to be true, it is." In my opinion, this is too good to be true.
|
|
|
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
controversial but important, 27 Oct 1998
By A Customer
Selbourne has repeated refused to let anybody view the slightest part of the "D'ancona" manuscript or an facsimile of it. This obviously poses a huge problem in terms of credibililty. To introduce a text which, if legitimate, would trump the canonical Travels of Marco Polo, but then to refuse to give proof of its origin and existence is astounding. I live in the States, and have only been able to leaf through the hardcover edition my professor brought back from the UK. I would like to access to a copy, but skeptical publishers in the US have refused to print it here, partly due to the overwhelmingly negative response of American reviewers to Selbourne's stubborn refusal to legitimize his text. The production of the hardcover edition borders on silly, with the addition of period artworks which are irrelevant to the D'ancona text (in fact many seem borrowed from Marco Polo editions). I would like a chance to scruntinize the text further, and see it in a less complicated, overproduced form. The parts I have read indicate its value as a source for information on Jewish life and merchant culture, far more insightful in terms of philosophy and culture than the fanciful descriptions of Polo (if these insights are legitimate). I'm writing this review mainly to announce the circumstances of the book's production and critical reception which are conspicuously absent from the preceeding Amazon review. I invite others to better this review!
|
|
|
4.0 out of 5 stars
Utterly bogus but great fun., 8 April 2007
This satire on late twentieth-century manners and morals in the west, presented in the form of an account by a Jewish merchant visiting China in the dying days of the Southern Song Dynasty, is very, very funny. It's a mad, reactionary rant about abortion, homosexuality, lack of respect for ones elders, declining moral fibre and decadence, written in the 1990s by an intelligent right-winger with a wicked sense of humour. I loved it.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by John Mandeville
See all Product Description
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Make sure you always get what you want with an Amazon.co.uk 
Amazon Home