An unconvincing and offensive riot act.
An attack on ancient and modern Israel and those who lay claim to it.
In his debut book, Brown aims to answer a question: “If Israel was the chosen nation, what exactly was it chosen to do?” The author soon turns to aggressive appeals for his readers to understand his version of the truth, employing a gross misunderstanding of Judaism and broad racism along the way, despite his claim that “this…information is in NO WISE (sic) meant to be what is considered anti-Semitic.” Brown then tries to prove why Israelites are likely not those of the Jewish faith; he determines that Jews have no claim to the historical idea and modern incarnation of Israel. In a chapter titled “Will the real Israel Please stand up?,” he somewhat incoherently discusses biblical writings on slavery and spends a great deal of time in misguided, hurtful conversations regarding skin color and so-called “mud people.” Brown decides that ancient Israelites were not as fair-skinned as some people imagine them to have been; a reasonable assertion colored by him referring to Africans and African-Americans as “an appalling people” and “a difficult bunch.” Most of his statements are cyclical, apropos of nothing, or insensitive. There doesn’t seem to be a real conclusion, either; besides the bizarre conflation of racism and anti-Semitism—“Judaism [is] not all it’s cracked up to be”—the reasoning mostly revolves around a repetitive refrain: “Why does the identity of Israel matter? Truth liberates and truth always matters.” But whose truth is it? This brand of zeal will only appeal to like-minded readers; even if targeted groups weren’t offended, the writing is rarely strong enough to persuade. The weak, often inadequately cited research is frequently drawn from biblical passages, and at one point, he quotes Wikipedia—not a specific article or footnote, either; just Wikipedia. Amid the emoticons and all-caps phrases, the broiling convictions have trouble solidifying.
An unconvincing and offensive riot act.Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2013
ISBN: 978-1492107262
Page Count: 264
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
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