Fic­tion

A Vision of Angels

Tim­o­thy Jay Smith
  • Review
By – September 23, 2014

Ter­ror­ists are plot­ting to set off a bomb on East­er Sun­day to protest the hor­ren­dous con­di­tions in the Pales­tin­ian ter­ri­to­ries, where farm­ers and work­ers are unable to dri­ve through the mil­i­tary block­ades to sell their toma­toes or trav­el to work where the only work to be found is avail­able. An Israeli leader, Major Yakov Levy, orders the bor­der posts closed so that Pales­tini­ans can­not enter Israeli ter­ri­to­ry while Levy’s son works for an elu­sive peace” that can nev­er hap­pen, as one vio­lent act after anoth­er forces even harsh­er condi­tions on the Pales­tini­ans. David Kessler, an AP jour­nal­ist, becomes a hero when he sees a Pales­tin­ian boy shot and attempts to res­cue him, result­ing in a pho­to­graph run­ning on the front page of The New York Times that earns him fame abroad but not in Israel. Anoth­er plot involv­ing Kessler will have dis­as­trous reper­cus­sions for many fam­i­lies, hor­ri­fy­ing even more on both sides of the animosity. 

This nov­el can be clas­si­fied as a thriller and yet that word is chill­ing because it refers to a book based on actu­al events. Tor­ture, bombs, abuse by mil­i­tary and civil­ians, talk galore to stretch the patience of all sides, polit­i­cal machi­na­tions, and so much more fill these pages. The sto­ry presents the sides and choic­es — to car­ry on with the inter­minable con­fronta­tion or work toward the common­alities that alone can cre­ate peace. Read it and won­der what the future holds beyond what the com­ment on the book jack­et calls a mod­ern pas­sion play.”

Relat­ed content:

Deb­o­rah Schoen­e­man, is a for­mer Eng­lish teacher/​Writing Across the Cur­ricu­lum Cen­ter Coor­di­na­tor at North Shore Hebrew Acad­e­my High School and coed­i­tor of Mod­ern Amer­i­can Lit­er­a­ture: A Library of Lit­er­ary Crit­i­cism, Vol. VI, pub­lished in 1997.

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