Jean and Katherine have inspired me to write a post about the novel I'm now reading, The Black Widow by Daniel Silva. It's the 16th book in the series about (the fictional) Gabriel Allon, an Israeli intelligence operative and part-time art restorer.
The first of his books that I read was an accident - my sister picked it up for me at the library because it had an interesting cover - but I was soon hooked on the series. Before that I didn't really know much about Israel or the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but from Daniel Silva, a former Middle East correspondent for UPI, I acquired a real curiosity about the whole subject and started reading non-fiction about it.
Silva introduces the main character as a middle aged agent who, as a young man, was chosen to take part in Operation Wrath of God, Israel's plan to hunt down and kill the terrorists responsible for the 1972 Munich massacre of 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team. He had been planning to be an artist before that, but after this harrowing experience he instead became an art restorer of Renaissance masters.
The novels are interesting as travel books - they are set not just in Israel but also all over Europe, Russia, the UK, and the US. There is a lot too about art and eventually Gabriel ends up restoring for the Vatican Museums :) The earlier novels have a lot of historical stuff about WWII and the Holocaust, including the part played by the Catholic church (see Bishop Alois Hudal). The later novels dwell more on historic and contemporary terrorism, like the Dizengoff Street bus bombing and in the latest novel, the work of ISIS. While the novels are told from an Israeli perspective, I think they are very even-handed on the political issues.
I know that by being pro-Israel I'm in the minority among liberals, but what I have learned from the novels and the non-fiction reading they've encouraged has changed the way I think of Israel, and has made the Israelis, while flawed as we all are, very human.
Here's an NPR Fresh Air interview with Silva ....
Monday, April 3, 2017
How I learned to love Israel
Jean and Katherine have inspired me to write a post about the novel I'm now reading, The Black Widow by Daniel Silva. It's the 16th book in the series about (the fictional) Gabriel Allon, an Israeli intelligence operative and part-time art restorer.
The first of his books that I read was an accident - my sister picked it up for me at the library because it had an interesting cover - but I was soon hooked on the series. Before that I didn't really know much about Israel or the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but from Daniel Silva, a former Middle East correspondent for UPI, I acquired a real curiosity about the whole subject and started reading non-fiction about it.
Silva introduces the main character as a middle aged agent who, as a young man, was chosen to take part in Operation Wrath of God, Israel's plan to hunt down and kill the terrorists responsible for the 1972 Munich massacre of 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team. He had been planning to be an artist before that, but after this harrowing experience he instead became an art restorer of Renaissance masters.
The novels are interesting as travel books - they are set not just in Israel but also all over Europe, Russia, the UK, and the US. There is a lot too about art and eventually Gabriel ends up restoring for the Vatican Museums :) The earlier novels have a lot of historical stuff about WWII and the Holocaust, including the part played by the Catholic church (see Bishop Alois Hudal). The later novels dwell more on historic and contemporary terrorism, like the Dizengoff Street bus bombing and in the latest novel, the work of ISIS. While the novels are told from an Israeli perspective, I think they are very even-handed on the political issues.
I know that by being pro-Israel I'm in the minority among liberals, but what I have learned from the novels and the non-fiction reading they've encouraged has changed the way I think of Israel, and has made the Israelis, while flawed as we all are, very human.
Here's an NPR Fresh Air interview with Silva ....
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I used to eagerly await each new book in the Gabriel Allon series. Daniel Silva is very skilled at writing thrillers, and I love a good thriller. However, I quit reading the series several years ago because of the extreme violence perpetrated by the "good guys," and Allon in particular. In general, along with a willing suspension of disbelief, reading thrillers requires a certain amount of "willing suspension of moral judgment." But there are limits. In the last Silva novel I read, Allon's pregnant wife is kidnapped, and in order to find her, he invents "fire-boarding." He manages to capture three people who he has cause to believe have information. He has them tied up and shoots one just to terrorize the other two, making sure they get blood all over them. Then he "fire-boards" one of them. He has a fireplace with a roaring fire, and his captives are tied to chairs. Then he tips the chairs so that the faces of his captives are directly in the flames. We may argue about whether water boarding is torture (I would say it definitely is) but I think we don't even need a debate about whether putting someone's face into the flames of a fireplace is torture. There were other murders and instances of torture in the book that I have forgotten, but I remember when I finished it, I said to myself, "No more."
ReplyDeleteIn a post I wrote on Religious Left Law several years ago, I quoted from a review on Amazon.com as follows:
A trained assassin who executed six of the terrorists who killed Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich, Allon is certainly no stranger to killing, but the body count in this novel is higher than I can ever remember in this series, with many of the assassinations being done by Gabriel Allon himself. More than thirty violent deaths occur during the novel as Allon tries to save his own world from disaster. One scene of torture involving Allon ("fire-boarding") is so stomach-turning—and, frankly, so sadistic—that it has permanently affected my view of Allon as a "hero." Silva does a terrific job of depicting the inner torments that drive Allon to such extremes, but while some may justify this torture scene in terms of the ends justifying the means, I found it so over-the-top that I could no longer excuse Allon's brutal responses, even considering his extreme stress.
I don't consider myself either anti-Israel or pro-Israel. Perhaps Daniel Silva is just trying to tell a good story, but it is hard not to consider the Gabriel Allon books to be pro-Israeli propaganda justifying just about any violence Gabriel Allon and his Mossad colleagues decide is in Israel's interest. I don't think reading Gabriel Allon novels is a very good way to learn about Israeli history.
I remember that novel and I was disgusted by that part too. I do struggle with Gabriel and a lot of the other characters. They aren't really good guys except in comparison to the bad guys, which is a kind of moral relativism. I mostly read science fiction, where the good guys are really good (like Star Wars) and Silva's books are the only political thrillers I read. I guess I keep reading because even despite the flaws of the characters, I somehow still want to follow their stories.
DeleteI read one of the early Allon novels and it felt generic to a fault. On this topic, I think a person could save a lot of time by watching, and thinking about, Steven Spielberg's much-attacked film Munich, which is much more adult than what its fans and enemies said about it.
ReplyDeleteI saw that movie and thought it was pretty good. Daniel Craig was in it too.
DeleteI haven't read the Alton novels, I have a very low tolerance for violence in books or movies. In my youth I read Leon Uris' "Exodus", and James Michener's "The Source". I consider myself pro-Israel. But I don't like their present administration, and I think some of their policies are misguided and wrong. Come to think of it, I don't like our present administration, and think some of our policies are misguided and wrong. I don't think wanting people to succeed as a nation means that one agrees with everything they do.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's kind of creepy how well Trump and Netanyahu are getting along. I haven't read other novels about Israel - maybe I should try one of those you mention.
DeleteI am less picky than David and Tom. The Gabriel Allon series has been among my favorites for years. Like David, I was upset at the increase in brutality and violence in the last book or two. OTOH, most of the earlier books are a good read. Formulaic, maybe, but well-written and entertaining. I read thrillers for entertainment and escape, not as "literature". I have also learned a little about the world of art, about the looting of Jewish art, much never returned. There was a discovery a few years back of many important works of art stolen from Jews and hidden all of this time by a "respectable" man in his apartment in Munich. These stolen works of art continue to turn up. There was a major discovery last year in Italy. The stolen works continue to turn up, decades after they were stolen, but the found are a small number compared to the still missing.
ReplyDeleteIn several books Silva also provides an occasional, sympathetic (at least somewhat) portrayal of a Palestinian character. While his books are most definitely not a good source of Israeli "history", I think he does invite non-Jewish readers to try to see through an Israeli prism a bit, something that eludes non-Jewish people most of the time. Constantine's Sword by Carroll is a good introduction to Jewish history at the hands of christians since the first century, very readable, inviting people to explore the subject with more scholarly, academic sources. As a child, I lived in a neighborhood that was largely Jewish and my "best friend" was Jewish. As an adult, I have also lived in a majority Jewish community and neighborhood. I have developed great respect and empathy for the Jewish people over the years.
Silva grew up Catholic. His wife is Jewish. He converted after his marriage, and his personal religious history comes through in the novels, at least at a low level. I will read his next novel. If he continues down the low road with increasingly brutal violence, it might be the last. Many novelists burn out after a while, and turn to misconceived strategies to maintain interest. Brutality is a poor choice.
For more on the Munich trove, see this story.
04/degenerate-art-cornelius-gurlitt-munich-apartment
Anne, yes, I liked his earlier novels better too. The seemed to have more about art and about history, with less violence. Gabriel seems to be getting more desensitized to violence over time, which for me makes him less likeable.
DeleteI didn't know any Jewish people growing up, so maybe that was part of the draw of the books for me - they were so outside my experience and all the Jewish stuff was kind of fascinating,
I couldn't seem to find the right linked page.
Sorry, Crystal. Still not getting the html right!
DeleteCopy and psste might work.
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2014/04/degenerate-art-cornelius-gurlitt-munich-apartment
I am less picky than David and Tom.
DeleteI am sure no offense was intended, and none was taken, but I am not at all "picky." I have a high tolerance for violence in fiction, and I do not demand anything approaching moral perfection from action heroes. The point of my message would be lost if I were "picky." The point is that as a character who represents "the good guys," Gabriel Allon is all too willing to torture and kill. It was clever of Daniel Silva to make Allon the world's greatest art restorer. He must be a deeply sensitive guy who would never hurt a fly unless it was necessary. But in reality he is a cold blooded murderer.
He is a murderer, yes, but he isn't a random killer. Unless I'm mistaken (hard to remember 16 books) he has only killed people who are themselves multiple murderers and who are likely to keep killing other people (like terrorists, former Nazis). And on the other hand, he has risked his life to save people, too.
DeleteI don't usually read this kind of fiction, but is he that much worse than other anti-heroes .... watching the last episode of Sherlock, season 3, where Holmes murders a guy in cold blood, with no real accountability for that in season 4.
Haven't read these. If David Nickol's description is accurate, it is curious that these stories would encourage anyone "to love Israel."
ReplyDeleteIsrael is full of wonderful, energetic, and enterprising people. Allon, on the other hand, seems to represent something else, the dark side of official (and unofficial) policies that encourage assassinations, torture, land theft, and the breaking of international law as well as the moral law. What's to love about that?
Well, I admit that I never would have thought that I would enjoy books featuring an assassin for Mossad. Allon's history begins with his recruitment to obtain revenge for the Munich massacre. But, in spite of the off-putting premise, the books, at least some of them, do push readers into looking through a somewhat different prism than the one they may be used to, through the eyes of a people who have not only been oppressed and persecuted throughout much of history, but people, at least some of them, who now vow that they will employ almost any means possible to make sure another Shoah never happens again. I have not agreed with many Israeli policies, but Silva's books may help mass-market book readers who never read scholarly work to at least gain a slight glimmer of understanding of why many Israelis support them. The Hebrew scriptures do feature a lot of violence. Exodus is the source of the infamous phrase often used to justify a policy of retaliation. "An eye for an eye" is the only passage of scripture Trump remembered without prompting. While not agreeing with Israeli policy all of the time, I echo those who point out that few of us agree with every American policy at any given time.
DeleteI do not agree with the revenge/retaliation approach, but it is useful to try to understand some of the forces behind it.
DeleteAs Anne writes, there is much more to the character of Allon than that one episode in one of the book in which he flips his wig. He actually is a pretty sympathetic character who had seen a lot of personal tragedy but who does try to do the right thing most of the time.
ReplyDeleteWhy would he and the others in the book make anyone love Israel? For me, who didn't know much about the history of Israel, it was a look at often brave and determined people trying to rise from the ashes of centuries of abuse while still working to retain values like free press, free speech, women's rights, LGBTQ rights, voting rights for all citizens irrespective of religion,etc. They are unique in that area of the world.
Silva has an interesting sense of humor and has created an interesting character. Seriously, how many would-be spy novel writers would come up with Allon? A Jewish assassin, a man who commits murder and creates mayhem, yet has the soul of an artist. An artist who gives up his real art out of love of country and assumes a cover as Europe's greatest master of art restoration. And what does he restore - great works of Christian art in churches, cathedrals and museums all over Europe, including, of course, the Vatican.
ReplyDelete