6/4/2023 0 Comments Uris novels![]() ![]() Jews “were no longer victims but heroes,” Nadel writes. Nadel credits it with an “incalculable” effect on the way American Jews, and Americans in general, thought about Israel and Jewish history. A thoroughly romanticized retelling of the Israeli independence struggle, the novel sold millions of copies and was turned into a movie that reached millions more. Yet despite a style that Nadel describes as “melodramatic and mannered,” full of “repetitious phrasing, unimaginative language, and clumsy syntax,” “Exodus” became an enormous, worldwide best-seller. ![]() ![]() ![]() She was a woman now, soft and compassionate in the way one gets only through terrible suffering.” They stared at each other silently for a long time. Here, for instance, is how Uris introduces Kitty Fremont, the American gentile love interest of the Jewish hero Ari Ben Canaan: “She was even more beautiful than he remembered. It might, in fact, be the worst-written book ever to do so. Get The Jewish Standard Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories But like it or not, “Exodus,” Uris’ 1958 novel, has earned its place in the history of the people of the book. Nadel (University of Texas Press, $27.95), one is tempted to say that he was not even Herman Wouk. Uris, needless to say, was no Rashi after reading “Leon Uris: Life of a Best Seller,” the new, distinctly unflattering biography by Ira B. ![]()
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