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Fields of Exile
Judith was a peace activist in Israel, yet in graduate school she discovers that vilifying Israel is the expected norm. When Judith protests the hypocrisy she finds on campus, her life begins to unravel.
427 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 31, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
May 11, 2014
Please see my Q&A with author Nora Gold: http://www.erikadreifus.com/2014/05/f...
June 24, 2014
In Fields of Exile, author Nora Gold takes on the BDS movement with courage and authority, providing the reader a compelling, realistic portrait of anti-Semitism's most recent incarnation as seen through the eyes of Judith, a peace activist in Israel and graduate student of social work in Canada. Judith's professors and fellow students find her bona fides as a liberal impeccable, but her status as an Israeli quickly becomes problematic as she struggles to defend her beloved country against the hate-fueled anti-Israel activism of her professors, mentors, and fellow-students. Underlying that conflict is a tender love story that questions notions of devotion to lovers, friends, home, and religion. Erudite, instructive, and convincing, Fields of Exile is an excellent choice for book clubs. It deserves a wide and thoughtful audience.
July 15, 2014
Nora Gold's novel vividly captures the struggles of a young woman fighting against antisemitism (masked as anti-Zionism) on her college campus.
May 18, 2014
Gold demonstrates a deep understanding of academia, anti-oppression work and the struggles of being part of two cultures. I was both educated and entertained. Her main character, Judith, is a complex woman who made me laugh and cry.
July 30, 2013
Stimulating read on a challenging topic.
January 19, 2021
Hoo boy. I went into this book, covering the fraught topic of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict on North American campuses, hoping that it wouldn’t turn into a polemic. It failed that test. And yet…due to my own biases, I was moved. Also, though the themes were developed more like a treatise than a novel, it wasn’t completely one dimensional.
Our protagonist, Judith, is a thirty-something woman living in Toronto because her father is dying. Actually, his death, and his wish that she attend graduate school in Canada, is the inciting incident of the book. For ten years prior, right out of college, Judith had been living in Israel, and she plans to return once she finishes her social work degree.
The main conflict of the book is the anti-Zionism on North American university campuses, including that of the fictional Dunhill school. The back cover copy is misleading; it makes it sound like, near the beginning, Judith speaks out against the remarks made by an “anti-oppression” speaker at a school event, and then she’s blackballed for it. The reality, thankfully, is a little more complicated. Judith starts to experience encroaching anti-Zionist and more blatantly antisemitic behaviors, starting in a class discussion and then moving to her work on the committee that is advocating for this anti-Israel speaker to come lecture. Her relationship with some fellow students is antagonistic, though to be fair, they don’t get to know each other at all beyond their political differences. More intriguingly, Judith has a major falling out with a mentor, Suzy, but the reasons for that are multi-faceted. Though a couple of them certainly amount to academic cowardice when it comes to toeing the party line in order to keep one’s job.
Elsewhere there are quotidian and passive descriptions of social work theory, which certainly advocate for Judith’s point of view. She’s an old school leftist within a society that is beginning to advocate for dogma over intellectual rigor. But it’s all too preachy, and often too simplistic when it teases any non-Jewish issues. Most importantly, it takes away from the fact that this is a fiction story, where the characters themselves have to feel real. And I’m not sure they always did.
Take Judith, for example. Does she have flaws? I think she does…but does the narrative agree? Or is it too busy trying to point out the fallacies of moral relativity and the rest of it? Judith, at least, is an intellectual thinker, most of the time. She values conflicting realities (while still maintaining a moral code) over dogma. But her attitudes about her relationships are egregious. Here is where she’s an absolutist—people are always either for her or against her, in her thinking. Never mind that all of these people have their own lives and concerns beyond hers. Judith occasionally makes reference to this reality, but only briefly before diving back into her self-absorption. I can forgive it, to a degree, because she’s telling this story from inside her own head (though it could have helped with the polemic aspects for author Nora Gold to take a step back sometimes.) But it was tiring after awhile, her seeing other people as Team Good vs Team Evil because of how they view Israel, or how they respond to her, the Israeli-Canadian.
She’s a person who, perhaps, sees sweeping themes more than she sees human reality much of the time. Maybe not in Israel, where Judith was part of several social work initiatives, but even there, her Canadian boyfriend, Bobby, points out, she isn’t exactly finding her place. It’s almost like, despite having lived there 10 years, she still sees Israel in the broad strokes of “Jewish Homeland” rather than the realities it faces. She’s kind of stuck in Israel’s socialist past rather than the present of the story, eg 2002-03 (my freshman year of college!) The Bobby/Judith story was perhaps the strongest part, because it dealt with the strained reality of loving someone when your dreams divest in incompatible directions. Judith—and Gold—had some compassion for Bobby’s perspective, though I also found myself a little disappointed here. Neither Judith nor Bobby seem to have much respect for Canadian Jewish culture, even though they grew up in Toronto. Do I find this feasible? Because in their formative backstory they were attending Jewish events with Jewish kids, and now they still went to shul on occasion and lit Shabbat candles every week. Why couldn’t either of them respect, on its surface, that Canadian Jewish life is as real as Israeli Jewish life? But meh, differences of opinion.
And I could get swept away into Judith’s opinions, sometimes. It’s true that I’ve felt that uncomfortable tingle, that maybe Jewish life in Diaspora isn’t as real as Israeli life. At least there’s no cries of “dual loyalty” in the Land. I’m also deeply despondent by anti-Israel sentiment and I take it as a personal affront—especially when that rhetoric makes space for violence against Jews worldwide. So it’s not entirely crazy to feel a little threatened. And yet, though hateful “anti” sentiment is simplistic, most people who consider them are not. If Judith could make some sort of peace with Bobby’s right-leaning family, chances are she could find some common ground with the Canadian leftists as well.
I more or less like what Gold did with Judith’s relationships with Bobby and Suzy. The climax and resolution of the story rely on external action that might have strained credulity a little bit, but it wasn’t completely out of bounds. I’m just not as interested in the outside world throwing sucker punches as I am in internal drama. I do think this book has given me a fair bit to chew over, but as a novel it isn’t all the way there.
Our protagonist, Judith, is a thirty-something woman living in Toronto because her father is dying. Actually, his death, and his wish that she attend graduate school in Canada, is the inciting incident of the book. For ten years prior, right out of college, Judith had been living in Israel, and she plans to return once she finishes her social work degree.
The main conflict of the book is the anti-Zionism on North American university campuses, including that of the fictional Dunhill school. The back cover copy is misleading; it makes it sound like, near the beginning, Judith speaks out against the remarks made by an “anti-oppression” speaker at a school event, and then she’s blackballed for it. The reality, thankfully, is a little more complicated. Judith starts to experience encroaching anti-Zionist and more blatantly antisemitic behaviors, starting in a class discussion and then moving to her work on the committee that is advocating for this anti-Israel speaker to come lecture. Her relationship with some fellow students is antagonistic, though to be fair, they don’t get to know each other at all beyond their political differences. More intriguingly, Judith has a major falling out with a mentor, Suzy, but the reasons for that are multi-faceted. Though a couple of them certainly amount to academic cowardice when it comes to toeing the party line in order to keep one’s job.
Elsewhere there are quotidian and passive descriptions of social work theory, which certainly advocate for Judith’s point of view. She’s an old school leftist within a society that is beginning to advocate for dogma over intellectual rigor. But it’s all too preachy, and often too simplistic when it teases any non-Jewish issues. Most importantly, it takes away from the fact that this is a fiction story, where the characters themselves have to feel real. And I’m not sure they always did.
Take Judith, for example. Does she have flaws? I think she does…but does the narrative agree? Or is it too busy trying to point out the fallacies of moral relativity and the rest of it? Judith, at least, is an intellectual thinker, most of the time. She values conflicting realities (while still maintaining a moral code) over dogma. But her attitudes about her relationships are egregious. Here is where she’s an absolutist—people are always either for her or against her, in her thinking. Never mind that all of these people have their own lives and concerns beyond hers. Judith occasionally makes reference to this reality, but only briefly before diving back into her self-absorption. I can forgive it, to a degree, because she’s telling this story from inside her own head (though it could have helped with the polemic aspects for author Nora Gold to take a step back sometimes.) But it was tiring after awhile, her seeing other people as Team Good vs Team Evil because of how they view Israel, or how they respond to her, the Israeli-Canadian.
She’s a person who, perhaps, sees sweeping themes more than she sees human reality much of the time. Maybe not in Israel, where Judith was part of several social work initiatives, but even there, her Canadian boyfriend, Bobby, points out, she isn’t exactly finding her place. It’s almost like, despite having lived there 10 years, she still sees Israel in the broad strokes of “Jewish Homeland” rather than the realities it faces. She’s kind of stuck in Israel’s socialist past rather than the present of the story, eg 2002-03 (my freshman year of college!) The Bobby/Judith story was perhaps the strongest part, because it dealt with the strained reality of loving someone when your dreams divest in incompatible directions. Judith—and Gold—had some compassion for Bobby’s perspective, though I also found myself a little disappointed here. Neither Judith nor Bobby seem to have much respect for Canadian Jewish culture, even though they grew up in Toronto. Do I find this feasible? Because in their formative backstory they were attending Jewish events with Jewish kids, and now they still went to shul on occasion and lit Shabbat candles every week. Why couldn’t either of them respect, on its surface, that Canadian Jewish life is as real as Israeli Jewish life? But meh, differences of opinion.
And I could get swept away into Judith’s opinions, sometimes. It’s true that I’ve felt that uncomfortable tingle, that maybe Jewish life in Diaspora isn’t as real as Israeli life. At least there’s no cries of “dual loyalty” in the Land. I’m also deeply despondent by anti-Israel sentiment and I take it as a personal affront—especially when that rhetoric makes space for violence against Jews worldwide. So it’s not entirely crazy to feel a little threatened. And yet, though hateful “anti” sentiment is simplistic, most people who consider them are not. If Judith could make some sort of peace with Bobby’s right-leaning family, chances are she could find some common ground with the Canadian leftists as well.
I more or less like what Gold did with Judith’s relationships with Bobby and Suzy. The climax and resolution of the story rely on external action that might have strained credulity a little bit, but it wasn’t completely out of bounds. I’m just not as interested in the outside world throwing sucker punches as I am in internal drama. I do think this book has given me a fair bit to chew over, but as a novel it isn’t all the way there.
July 1, 2014
Nora Gold has written a brave and provocative book. Its story is focused on ideas but is told with great authentic emotion. Judith, the main character, quests to understand herself and others, with humour and integrity and a sharp eye for hypocrisy. Bravo to the author for her unflinching eye and perceptive observations of human beings at their best and worst.
January 25, 2015
3.5/5
This book is filled with ideal and ideas, longing for peace and understanding. All these elements are important to me, and I couldn't help feeling pain while reading. Including at the very end,this 'not so happy' ending, when we come to read the Seder. I'm used to fold the pages' corner whenever something catches my mind, and I did it quite regularly with 'Fields Of Exile'.
While I like the content, I'm less fond of the form. Firstly, the main character sounds so freaking annoying and immature to me! We're constantly repeated how clever and unique she is, but, to me, she often appears childish and stubborn, and not for good reasons. And well, when you can't manage to appreciate a character, spending your time reading about his silly or boring behaviour doesn't help to get caught by the book. And that's my main problem.
Beside, I'm glad to read, for once, about the hypocrisy surrounding the so-told 'pro-this or that' opinion. There is a huge difference between free speech and hate speech, and Nora Gold offers a good reminder about that. Which isn't bad at all!
This book is filled with ideal and ideas, longing for peace and understanding. All these elements are important to me, and I couldn't help feeling pain while reading. Including at the very end,this 'not so happy' ending, when we come to read the Seder. I'm used to fold the pages' corner whenever something catches my mind, and I did it quite regularly with 'Fields Of Exile'.
While I like the content, I'm less fond of the form. Firstly, the main character sounds so freaking annoying and immature to me! We're constantly repeated how clever and unique she is, but, to me, she often appears childish and stubborn, and not for good reasons. And well, when you can't manage to appreciate a character, spending your time reading about his silly or boring behaviour doesn't help to get caught by the book. And that's my main problem.
Beside, I'm glad to read, for once, about the hypocrisy surrounding the so-told 'pro-this or that' opinion. There is a huge difference between free speech and hate speech, and Nora Gold offers a good reminder about that. Which isn't bad at all!
June 12, 2014
Read this book in 2 days at the beach and was very impressed with the author's knowledge of the subject and presentation. Probably really a 4.5 because it got a little too melodramatic for me near the end. Highly recommend.
April 26, 2014
Fields of Exile is a wonderful book. I love it! This is a must-read.
March 18, 2014
Intriguing concept, intellectually enticing. Loved it.
July 3, 2014
Interesting book on proPalestinian movements on University campus. Academic freedom v antisemitism. Good book to discuss with a group
August 7, 2014
Thus book is set at the time of the "Second Intifada" and deals with the fallout of the I/P conflict in Canadian academe. Someone described it as "spookily topical" - I have to agree.
June 27, 2014
A fascinating and emotionally gripping read! Nora Gold is one talented writer!
March 1, 2022
Nora Gold's "Fields of Exile," easily the most engrossing novel I've read in some time, put me in mind of the assertion that if you're managing to keep your head in a situation in which everyone else is losing theirs, there's probably something about the situation you don't understand. Except in the case of Gold’s novel, I'd reverse the assertion to say that if you're losing your head while everyone else is keeping theirs, maybe there's something about the situation they don't understand.
The "they" in this case are officials and students at a Canadian university where Judith Gallanter, a Jew who has resettled in Toronto, is pursuing a master's in social work, though not with great enthusiasm. She'd much rather be back in Israel, where she'd spent a happy 10 years, but has returned to Canada and enrolled at the school out of respect for her dying father's wishes. And for a time things seem to be going well for her at the school, better even than she might have expected, what with the school's non-judgmental embrace of all ideologies and better still a warm relationship that she comes to enjoy with a female instructor at the school. But over time the school's respect-all-views stance becomes so infuriatingly evenhanded as to have Judith thinking she's at a Mad Hatter's party when at a school meeting the participants can't even be brought to condemn a
Palestinian suicide bombing in which 16 Israeli schoolchildren were killed.
"These people are crazy," she thinks of her colleagues, who regard the bombing as a matter of a difference in point of view, with one saying the why of the bomber's action had to be respected and even the instructor she likes merely saying, “There are obviously different views here.” So almost Orwellian, indeed, is the colleagues' refusal to call a spade a spade as to put me in mind of a social psychology experiment I read about some years back in which subjects were brought to doubt their own perceptions to the point where, as the experimenter put it, some of them were prepared to believe "white was black." Judith never reaches so pronounced a point as that, but the increasing isolation she feels from her colleagues, coupled with increasing friction she feels with her boyfriend as well as with her instructor, does have her at one point having doubts about her own sanity – indeed, I thought for a time that the novel might turn out to be a study of an individual's descent into madness. But the very-real external action of the novel reasserts itself quickly enough when a pro-Palestinian speaker is invited to speak on campus and Judith is so frighteningly menaced at the ensuing rally as to have had me almost unable to keep reading. Indeed, over the course of the novel I found myself actually wanting to cheer for Judith, something that rarely happens to me with novels.
In short, both a story well told and a novel of ideas, Gold's book, which if I have a criticism about, it's that it perhaps takes too long to get to the pivotal action – to my mind, it wouldn't have suffered from being a quarter to a third shorter. Plus the ending wasn't entirely satisfying for me, though it did avoid the kind of climactic final scene characteristic of more commercial fiction. No doubt too the book won't be received well by Palestinian advocates, for whom even Judith feels compassion, but especially now with the Ukraine situation and its evocation of the Nazis' invasion of Poland, Gold's novel is a particularly timely argument for there coming a time to forgo relativism and recognize evil for what it is and take to the barricades.
The "they" in this case are officials and students at a Canadian university where Judith Gallanter, a Jew who has resettled in Toronto, is pursuing a master's in social work, though not with great enthusiasm. She'd much rather be back in Israel, where she'd spent a happy 10 years, but has returned to Canada and enrolled at the school out of respect for her dying father's wishes. And for a time things seem to be going well for her at the school, better even than she might have expected, what with the school's non-judgmental embrace of all ideologies and better still a warm relationship that she comes to enjoy with a female instructor at the school. But over time the school's respect-all-views stance becomes so infuriatingly evenhanded as to have Judith thinking she's at a Mad Hatter's party when at a school meeting the participants can't even be brought to condemn a
Palestinian suicide bombing in which 16 Israeli schoolchildren were killed.
"These people are crazy," she thinks of her colleagues, who regard the bombing as a matter of a difference in point of view, with one saying the why of the bomber's action had to be respected and even the instructor she likes merely saying, “There are obviously different views here.” So almost Orwellian, indeed, is the colleagues' refusal to call a spade a spade as to put me in mind of a social psychology experiment I read about some years back in which subjects were brought to doubt their own perceptions to the point where, as the experimenter put it, some of them were prepared to believe "white was black." Judith never reaches so pronounced a point as that, but the increasing isolation she feels from her colleagues, coupled with increasing friction she feels with her boyfriend as well as with her instructor, does have her at one point having doubts about her own sanity – indeed, I thought for a time that the novel might turn out to be a study of an individual's descent into madness. But the very-real external action of the novel reasserts itself quickly enough when a pro-Palestinian speaker is invited to speak on campus and Judith is so frighteningly menaced at the ensuing rally as to have had me almost unable to keep reading. Indeed, over the course of the novel I found myself actually wanting to cheer for Judith, something that rarely happens to me with novels.
In short, both a story well told and a novel of ideas, Gold's book, which if I have a criticism about, it's that it perhaps takes too long to get to the pivotal action – to my mind, it wouldn't have suffered from being a quarter to a third shorter. Plus the ending wasn't entirely satisfying for me, though it did avoid the kind of climactic final scene characteristic of more commercial fiction. No doubt too the book won't be received well by Palestinian advocates, for whom even Judith feels compassion, but especially now with the Ukraine situation and its evocation of the Nazis' invasion of Poland, Gold's novel is a particularly timely argument for there coming a time to forgo relativism and recognize evil for what it is and take to the barricades.
May 9, 2024
Nora Gold's debut novel Fields of Exile is set on the academic battleground, pitting Israeli supporters against Israel-haters. Will anyone fight back?
Judith Gallanter desperately wants to be in Israel. "Israel was the only real love of her life" and that love is unconditional. Because her father has taken ill, she has returned to Toronto to care for him. As his condition worsens, she agrees to stay in Canada and complete a master's degree program in social work. After her father dies, she is committed to academic studies in Canada, but her heart is in Israel.
She enrolls in the Dunhill School of Social Work and "presto! she has a life. An instant life. Just add water and stir. People to be with. Things to do." But when the lectures bore her, she fantasizes about life, and love, in Israel. She can't help but feeling that she is living in exile.
Living in Toronto, with a Jewish boyfriend who doesn't share her passion for the Jewish State, is "comparatively easy." She can't but help find everything around her "so Diaspora, so not Israel." She knows, deep in her heart, that she should be in Israel, not in her "relatively comfortable exile" in Canada. It's only a matter of time before she returns to Israel, even if making aliyah means leaving her boyfriend behind.
Judith's period of exile coincides with the outbreak of suicide bombings on buses and in restaurants all over Israel. The IDF responds with a large-scale military operation in Palestinian towns and villages, but when viewed from afar, from the safety of Canadian television screens, Israel is seen as the aggressor. On campus, Judith finds herself part of a committee planning a rally against Zionist aggressions on Anti-Oppression Day.
"Every week there seem to be more people at Dunhill who hate Israel. It's like a spreading plague."
Faced with a dilemma, Judith doesn't know if she has the power to speak up in Israel's defense. "Yet someone has to take these people on… Someone has to say to these people, 'Stop. Stop right here. Not one inch more.'"
Fields of Exile (Dundurn Press, April 2014) is a novel that tackles some difficult questions. What exactly is terrorism? Does Israel have the right to defend itself against suicide bombers? Are those who attack Israel's responses to terrorism anti-Semites? What can be done to properly and fairly state Israel's case on Canadian campuses?
Even so, the novel is not political in nature. This gripping work of fiction is also the very touching story of a young woman faced with the challenges of life, both on campus and at home. Judith struggles to stand up for her political beliefs, maintain a Jewish way of life in the Diaspora, and find the way to fulfill her lifelong dream of living in Israel.
As in real life, compromises must be made. But can those faced with the growing anti-Semitism on Canadian campuses afford to remain silent?
Judith Gallanter desperately wants to be in Israel. "Israel was the only real love of her life" and that love is unconditional. Because her father has taken ill, she has returned to Toronto to care for him. As his condition worsens, she agrees to stay in Canada and complete a master's degree program in social work. After her father dies, she is committed to academic studies in Canada, but her heart is in Israel.
She enrolls in the Dunhill School of Social Work and "presto! she has a life. An instant life. Just add water and stir. People to be with. Things to do." But when the lectures bore her, she fantasizes about life, and love, in Israel. She can't help but feeling that she is living in exile.
Living in Toronto, with a Jewish boyfriend who doesn't share her passion for the Jewish State, is "comparatively easy." She can't but help find everything around her "so Diaspora, so not Israel." She knows, deep in her heart, that she should be in Israel, not in her "relatively comfortable exile" in Canada. It's only a matter of time before she returns to Israel, even if making aliyah means leaving her boyfriend behind.
Judith's period of exile coincides with the outbreak of suicide bombings on buses and in restaurants all over Israel. The IDF responds with a large-scale military operation in Palestinian towns and villages, but when viewed from afar, from the safety of Canadian television screens, Israel is seen as the aggressor. On campus, Judith finds herself part of a committee planning a rally against Zionist aggressions on Anti-Oppression Day.
"Every week there seem to be more people at Dunhill who hate Israel. It's like a spreading plague."
Faced with a dilemma, Judith doesn't know if she has the power to speak up in Israel's defense. "Yet someone has to take these people on… Someone has to say to these people, 'Stop. Stop right here. Not one inch more.'"
Fields of Exile (Dundurn Press, April 2014) is a novel that tackles some difficult questions. What exactly is terrorism? Does Israel have the right to defend itself against suicide bombers? Are those who attack Israel's responses to terrorism anti-Semites? What can be done to properly and fairly state Israel's case on Canadian campuses?
Even so, the novel is not political in nature. This gripping work of fiction is also the very touching story of a young woman faced with the challenges of life, both on campus and at home. Judith struggles to stand up for her political beliefs, maintain a Jewish way of life in the Diaspora, and find the way to fulfill her lifelong dream of living in Israel.
As in real life, compromises must be made. But can those faced with the growing anti-Semitism on Canadian campuses afford to remain silent?
August 31, 2025
Judith is torn between two loves, her love of Israel and her love of a man who loves her even more, which resonated so deeply with me, as did her version of Jewish identity and religious observance. Although the novel takes place in 2002, the anti-Israel activities and antisemitism she encounters at the university could easily be contemporary. (The book was published in 2014.) The story was compelling and well-written. She is on the "left" in Israel and worked toward making peace between Jewish and Palestinian teens when she lived in Jerusalem. Back in Canada, however, her MSW classmates and professors only hear anti-Israel perspectives in the media and don't know any historical background. They see the Palestinians as the underdogs, and presume her pro-Israel sentiments reflect approval of what the Israeli government and army does. The story explores friendships between women, love, betrayal, loyalty, understanding, and more. The author inserts quotes and references to Jewish text throughout the story, which sometimes work better than other times; they are not subtle, but do tend to add richness. One thing that caught my attention early in the book was her description of the difference in the appearance of the moon in Israel, that I remember noticing and never heard anyone else talk about: "She loved the star-studded night sky, with its sliver of moon lying horizontally on the bottom like a cradle, instead of standing vertically, like in Canada" All in all, this is an excellent book, highly recommend, with trigger warnings for anyone with ptsd from campus antisemitism/anti-Israel activity and that there was a minor plot point involving an eating disorder.
June 8, 2024
This was an intriguing and riveting read, and prescient. Though it takes place in 2002, it could've been today. Some of the story was predictable, but the ending was unexpected. I'm not sure how I feel about it even now - a little disappointed, a little curious, with very strong feelings about how I wanted it to go, which means I was engaged deeply with the protagonist! I couldn't put the book down. Definitely a great and important read.
August 22, 2025
Maybe 3.5. I think this book needed some serious editing. It was too long. Some relationship development was too drawn out. What did Moses have to do with it. This could have been edited out. Interesting ideas, word play, Hebrew, quotes.
November 22, 2017
Ugh, Judith's naievete and self-absorption made me want to scream.
January 13, 2023
Mixed feelings about this one, but glad I read it. Certainly challenges widespread anti Israeli sentiment, and made me consider my own bias here. Also learned a bit about the nature of the emotional ties of Jewish people to Israel.
Whilst Judith does show some compassion for the Palestinians, I think what I battled a bit with the rapidity of the switch to "but what about the Jews ..." sentiment, with quite a martyr monologue in her head. However that's probably a realistic view of how people on one side of a conflict feel, but I couldn't decide if Gold was deliberately and consciously doing that, or was unable to see that happening.
Whilst Judith does show some compassion for the Palestinians, I think what I battled a bit with the rapidity of the switch to "but what about the Jews ..." sentiment, with quite a martyr monologue in her head. However that's probably a realistic view of how people on one side of a conflict feel, but I couldn't decide if Gold was deliberately and consciously doing that, or was unable to see that happening.
October 20, 2014
This book was very intense. It depicts the anti-semitism on the campus of a small Canadian college. The heroine is a rather humorless woman who is not very happy and feels like an exile even in her actual homeland. The consequences of standing up for her beliefs are tragic and life-changing. Although the book takes place in Canada, the circumstances and prejudices are just as prevalent in the United States. The book is extremely well written and leaves the reader with plenty to think about.
November 15, 2016
Judith has been living inIsrael for 10 years when she returns to Canada to care for her dying father. She resumes her relationship with Bobby, a lawyer and fulfills her promise to her father to her MSW before going back to Israel. On campus she encounters the anti-Israel activism that has become so prevalent on many University campuses. Judith's love of Israel is for the ideal of the country. She recognizes that the situation with the Palestinians is tragic but fails more than once to make a cogent argument as to why the anti-Israel actions are really anti Semitic.
December 25, 2015
I disagree with the good reviews I had read. The writing reminded me of a classroom assignment for beginner writers. I read the whole thing in anticipation of it getting better. It did not. I felt like the author threw in everything but the kitchen sink to cover all bases. I wish she would have focused more on the BDS and anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic topic - I felt this was more of a minor theme rather than the main theme.
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December 25, 2015Disappointing
I disagree with the good reviews I had read. The writing reminded me of a classroom assignment for beginner writers. I read the whole thing in anticipation of it getting better. It did not. I felt like the author threw in everything but the kitchen sink to cover all bases. I wish she would have focused more on the BDS and anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic topic - I felt this was more of a minor theme rather than the main theme.
I disagree with the good reviews I had read. The writing reminded me of a classroom assignment for beginner writers. I read the whole thing in anticipation of it getting better. It did not. I felt like the author threw in everything but the kitchen sink to cover all bases. I wish she would have focused more on the BDS and anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic topic - I felt this was more of a minor theme rather than the main theme.
August 18, 2014
An important, highly political book about "anti-Israelism" as the new anti-Semitism of the PC left on campuses. Probably too polemical to include on a syllabus; as well, the story is so obvious and so slow, and repeated sex fantasies-scenes are uncomfortable and pointless.
September 25, 2014
I highly recommend this engaging novel. The story is of a young woman grappling with the complexities of life in Israel as well as the diaspora. Whether you are on the right or the left, this novel will make you think.
September 5, 2014
wonderful story! thought and conversation provoking
January 11, 2015
A courageous and absorbing book. Nora Gold shines a bright light into the Kafkaesque world of political correctness in N. American academia.
March 16, 2015
no review
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews