Το πόκερ της Ιερουσαλήμ

The Jerusalem Quartet #2

by Edward Whittemore, Άγγυ Βλαβιανού (Translator)

Την τελευταία μέρα του Δεκεμβρίου του 1921 τρεις αινιγματικοί άνθρωποι -ο Μάρτυρας του Καΐρου, ένας γαλανομάτης από την Αφρική που έλεγχε το εμπόριο της αφροδισιακής μουμιόσκονης στη Μέση Ανατολή, ο Σάλιβαν Ο' Μπίαρ, ένας πρώην Ιρλανδός πατριώτης και λαθρέμπορος όπλων που έκανε περιουσία πουλώντας απομιμήσεις φαλλόσχημων χριστιανικών έργων τέχνης και ο Μούνκ Ζόντι, ένας αφοσιωμένος σιωνιστής που διαπραγματεύεται μόνο συμβόλαια για καταψυγμένα ψάρια-, αρχίζουν ένα μοιραίο παιχνίδι πόκερ στην Ιερουσαλήμ, στο πίσω μέρος ενός καταστήματος με αντίκες που ανήκει σε έναν περιπλανώμενο ιππότη ηλικίας 3.000 χρόνων.

Το "Μεγάλο Πόκερ της Ιερουσαλήμ", όπως τελικά ονομάστηκε, θα διαρκέσει δώδεκα χρόνια και δεν θα έχει ως έπαθλο κάτι λιγότερο από τον ολοκληρωτικό έλεγχο της Ιερουσαλήμ. Χιλιάδες χαρτοπαίκτες από όλον τον κόσμο μπαίνουν στο παιχνίδι και χάνουν τεράστιες περιουσίες προσπαθώντας να κερδίσουν την Άγια Πόλη, αλλά στο τέλος δεν μένουν παρά τρεις άνδρες στο τραπέζι - οι ίδιοι που το ξεκίνησαν.

Λίγο πριν ξεκινήσει η τελευταία παρτίδα ακόμη ένας παίκτης μπαίνει στο παιχνίδι: o Νούμπαρ Βαλενστάιν, κληρονόμος του ισχυρότερου παγκόσμιου καρτέλ πετρελαίου, επικεφαλής μιας αδίστακτης διεθνούς κατασκοπικής οργάνωσης και φανατικός αλχημιστής που αναζητά την αιωνιότητα. Το πεπρωμένο του καθενός και η μοίρα της ίδιας της ανθρωπότητας θα εξαρτηθούν από ένα μοίρασμα της τράπουλας.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Magical Realism, Literature, Novels

701 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Edward Whittemore (1933­­­–1995) graduated from Yale University in 1955 and went on to serve as a Marine officer in Japan and spend ten years as a CIA operative in the Far East, Europe, and the Middle East. In addition to writing fiction, he managed a newspaper in Greece, was employed by a shoe company in Italy, and worked in New York City’s narcotics control office during the administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay. He wrote the Jerusalem Quartet while dividing his time between New York and Jerusalem.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edward Whittemore continues his exploration of the historical mysteries and transforms the history into a capricious myth creating his own Book of Kings. He also satirizes the espionage and clandestine operations mocking the power of totalitarian states.

Kikuchi laughed and pressed the button that opened the lid. Munk found himself staring at a blank enamel face. Lotmann pressed the button again and the blank face clicked back to reveal another watch, the face normal in appearance but with the minute hand moving at the speed of a second hand, the second hand a blur. Kikuchi pressed the button once more to reveal a third face, also normal in appearance but with both hands seemingly stationary.

Time is an enigmatic phenomenon…

For a long time he stood there watching the ship become smaller, the tiny gold watch clicking all but inaudibly next to his ear, rendering time slow and fast and nonexistent.

Some days time goes too fast and some days it stands still and in the moments of joy time doesn’t exist.

[Matt Brady · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thirteen year long poker game. The stakes; secret control of Jerusalem. The players: a Moslem, a Christian, and a Jew. The metaphor: very obvious. Edward Whittemore isn't always the most subtle of writers, but that isn't a problem for me. I still enjoyed Jerusalem Poker a whole lot, maybe not as much as The Sinai Tapestry, but close. And it isn't entirely true that Whittemore is an unsubtle writer. He'll distract you with the big obvious thing and then slip a point right in under your guard so quickly you don't even see it coming. He definitely isn't for everyone, and I'm actually surprised I like him as much as I have so far, since this fanciful, almost fairy tale type style isn't something I'm normally into. Maybe it's the way he manages to ground the more fantastical elements, like the beautifully tragic doomed quest of Haj Harun, eternal defender of the Holy City and thus destined to always fail and be on the losing side, because "when you fight for Jersulem you always lose". Maybe the characters help as well; Cairo Martyr, a Sudanese born peddlar of mummy-dust looking ti avenge the horrible wrongs done to his people, O'Sullivan Beare, Irish freedom-fighter turned gun runner turned who knows what (my personal favourite), Munk Szondi, ex Austro-Hungarian military officer and Zionist, Nubar Wallenstein, paranoid Albanian nobleman, and so on. Not all of them worked for me (Nubar in particular felt a bit out of place, and sucked up page time I'd rather have spent with other characters, though the parody of intelligence services was quite funny and probably just as relevant today as it was when Whittemore wrote this) but all these weird elements manage to combine and come together in a fairly moving story about legacy and faith and a bunch of other Big Serious Topics.

[Robert Nolin · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books greatly appealed to me as a young man, probably mostly because they are dick-lit of a very high order. Men are the focus, not people. Women meet men and immediately drop to their knees to perform oral sex. They are presented as supermen, doing impossible things, such as owning Jerusalem or forging the "original 3000 year-old Bible." (Yeah, I know.) And that would be okay--it's a former spook's fantasy--this group of dudes are really controlling things, and no one knows it--but then the book wants you to take itself seriously, as literary fiction. You can't have it both ways.

As for the Quartet, I'd recommend reading just Part One of Sinai Tapestry. The whole story is told again--and better--in this volume. Sinai Tapestry was practice for this book, IMHO.

[Suzie Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another bizarre and twisting tale with no plot and outrageous characters. Dreams and superstitions co-mingle, truth is a golden haze on the sands. The point is not the point.

[Lucy Cummin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whittemore gets that it is impossible to be rational about anything to do with the Middle East and multiply that by infinity when the subject is Jerusalem. Likely the initial settlement there was chosen for practical reasons, e.g. that there is no inherent spiritual reason why this 'hilltop' has become the possibly the most important city on the planet, as regards the life of the spirit. Whittemore does not try to unravel the mystery, instead he weaves a story of improbabilitie and intersections, layering one upon another from the Babylonians to the Crusaders, the Greeks to the Ottomans, to the early moments of the Zionist movement. In this second of the Quartet, a poker game begun in 1921 between three people, a black Arab-Sudanese, a Jewish-Hungarian ex-diplomat/soldier and an Irish ex-Independence fighter continues. The stakes are high: the winner will win Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the quest for the original bible (known as the Sinai Bible) is still on, though muted through this book. 3000 year old Haj Harun, the defender of Jerusalem, hosts the poker game and arbitrates when needed. That's all you need to know. Either you will be drawn in or you won't. ****1/2

[Steve Garriott · Rating 5 out of 5]

The characters swirl around each other and time is "unstuck" (as Mr. Vonnegut would put it) in this next entry in the Jerusalem Quartet. As pointed out in other reviews of Whittemore's works, there is a lot of talking. However, the talking is far from pedestrian. We get to see the motivations of his characters. And there are some fascinating ones here, from Joe the former Irish assassin, to Cairo Martyr whose teacher was a "mummy," to Munk the purveyor of "futures" (the three original players in the decade old Jerusalem poker game for ownership of Jerusalem). We still have the mystical elements embodied by Haj Harun and a host of other characters, along with the progeny of the Strongbow's and the Wallenstein... and the Sinai Bible. Bawdy, violent, as well as touching, I enjoyed this one even more than Sinai Tapestry.

[Scotchneat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this must be a reissue, since Whittemore wrote it in the 80s and he died not long after.

Very good ADULT read. Kind of Vonnegut + Pynchon + Garcia Marquez if he wrote about the middle east.

Whittemore's characters of fabulist, idealist, bawdy, romantic and bigger than life. The humour is dry as the desert at times, and the dialogue is top shelf.

I consider this a "found gem".

[Smirnoff Buddah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edward, GET TO THE POINT.

[Felix Zilich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Об этих событиях не было сказано в древних пророчествах и не было написано в старых газетах. Просто в один холодный вечер декабря 1921 года в небольшой кофейне на окраине Иерусалима встретились три человека. Встретились, уселись за одним столом и стали играть в покер. Легендарный Иерусалимский Покер, который растянется на долгие 12 лет и который решит всю дальнейшую судьбу Ближнего Востока. Легендарный Иерусалимский Покер, ставкой в котором станет сам город Иерусалим, а также и все его обитатели.

Дело в том, что эти трое игроков вполне могли позволить себе подобную ставку, каждый из них давно уже был полновластным хозяином одной из третей этого древнего города. Беглый ирландский повстанец Салливан О’Бир оказался в этих краях меньше десяти лет назад, но уже успел за это время найти сокровища крестоносцев, подружиться с бессмертным старцем Хаджем Гаруном, открыть бизнес по торговле костяными христианскими хуями, а также всецело посвятить себя поискам подлинника Синайской Библии, скрытой в одной из местных харчевен его далеким предком. Второй игрок – Мунк Шонди – известный контрабандист, соратник великого сиониста барона Кикути, наследник венгерских миллионов и король еврейского квартала – мечтал все эти только об одном, о восстановлении израильской государственности.

В отличии от него цель третьего игрока – Каира Мученика – была куда менее благородна, хотя на самом деле отличалась не меньшей эпичностью. Каир хотел отомстить исламу за вековое бремя черного человека, поэтому уже много лет готовился выкрасть священный камень Каабы и захоронить его в самом далеком уголке пустыни. Но не успел, потому что Иерусалимский Покер всецело захватил его жизнь…

Когда встречаешь книгу, которая находится всего в двух шагах от идеала, начинаешь медленно дымиться от подобной несправедливости. Уитмор пишет настолько роскошно, сочно и колоритно, что уже после прочтения первых страниц хочется читать эту книгу по второму кругу, раз за разом и при этом с любого места. И что самое интересное - книга к этому вполне располагает, растекаясь в каждой своей главе целым созвездием новых персонажей и новых исторических анекдотов.

При более близком знакомстве прекрасно понимаешь, что подобные достоинства являются также ее главными недостатками. Страдая от комплекса “писания в стол” (что в контексте его судьбы вовсе неудивительно) Уитмор никогда не знает не только то, чем закончить свое произведение, но даже то, как и куда его имеет смысл развивать. Если в первой книге тетралогии писатель медленно слил ее последние сто страниц в каком-то мутном послевоенном декадансе, то у второго произведения четкий финал все же есть (2007.02.01)

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whittemore in 5 interconnected novels, three of which I have read (only Sinai tapestry reads poorly as a stand alone) presents his gonzo secret history of the 20th century. These books combine magic realism, war stories, gothic horror, tall tales, romantic adventure, allegory, and spy thriller (Whittermore can be placed on that short list of authors who was also a spy or intelligence agent hanging out with Graham Greene, James Tiptree jr./Alice Sheldon, Cordwainer Smith, and Christopher Marlow). The tone ranges from whimsical and funny to unsettling and depressing, in fact he resembles Heironymous Bosch in print when describing historical atrocities like the massacre at Smyrna or the Rape of Nanking. A bizarre cast of over the top and eccentric characters including gunrunners, gangsters, drug addicts, serial killers, revolutionaries, and lunatics move through magical and historical events in locations ranging from the far east, middle east, America, British Islands, and Europe. Fans of the romantic, doomed adventures of Alvaro Mutis, the depressed thrillers of Greene, the gothic story-weaving of Angela Carter or Dineson, and the erudite wit of Borges will find much to love here.

[Barnaby Haszard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another loose-limbed epic from Whittemore, not quite as fantastical as SINAI TAPESTRY but just as spellbinding in its evocation of a reality just the other side of conventional place and time. The 12-year poker game at the centre is a frame story on which to hang a dozen or more fanciful yarns about the lives of the principals and their associates; whether or not that description of these 400+ pages intrigues you is a good indicator of whether or not you should read this book. Some of said yarns are dull -- especially the Nubar Wallenstein sections -- but they are balanced with unforgettable images and ideas across the rest of the book. There may not be much of a point to it all in the end and I am okay with that.

[Pablo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoa ! Ya. Loved "The Sinai Tapestry". Thought it brilliant and so original." Jerusalem Poker" is another animal. Pushing and pressing the boundaries to the extreme and although enjoyable in parts, it became so ludicrous and misdirected (IMHO) at so many junctures, that it at times became tedious. Admittedly after the first book I had extraordinarily high hopes, but this book certainly never came close to the imagination contained in the first book. Still extremely well written, which leaves high hopes for the rest of the series. 3 stars

[George K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Δεύτερο βιβλίο του Κουαρτέτου της Ιερουσαλήμ και, αν είναι αυτό ποτέ δυνατόν, το βρήκα ακόμα πιο κουλό, τρελό και απολαυστικό από το πρώτο. Δεν θα μπω στη διαδικασία να γράψω μια περίληψη αυτών που συμβαίνουν, γιατί πολύ απλά δεν γίνεται να γράψει κανείς μια περίληψη που να βγάζει νόημα, άλλωστε το κείμενο που υπάρχει στο οπισθόφυλλο της ελληνικής έκδοσης δίνει μια (πολύ) μικρή ιδέα γι' αυτά που πρέπει να περιμένει κανείς. Το βιβλίο είναι γεμάτο με αξιοπερίεργους και ιδιόρρυθμους χαρακτήρες με τρελό παρελθόν, είναι γεμάτο από εικόνες, σκηνές και στιγμές που αναδεικνύουν με τον έναν ή τον άλλο τρόπο τη μαγεία και την τρέλα της Ανατολής και της ερήμου, μπορεί να πει κανείς ότι διαθέτει και μια εσάνς φαντασίας και μαγικού ρεαλισμού, ανάλογα με το πώς βλέπει και αντιλαμβάνεται κάποιος τα πράγματα. Και χιούμορ, πολύ χιούμορ, λίγο μαύρο, λίγο κυνικό, λίγο σατιρικό απέναντι στην Ιστορία αλλά και τον κόσμο των μυστικών υπηρεσιών (βλέπε τη διεθνή κατασκοπική οργάνωση του τρελάρα Νουμπάρ Βαλενστάιν), αλλά και με αρκετή σοβαρότητα και λίγο ωμό ρεαλισμό όπου χρειάζεται. Μιλάμε για ένα περίεργο μείγμα ιστορικού και κατασκοπευτικού μυθιστορήματος, ερωτικής ιστορίας, μαγικού ρεαλισμού, μυστικισμού και φαντασίας, που δεν χωράει σε μια μονάχα κατηγορία, που πολύ απλά δεν γίνεται να του βάλει κανείς μια συγκεκριμένη ταμπέλα. Προφανώς, ούτε και αυτό το βιβλίο είναι για όλα τα γούστα, πάντως ευτυχώς η γραφή και η όλη τρέλα του συγγραφέα ταίριαξαν τα μάλα με τα δικά μου γούστα. Συνεχίζω ακάθεκτος με το τρίτο βιβλίο!

[Hokomoko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing, layering, deepening the first book 》Sainai Tapestry《we go a bit too far down the road of absurd and revolting as sublime. Much of the story development went into a wasted tangent that I found ponderous and revolting - not at all the mythic as emerging from the ordinary. The bigger than life build up of the protagonists worked and sagged by turns. Are they marvelous and enigmatic figures exemplifying their time or merely self indulgent people with unexplained super powers?

[Richard Rogers jr · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tried and tried but this book is a confused disaster.

[Georgia Ko · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really tried with this one but the writer is a total douchebag who constantly throws disgusting sexual imagery in the story plus a lot of historical inaccuracies. Threw it in the trash lol

[Karlo · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion, this book continues apace the story set out in the first volume, but ends on a slightly more positive note. Here we have an assemblage of curious knaves, not one realistic in any sense, but still fully fleshed out and deserving of our interest. The prize? Why all Jerusalem. The contest? Poker. The result? A wonderful read.

[Velvetink]

*note to self.copy from Al.

[John Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is out of print and hard as hell to hunt down...
but absolutely worth whatever price you pay for it...