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CITY OF SECRETS
by Stewart O'Nan
Viking, April 2016
208 pages
$22.00
ISBN: 0670785962


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CITY OF SECRETS is a haunting journey through the lonely, confused life of a holocaust survivor in 1948 Jerusalem. Brand, who lost his entire family including his wife in a massacre by the Germans, feels guilt that he somehow did not do enough to save them. He is now an active member of a Haganah resistance cell, working to destroy the hold of the British on Palestine. His cover identity is as a taxi driver named Jossi Jorgenen. In this role, he is able to both earn a meager living and ferry fellow cell members to various secret meetings and operations. He is in love with a fellow survivor named Eva, who was once a beautiful actress but it now scarred and working as a madam. He spends most nights with her and drives her to some of her assignations.

He feels that the other cell members are distrustful of him and he does not know how he fits into their plans. He is not sure who is in control, although a mysterious figure named Asher seems to be the one in charge. Brand is not even sure what organization he is a part of, as the more peaceful Haganah seems to have teemed up with the Irgun and the Stern Gang, groups that want to use violent means. He seems clueless and far too innocent to be a part of the bombings and killings.

Perhaps because of the horrors he as lived through, Brand seems to lack much affect. He seems emotionally flat. Even in what could have been a heart-wrenching scene - when Brand prepares a solitary Seder for himself and enacts the ritual while recalling what his family used to do during this special time - he does not seem as devastated as might be expected. The reader is witness to Brand's sad and solitary life yet never quite feels compassion for his predicament.

O'Nan infuses his entire novel with the same detachment he uses to describe Brand's life. The latter part of the book seems to be building to some sort of huge attack that Brand may or may not be pulled into. When the devastation does occur, the reader discovers that it is an event ripped from the pages of history. Yet even with this truthful background, the reader is not greatly affected. CITY OF SECRETS gives us direct exposure to a time and place of great historical significance but it is difficult to feel emotionally connected to the characters or the story.

§ Anne Corey is a writer, poet, teacher and botanical artist in New York's Hudson Valley.

Reviewed by Anne Corey, February 2016

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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