Exodus

I was completely surprised by this book, and books do not surprise me much any more. Honestly, there are very few books that I have ever read that even come close to being as well written as Exodus, and I sincerely applaud Leon Uris for his accomplishments. In fact, if I can get my hands on more of his books, I would gladly read them.

More than anything, the reason the book caught me off guard was that I bought it for fifty cents in a used book store. I found myself, once again, unable to keep myself from getting the oldest book i could find. I do not know what my obsession is with old books, but I have read a lot and they are nearly always good. The reason that Exodus was selling for fifty cents at this used books store is because it was falling apart. There were pages being held in only by the pages that surrounded them. The cover was torn half way off. When I started reading the book, the first two hundred pages fell out, all attached to each other but not to the cover. By the time I finished reading the book, there was tape everywhere, and even though it is no longer completely falling apart, there are still a few pages that will fall out if one is not careful.

Anyhow, I started reading the book thinking that it would be an interesting little read. I was soon enwrapped by it. At first, nothing was making a ton of sense, but I let the book pan out, and everything quickly was explained. I almost stopped reading the book, though, because I did not think it was going to be interesting, but then I was caught by the story of a little Jewish girl from Germany who lived through World War II. Knowing her background, and now finally understanding what the story was about, I was unable to stop reading after that. I think the real surprise, though, was that after that the story just got so good. After I read about Karen, the Jewish girl, the story line picked up and took off like a jet, and I was hooked.

Well, in essence, the story is about the Jewish people after World War II. It begins on the island of Cyprus, where the British held a detention camp for Jews who were caught attempting to illegally enter Palestine. Somewhere near the beginning, the character Ari Ben Canaan sneaks onto Cyprus and meets with the other Palestinian Jews there. They make a plan to sneak one hundred children from the detention camp, and eventually succeed. The slow part was the planning stages, but once they were enacting their plans, the book sped up and did not slow down again until the very end. The children and the nurse that was caring for them on Cyprus all go to Palestine, where the Jews were making settlements. The book ends by describing the war that erupted when Israel was granted its freedom. Uris was very meticulous in describing the methods the Jews used to overcome the Arabs that were attacking them, and I am nearly certain that if I were to look up the war, most of what Uris described would hold true. Either way, it made an intense novel, and I severely enjoyed it. I do not want to give away the end, but it was very sad. In fact, I actually cried at the end of the book, which is something I have only done once before.

All in all, I suggest Exodus to everybody. It was a fantastic book, and it is based on a true story, well, at least the events that occur are based on a true story. I would loan out my copy, but it is falling apart, and I am thinking of buying a new one, as well as some other books by Leon Uris. I am extremely happy that I once again found another amazing old book, and now I'll start searching for more.