This follow-up to Ravel's much-admired Ten Thousand Lovers
(2003) strikes many of the same notes as the previous novel, albeit with lesser force and resonance. Once again, love is at stake against the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as an impetuous young woman is separated from her older lover by violence and politics. Dana Hillman has been searching for her husband, Daniel, for 11 years, ever since he was horribly burned in an Israeli Army accident and subsequently disappeared. Believing him to still be alive, she searches for clues and takes out full-page ads in the newspapers asking him to return. To pay the bills, she writes romance novels in English. She also joins with other members of the Israeli left at demonstrations and engages in lukewarm affairs with fellow protestors Beatrice and Rafi. In Ten Thousand Lovers,
Ravel—a Canadian who grew up in Israel—seamlessly wove Israeli culture and politics with details of the everyday lives of both Jews and Arabs. This time around, she achieves a less perfect union of ideas, plot and character; Dana's idealized, sometimes whiny search for Daniel is hard to applaud, and its resolution feels hurried and improbable. This is the second of three planned novels about war and its impact on the region, leaving open the possibility that Ravel will return to form in the next installment. Agent, Richard Curtis.
(Aug.)
