Robert Stone - Damascus Gate

Pros: Deep, smart, hip, funny

Cons: Difficult, controversial

Review: Robert Stone writes slowly, and cares little for fashion, so he hasn't really had a big hit... but I think he'll be remembered as one of the best novelists of the 20th century.

Damascus Gate for me surpasses even Dog Soldiers in its...

Pros: Unique story in an ancient and modern setting.

Cons: Author uses more obscure names and terms than really needed to tell the story.

Review: Using a large and varied cast of characters, Robert Stone explores the convoluted, shifting aspects of life, religion and politics in modern Israel. The hook in the story is that one of the characters is writing a book about the Jerusalem Syndrome...

Pros: Local color, thoughtfulness

Cons: Plot drags

Review: This book is one of those few thrillers where there is more to it than action, in the best tradition of John LeCarre. But it is much more philosophical than even the best LeCarre.

The region comes alive in Stone's prose, as does the...