“The real protagonists of the Quartet are surely the parched and beautiful deserts of the biblical lands, with their oases and ruins, and above all the Holy City of Jerusalem itself. Whittemore is profoundly in love with these, and it’s… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“This heady mixture of the philosophical and the dramatic runs throughout the book, the one underlying the other, and the result, unlikely though it… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“Like many authors belonging to that large and unfortunate caste, “the unjustly neglected”, Whittemore suffers from being an embarrassingly good read. He also suffers… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“Once again, Whittemore escapes what might be a fatal mistake in another author. Far from the funhouse hall of mirrors one might expect from… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“No, no guns, they won’t get us anywhere. I tried that when I was young and it’s a useless interim game. Use guns and… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“From the decks of the warships the foreign sailors watched the massacre through binoculars and took pictures. The navy bands played late and phonographs… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“What this amounts to, and what makes the critic with his nose for genre and structure so nervous, is that by all accounts this… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“Ah well, he thought, we do what we can. It makes little difference but we have to do it anyway. Stern’s words, he suddenly… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“The conversation can be serious, too, taking on the form of a grave philosophical discourse as the characters take turns to expound their views… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“The distant rumble of gun fire and armored vehicles is the rumble of history itself, bearing down on Whittemore’s characters as they engage in… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“… so it isn’t true any longer that we can just create ourselves. Now we must. Our childhood as a race is over and… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“Yes. Despite the ultimate mystery of the universe there’s still one small truth we can live by. Choice. Never merely to take what we… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“… a night twenty years ago and forever and but a prelude to the century, but a shadow of the far deeper descent into… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“Something else apart from this heady fusion draws us in to Nile Shadows, though, and that’s a certain compulsive quality that, as in all… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“… and just as suddenly he was with Stern and it was a night twenty years ago in a city once called Smyrna, once… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
“The real protagonists of the Quartet are surely the parched and beautiful deserts of the biblical lands, with their oases and ruins, and above… — Edward Whittemore Copy Share Image
