In your Sept. 9 issue, Jerome Chanes reviews a book that analyzes Leon Uris’ “Exodus” (“’Exodus’ And The Americanization Of Israel’s Founding”). His review is mostly about “Exodus” itself, however, and it is surprising.
In two places he acknowledges that “Exodus” is indeed a novel, but the rest of the time he critiques it as if it were a history textbook. He criticizes it continually for containing historical “misrepresentations, half-truths and outright inaccuracies.”
“Exodus” is fiction, a historical novel using a background of historical events to tell a story. It’s not history, and it doesn’t pretend to be.
Until reading this review I thought that everyone — especially book reviewers — understood the difference.
Hillel Cohen
West Hempstead, L.I.
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