Oasis discovered in cyber-desert!
Posted by Robert Cook on October 9, 2001, 4:20 pm Thank you an uncountable number of times for setting up this wonderful and informative site. I read Jerusalem Poker in 1986 when I was 18 and being idealistic on an Israeli kibbutz. It was a beaten-up old paperback edition from the kibbutz library, and I took it with me on a visit to Jerusalem and read most of it there, at various spots around the Old City. I was tempted to keep it when I eventually left for home, but decided that it would be wrong to deny other travellers the pleasure of discovery. Besides, there were guards at the gate with Uzis, and I wasn't entirely clear what their search policy was... The book stayed with me, though, in its kaleidoscope of images and stories and characters and enormous lies and staggering truths. Stunningly (or perhaps stupidly...) I didn't discover until last year that that EW was an unsung megastar of truth-telling fantastical history literature, that there were other books, that it was a quartet - and that it was virtually impossible to get hold of any of them unless you had spare limbs to barter with. And then today I read your Amazon.com reviews, and found my way here, and read that the books are going to be reissued... and now I'm just in a happy happy haze and feel that a circle of my life that I didn't even know I was drawing is finally coming to a close. Or will do just as soon as I get my hands on those Old Earth editions. And I will indeed go through that Melbourne bookshop you mentioned, so thank you for that too. You've done me and hopefully many others a fine service here. Congratulations, and thank you again. Robert Cook
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Re: Oasis discovered in cyber-desert!
Posted by Anne on October 10, 2001, 11:38 am Thanks for your kind comments. It is good to know that there is another Australian (I'm assuming you are one) that appreciates EW's books. I'm sure you won't be disillusioned reading the books - they really are something special, even after umpteen readings. Anne --Previous Message--
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Re: Oasis discovered in cyber-desert!
Posted by Robert Cook on October 11, 2001, 11:23 am Actually, I'm English, or more specifically Anglo-Irish (sorry to disappoint you). My wife is Indo-Caribbean-Latin-American, and we're gradually adopting Australia as a way of life. Which makes our two-year old son... well, someone who is probably going to enjoy the Jerusalem Quartet immensely when he grows up. Robert --Previous Message--
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Re: Oasis discovered in cyber-desert!
Posted by Anne on October 14, 2001, 2:29 pm We are all from somewhere else originally in Australia (excepting the indiginous population) so I was rather implying Australian residency more than anything else. Other than a few friends, to whom I have loaned the books, I've never come across another Aussie who has even heard of EW. Let's hope the reissued novels win him many more readers. Anne
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