Revenge: A Story of Hope

by Laura Blumenfeld

2002

Status

Checked out

Genres

Biography & Memoir

General Nonfiction

Biography

Religion & Spirituality

Nonfiction

Collection

CD Audiobook

Publication

Simon & Schuster Audio (2002), Edition: Abridged

Description

In 1986, Laura Blumenfeld's father was shot in Jerusalem by a member of a rebel faction of the PLO responsible for attacks on several tourists in the Old City. Her father lived, but Blumenfeld's desire for revenge haunted her. This is her story. Traveling to Europe, America, and the Middle East, Blumenfeld gathers stories and methods of avengers worldwide as she plots to infiltrate the shooter's life. Through interviews with Yitzhak Rabin's assassin; with members of the Albanian Blood Feud Committee; the chief of the Iranian judiciary; the mayor of Palermo, Sicily; an Egyptian heroin smuggler; the Israeli prime minister and the military chief of staff; priests; sports fans; fifth-grade girls; and prostitutes, among others, she explores the mechanics and the psychology of vengeance. But ultimately, it is a journey that leads her back home -- where she is forced to confront her childhood dreams, her parents' failed marriage, and her ideas about family. In the end, her target turns out to be more complex -- and in some ways more threatening -- than the stereotypical terrorist she'd long imagined. A rare, ambitious, personal, and intellectual tour of dark urges often denied, Revenge: A Story of Hope is a beautifully written story about family, loyalty, and home, about the personal passions behind public events, and about the thin line between love and hate.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member cbl_tn

Americans living or working in the Middle East or Eastern Europe would profit from reading this book. As she sought to come to terms with her father's injury at the hand of a Palestinian terrorist in Israel, Laura Blumenfeld interviewed many religious, political, and cultural leaders about the

morality of revenge. Most Americans probably think of revenge as something a “nice” person wouldn't consider. However, the responses Ms. Blumenfeld receives illustrate that, in many cultures, revenge is considered a moral, honorable, and appropriate response to personal insult or injury.

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LibraryThing member ammurphy

The author examines her topic through many cultures and through her own experience of searching for the man who shot her father. Ultimately she becomes a friend of the shooter and his family.

LibraryThing member gaillamontagne

I Picked this audio book up at a thrift store having an interest in Israel and the Jewish people. I have the edited version, only 4 cassette tapes long but I love it already after only the 2nd tape. Laura Blumenfeld, an American Jew, researches the random shooting of her father who was in Jerusalem

at the time. Although he was not killed, the attack on her father caused Laura to research the reasons for revenge in various cultures. Told in the first person with raw honesty and intelligent inquiry,her research takes her into the Palestine homes of convicted shooters and terrorists, and discovers the reasons and irrational rational that leads to generational revenge. The Palestinians she interviews obviously do not know she is Jewish or that she is a family member of one of their victims. Very honestly told.

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