The Glory

In his historical notes at this book's end, Herman Wouk tells his readers that The Hope and The Glory started as one book and wound up being written as two. He knew how he wanted to end this story - another Wouk epic! - from the beginning, with an event in Israel's history for which he was present. As a writer, I find that interesting. As a reader, I thoroughly enjoyed both books and found that they do, indeed, tell one story. The Glory picks up that story in 1967, and concludes it in 1988 - 40 years after the War for Independence in 1948, where The Hope began. Wouk understands what makes his characters tick, and their growing and changing processes unfold naturally. That's what makes both books a pleasure to read. He brings the events of modern Israel's history to life by experiencing them with his characters, and his depictions of real people (people like Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, and Menachem Begin) ring true for a reader who remembers watching those events and those real people move across the world's stage during the years that The Glory covers. It's hard to believe his fictional creations are not just as real. He even gets the women right, exactly right for the context of their times. Too much like a "movie of the week," as some reviewers state? Maybe. But it's the human dimension that brings any good story to life, and at doing that Wouk excels. --Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of 2005 EPPIE winner REGS

This book and it's prequil, The Hope, tells the story of the birth of Israel and will leave you wanting the book to never end.

The Glory continues where The Hope left off and continues with the characters we have come to know in The hope as well as introducing us to the trials and tribulations of their grown up children: The new generationWe are taken through key pints in Israel's struggle for survival: The raid on terrorists in Beirut in retaliation for the massacre by PLO operatives of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics; the horror and sacrifice of the Yom Kippur War and the resultant political fallout; the heroic raid on Entebbe to rescue Jewish hostages ;the tense and prolonged negotiations at Camp David between Israel and Egypt and Sadat's visit to Jerusalem in 1978 and the raid of a key Iraqi nuclear terminal by the Israeli airforce in 1981 .The novel ends with the 1988 celebration of Israel's 40th birthday In addition to the detailed and interesting lives of the key characters we get to engage with real life figures like Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Yitzhac Rabin Ariel Sharon and Defence Force Chief of Staff Motta Gur

Herman Wouk does a great job capturing the second half of Isreal's life in "The Glory" I would suggest both "The Hope" and "The Glory" to anyone interested in historical Fiction...

I LOVED EVERY HERMAN WOUK BOOK I HAVE READ AND CAN'T WAIT TO READ ANOTHER. MORE HISTORICAL FICTION, THE HOPE/GLORY WERE GREAT AND GAVE ME A TREMENDOUS INSITE INTO ISRAEL'S SHORT HISTORY. THE ROLE OF THE AMERICAN'S AND RUSSIAN'S IS FASCINATING.