{"id":244,"date":"2012-05-16T06:55:59","date_gmt":"2012-05-16T06:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/?p=244"},"modified":"2012-05-16T06:55:59","modified_gmt":"2012-05-16T06:55:59","slug":"a-brief-review-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/2012\/05\/16\/a-brief-review-roundup\/","title":{"rendered":"A brief review roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Praise for Matti Friedman\u2019s <em>The Aleppo Codex<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>The Aleppo Codex<\/em> could be read as a thriller. It could also be read as a history of the Jewish people, or as a meditation on history and myth. This great book comes closer to containing everything than any book I\u2019ve read in a long, long time.\u201d<strong>\u2014Jonathan Safran Foer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Friedman] opened a treasure box of history, mystery, conspiracy, and convolutions that would do any biblical thriller proud . . . Friedman has done a remarkable job\u2014finding sources and digging through archives\u2014of getting the Crown\u2019s fascinating story out of the shadows and into the light. In the process, he\u2019s become the latest in the long line of the Crown\u2019s protectors.\u201d<strong>\u2014<em>Booklist<\/em>, starred review<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFriedman gives a masterful account of a major religious document . . . [he] delivers an atmospheric, tense story about the destruction of a sacred relic, raising inevitable questions about who owns a people\u2019s historical treasures.\u201d<em><strong>\u2014Publishers Weekly<\/strong><\/em><strong>, starred review<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSharply etched . . . A carefully paced narrative of purloined Judaica.\u201d<em><strong>\u2014Kirkus Reviews<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFriedman\u2019s account of how the Codex was taken from Syria in the 1940s, later to resurface in Jerusalem, although no longer complete, is full of betrayals, controversy and surprises \u2014 and raises larger questions about the ownership and preservation of historical treasures.\u201d <em><strong>\u2014 Jewish Week<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>The Aleppo Codex<\/em> builds to a moral crescendo more impressive than the climactic fight scene in any thriller.\u201d <em><strong>\u2013 Salon<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThrilling . . . a real-life <em>National Treasure<\/em> that reads like fantastical fiction.\u201d<em><strong>\u2014CultureMob<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMatti Friedman is a stunningly talented writer, a once-in-a-generation discovery. The Aleppo Codex has enough betrayals, conspiracies, surprise plot twists, sacred flimflam men, and well-dressed contraband dealers for the best of thrillers \u2014 but every bit of it is meticulously researched fact. Cancel your appointments, bury your cell phone \u2014 you won\u2019t want to be interrupted \u2013 and read this book.\u201d<strong>\u2014Gershom Gorenberg, Senior Correspondent for <em>The American Prospect<\/em> and author of <em>The Accidental Empire<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cA beautifully woven tale of epic proportions about a sacred book and its all-too-human custodians. I did not put it down until I had finished it at the crack of dawn. Absolutely riveting!\u201d<strong>\u2014Oren Harman, author of <em>The Price of Altruism<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Praise for Matti Friedman\u2019s The Aleppo Codex \u201cThe Aleppo Codex could be read as a thriller. It could also be read as a history of the Jewish people, or as a meditation on history and myth. This great book comes closer to containing everything than any book I\u2019ve read in a long, long time.\u201d\u2014Jonathan Safran Foer \u201c[Friedman] opened a treasure &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248,"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions\/248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}