Will iconic images recorded in the grooves of an ancient vase unite the Holy Land or rip it further apart?

THE VASE

A novel by Mark M. DeRobertis

Muhsin Muhabi is a Palestinian potter, descended from a long line of potters. His business is run from the same shop owned by his ancestors since the day his forebears moved to Nazareth. The region's conflict saw the death of his oldest son, and rogue terrorists are in the process of recruiting his youngest in their plot to assassinate the Pope and Israeli prime minister.

Professor Hiram Weiss is an art historian at Nazareth’s Bethel University. He is also a Shin Bet operative on special assignment. With the help of fellow agent, Captain Benny Mathias, he plans to destroy the gang responsible for the death of his wife and only child. He puts a bomb in the ancient vase he takes on loan from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.

Mary Levin, the charming assistant to the director of Shin Bet, has lost a husband and most of her extended family to recurring wars and never-ending terrorism. She dedicates her life to the preservation of Israel, but to whom will she dedicate her heart? The brilliant professor from Bethel University? Or the gallant captain who now leads Kidon?

Harvey Holmes, the Sherlock of Haunted Houses, is a Hollywood TV host whose reality show just flopped. When a Lebanese restaurant owner requests his ghost-hunting services, he believes the opportunity will resurrect his career. All he has to do is exorcise the ghosts that are haunting the restaurant. It happens to be located right across the street from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.




Monday, July 25, 2011

Movie Versions

I have made it known that movie versions of books, even comic books are usually nothing more than a bad joke. Of course there are exceptions. But usually movies do no justice to their source, if that source is a book or comic book.

And comic books get the worst of it. Lately, I've taken my sons to see the new X-Men, Thor, and Captain America movies. The kids like them, because they never read the comic books. (They haven't taken to reading yet. But I'm sure they will as they get older.)

But for someone like me, who has read them all, I just can't give these movies my stamp of approval. Almost always they are cast wrong. Almost always, the movie writers change the concept or storyline of the origins.

I mean, as an example, the X-Men movie. It was supposed to be about, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman and Angel. But only Beast was there. And come on... the Beast didn't have an opposing thumb for his big toe.

OK, there was an Angel in it, but Angel was a guy in the comics, with the wings of an... ANGEL... not a girl who was a stripper with bug wings. They should have called her Bug Girl, not Angel.

Oh well.
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