ISRAEL A History

Martin Gilbert's exhaustive study of modern Israel, from the start of Zionism to the present, should benefit mightily from a better reading. For the listener would not only hear the correct pronunciation of the book's numerous foreign words and phrases, but would also receive a disentangling of the author's snaky and maze-like sentences. Alas, David Case stumbles through an expensive, 25-hour, two-volume set without a clue to the meaning of the lines he reads. The frequent sloppy edits--made, one assumes, to correct his mispronunciations--add to the irritation. Only the most determined listener could get through the first side, much less the whole magilla. Y.R. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 00]