cover image Hope Street, Jerusalem: A Memoir

Hope Street, Jerusalem: A Memoir

Irris Makler. HarperCollins, $14.99 trade paper (314p) ISBN 978-0-7322-9416-8

Makler (Our Woman in Kabul) describes life as a journalist based in Jerusalem where she lived for seven years in this far-reaching but uneven memoir. Having filed stories around the globe for radio, TV and online news outlets, she knows the physical and emotional perils of working as foreign correspondent in in a post-9/11 world. She describes the personal tolls and the inherent loneliness of juggling her career and new life abroad, "Too many drivers, not enough friends. That was my verdict%E2%80%A6 as I slung my suitcases into the boot of yet another cab, in yet another dangerous location." Despite these hardships, the author seldom tires of the setting. In evocative prose, she celebrates the unique qualities of the Old City, where the turmoil of modern-day Jerusalem fades away only to be replace by "a bustling Middle Eastern souk... Stalls overflowed with jewelry, silver, gold, precious stones, lengths of glittering material, embroidered cloth, clothes, shoes, baskets of spices, beads, candles, perfumed oils, incense and crucifixes; the profusion part of the pleasure." But when Makler writes of a boyfriend 16 years younger, the narrative loses focus. The reader's interest wanes when she recalls a puppy they find and their attempt to name it as the volume veers farther afield. What began initially as from the story of a war reporter turns unfortunately into a pedestrian tale about a woman and her dog in a disappointing shift. (Mar.)