Call me an incorrigible skeptic. Maybe, after more than four decades as a journalist dealing with politicians, fraudsters and criminals (did I mention politicians?) I am.
So when I see something that’s out of character, I can’t ignore it. I figure there’s more to it than meets the eye. In other words, I trust my gut.
And that’s what happened when I finished reading Daniel Silva’s latest novel, An Inside Job.
It’s the prolific author’s 25th novel. Sliva pops one out every year in July, impressively writing in long-hand on legal pads with a number 2 pencil. Quite amazing, indeed.
His main character has been Gabriel Allon, who rose in the ranks as a spy and assassin for the spy agency Silva called the Office, but was clearly the Mossad and he was eventually appointed as the head of the famous spy agency. Allon also was a crackerjack art restorer (if that’s a kosher way to describe someone with that kind of talent), with deep ties to the Vatican.
Silva was never shy in touting Allon as the Israeli child of Holocaust survivors. His Jewishness, his Israeliness, even his marriage to the daughter of the chief rabbi of Venice, were fundamental elements of his persona that made him so attractive to a loyal following of Jewish readers of all backgrounds.
In one of the Allon novels, his boss at the Office explained to him why the name Gabriel was especially apropos. “You’re the one who defends Israel against its accusers. You’re the angel of judgment, the Prince of Fire.”
But, in An Inside Job, Silva stripped Allon of his entire Israeli past. No mention of Israel, no ties to the Office or to his old and colorful crew of Israeli undercover operatives.
I mean, Allon was so Israeli in so many books, it was as if I was reading about a stranger, not the Israeli avenging angel I had come to “love” and admire.
And that’s when the skeptic in me kicked in.
I found it bizarre, curious and unsettling, that the character Silva so painstakingly created over decades, was now a different person with an undefined past. He was no longer the guy who hunted down the terrorists who murdered Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. There was no reference to his past when the Office sent him to Venice to study art restoration as part of his cover.
This was a whole new, but certainly not improved, Gabriel Allon.
So bizarre, so curious, so unsettling.
So I watched as many interviews as I could where Silva was promoting his new book. I thought he might offer some explanation for the abrupt erasure of Allon’s past.
Silva didn’t shy away from speaking about Allon’s background, but no one I could find asked him why he scrubbed it. Never asked, never answered. Or maybe it’s more like never asked, don’t tell.
Maybe, Daniel Silva purposely decoupled Allon from anything Israeli because of the current Israel-bashing climate. It’s no secret that many Jewish and Israeli authors are now having a tough time getting their works published. Last year, more than 7,000 authors and book workers, some winners of prestigious literary awards, signed onto a letter calling for the boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, publishers, agents and festivals.
The Jewish Book Council has published testimonies from Jewish and Israeli writers pointing their fingers at literary magazines and publishers that are boycotting the work of Zionists.
So could it be that Harper Collins, Silva’s publisher, told him to put the kibosh on Allon’s Israeli identity? That it’s not good to have a protagonist who is so closely identified with the Jewish state and its clandestine spy agency? Did Silva want to avoid the malevolent, so-called pro-Palestinian protesters from harassing him at his book appearances? Or has Silva bought into the idealogical cult that wants to erase anything Israeli from our minds and from our store shelves?
Feel free to tell me I’m being too defensive, that I’m overreacting. After all, Allon isn’t real, he’s a figment of Silva’s imagination, and he has the literary license to do with him what he will. So why am I getting so worked up?
It’s because of the current climate around the world where Israelis and Jews are being demonized daily. Where antisemitism and anti-Israelism runs rampant on the streets of our cities, on our university campuses and in the halls of government. Where Israeli and Jewish authors, artists and athletes are being boycotted and banned.
If it’s true, and I hope it’s not, that Silva succumbed to the transnational gang of haters and capitulated to decouple Gabriel Allon from his Jewish heritage, then he deserves criticism, castigation and condemnation.
Feel free to slap me upside the head and scold me as a foolishly defensive and overly skeptical Jew, but Silva’s eradication of Allon’s Israeli identity was clearly deliberate and he owes his loyal readers an explanation.
Until I hear a why he just didn’t leave Allon alone, my gut tells me An Inside Job will be Silva’s final chapter as far as I’m concerned.