Much of the writing is cliche and overwrought. Within a few pages of the first chapter, we are already in the middle of a soft-core porn scene, in which a husband overhears his wife having sex with the baker, and then proceeds to fantasize about the "vicarious, criminal, devastating and yet thrillful" episode. This sets the tone for a good part of the book. When the heaving and passion are kept to a minimum, the story of Jewish emigres to the promised land is interesting, but those passages are two few and far between.