After a shocking hiatus in which one of the great masterpieces of Holocaust literature -- indeed, literature in general -- has been out of print and unavailable in the United States, Adam Resurrected is finally back. We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Grove Press, the publisher, who have also just published in hardcover the author's first foray into nonfiction, a passionate and powerful biography of the man responsible for illegally bringing thousands of immigrants to Palestine during the British Mandate. But the point of this review is simply to encourage as many people who have not discovered Kaniuk's voice to pick up a copy of Adam -- in its most attractive packaging yet, I would add. It's a harrowing, gripping, astonishing, amazing piece of fiction, and one that approached the Holocaust with dark, ironic, biting humor decades before this became "fashionable." Read it -- you'll never forget it.

The story of Adam takes you from post WW II germany to the land of Israel in a flash back & present telling tale of one man's journey back from the brink of self-destruction. A Famous Eurpean Clown forced to be a dog during the Holocaust, living by wit & his Commander's wims & then having to keep his commander alive after the war ended. Adam finds himself returning to Institution life, too smart to be cured and too scared to stay in the outside world. Adam terrorizes the staff, tantalizes his lover (the head Nurse) and mesmorizes all the other patients with his charm and wit. Adam finally begins to heal as he attempts to heal a young boy who thinks he's a dog.

World War II has always been a comforting war for Americans to reflect upon. After all, the United States stood proudly, along with Britain and the other Allies, against the menace of the Axis Powers. We fought the good fight, and won.

But a story that we hear less often is how American bombers were never sent to bomb the Zyklon-B gas tanks and railway shipping stations that kept the death camps running.

We also rarely hear about British warships ramming hulking old freighters crammed with Jewish refugees trying to emmigrate to Palestine, or America's unwillingness to let more than a few Jews (primarily scientists and well-connected members of the intelligentsia) come to America at a time of dark and terrible peril for the Jewish people of Europe.

Another rarely-told tale is the struggle to establish the State of Israel, a battle the Palmach and Haganah fought in equal parts against hostile Arabs and a British Mandate determined to prevent further Jewish settlement.

"Commander of the Exodus," a history book enhanced by the literary gifts of a novelist, tells this handful of rarely-heard tales by exploring the life of Yossi Harel, a young native of Palestine who brought over 20,000 displaced Holocaust survivors to what would soon become Israel, braving rough seas, mines and a vicious British blockade.

Harel, who is molded by Kaniuk into the deeply passionate and level-headed hero of "Commander of the Exodus," is clearly a man of substance. The staggering dangers involved in smuggling thousands of refugees across a hostile Mediterranean are explored thoroughly by the author, who paints a grim picture of the ships that failed to make it, and the refugees who died while trying to find a better life in the desert that would become Israel.

Unfortunately, Kaniuk's passionate narrative doesn't make much of an attempt to approach Palestine from an Arab, or even British, perspective. While Kaniuk's exodus narrative is stirring and sometimes devastating in its anger against a "civilized world" that helped to finish a dirty job begun by the Nazis, it's clearly a work of passion. This makes it less reliable as a history, but considerably more human and engaging.

This aside, it's clear that the author has wrought a rich historical perspective, charged with fact and drama. "Commander of the Exodus" dazzles with the sadness of history and the strength of human life.