Josephus gives an account of his own experiences, first fighting for the Jewish struggle and then as an emissary for the Roman Empire. The only account we have of the actual event is “The Jewish War,” written around that time by Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian who became a Roman citizen. The novel is Alice Hoffman’s latest book, “The Dovekeepers,” which attempts to retell the story of the Jewish resistance during the Roman siege of Masada in the first century. On the back cover, a blurb from a famous, widely respected author describing the novel as “a major contribution to 21st-century literature.” On the jacket flap, a publisher’s summary proclaiming this book to be the writer’s “masterpiece.” Yet in between, instead of a gripping work of fiction that lives up to this praise, is a long novel full of middling descriptions, hackneyed characters and histrionic plot twists.
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