Rachel Kadish

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
Print: 6/6/2017; 978-0544866461; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 567 pages
Digital: Yes.
Audio: 6/9/2017; 9781681686325; Highbridge division of Recorded Books; duration 23:27:01 (22 parts).
(Film: No).

CHARACTERS: (not comprehensive)
Helen Ann Watt – historian (2000, 2001)
Aaron Levy – student historian (2000, 2001)
Ian Easton – Former history student
Bridgette Easton – Ian’s wife
Dror – Helen’s former love interest
Jonathon Martin -- History Dept. Head
Andrew Darcy – Aaron’s Advisor
Ester Velasquez – 17th century Jewess
Mary da Costa – HaCoen’s relation to whom Ester serves as a companion
Rivka – HaCoen’s maid
Patricia Smith -- University’s Conservation Librarian
Patricia Haight – University’s Rare Manuscript Librarian
Marisa – Aaron’s love interest
Dror – Helen’s former love interest
(Rabbi Moseh) HaCoen Mendes – Ester’s guardian
Menasseh ben Israel – a Rabbi
John Wilson – Ester’s love interest
Manuel HaLevy – Ester’s suiter
Benjamin HaLevy – Manuel’s father
Alvaro HaLevy – Manuel’s younger brother

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
I found this book at the Newport Beach Public Library’s Friends of the Library book sale and was attracted to the book’s cover, the title, and Toni Morrison’s recommendation on the cover, so I purchased it for a few dollars.

There are three principal characters: Helen, Ester, and Aaron in that order (Though others may reorder them). I most like the storyline of Ester. It develops well and reminds me a bit of the Yentl story.
I also liked the premise of the thrill of discovering 300 year old documents in an old house engendering the hope of adding to what is known of life at that time in that place for that sect, and the suspense for the discovers of whether they will be able to piece together the facts and circumstances of the letters they set about translating.
I think I was supposed to see a stronger parallel between Ester and Helen than I did, but maybe I just didn’t look deep enough. I can’t say why I couldn’t completely buy into the antagonism between the British Helen and her American student assistant. Maybe it felt stereotypical to me. Their interactions felt a tad bit tedious—as neither character was especially likeable to each other (and by extension, to me) throughout most of the beginning, and at the point where Helen questions whether she will ever tell the student the reasons for her interest in Jewish history, didn’t ring true. It felt like a mechanism to reveal those reasons to the reader, but didn’t seem to fit the characterizations—at that point she didn’t like the young man, so I couldn’t see why she would wonder if she would ever share her intimate personal history with him.
But that’s probably just me. Overall, I did enjoy the book, and I loved that it inspired me to study up on Shakespeare, philosophy and Jewish history.

AUTHOR:
Rachel Kadish (8/12/1969), According to Wikipedia, Rachel won the National Jewish Book Award for this book in 2017.

NARRATOR:
Corrie James. According to Tanto.com, “Corrie James has worked on both sides of the Atlantic in theater, radio, and audiobooks. She credits growing up listening to the BBC for her love of the spoken word. Her audiobooks include The Companion of Lady Holmeshire by Debra Brown and Remember Me by Trezza Azzopardi.”
Since I often have more time to listen to audiobooks, even though I had the print in hand, I also downloaded the audiobook from the LAPL Overdrive app. I listened to it through most of the book, up to chapter 23, and then reverted to reading the print. I liked that I learned the pronunciations of the Hebrew names and a few terms from Corrie. I’d rate the narration at about a 7, (not 10, just because I kept thinking the delivery wasn’t what I thought it might be if I were reading it myself. Granted, I’m not British, so perhaps that’s why.)

GENRE:
Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literature

LOCATIONS:
Richmond, London, Israel

TIME FRAME:
Mid 17th century, early 21st century.

SUBJECTS:
Genizah; Translation; Hebrew; Portuguese; Jewish History; Feminism; 17th Century; Historians; Retirement; Parkinson’s Disease; Shakespeare; Masada; Architecture; Renovation

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From
"Chapter 16:
March 20, 1665
4 Nisan, 5425
London"

“How to explain to all the world that her own vanity—her pretension at philosophical thought, which a man like Manuel HaLevy would trample—was more valuable to her than the safety he offered?
She’d reached home. The door shut hard behind her, and in its wake quiet reigned. The rabbi had retired to his room, the fire in the study had gone to embers.
A woman’s body, said the world, was a prison in which her mind must wither.
She forced herself to stand still in the center of the room, palms resting lightly on the fabric of her skirts. She would not permit herself another step until she calmed herself with reason.
Nature gave a woman not only body but also intelligence, and a wish to employ it. Was it then predetermined that one side of Ester’s nature must suffocate the other? If two of God’s creations were opposed, must it be that God decided in advance that one was more perfect and therefore must be victorious? Did God determine before each storm that either the wind or the oak tree must prevail, one being more dear to Him?
Or perhaps, rather, the storm itself was God’s most prized creation—and only through it could the contest between wind and oak tree be resolved, and one proven hardier. Perhaps—she trembled at her own heresy—the storm itself was God. And God was only the endless tumult of life proving new truths and eradicating old.
Then it was only right that she do as her spirit told her, and let the struggle itself answer the question of which was the stronger: her will or her womanly nature.”

RATING:
3 stars. A good story. Was it unnecessarily long? I'm not sure.

STARTED-FINISHED
3/20/21-4/8/21
… (more)

This excellent historical fiction novel is filled with fascinating tidbits. Like, the prophecy that Jews have to be present in all parts of the world before the messiah comes. Or a lost tribe of Jews had been found in Brazil. A bit overwritten with lines like “every molecule in her was alive, aligned, iron filings to a magnet” or “the world was a geography of hidden places”. I was getting dizzy following all the different story lines.
The plot follows two researchers that have found literary artifacts from the early 1600’s relating to London Jews. This discovery was initially found by owners of a four-hundred-year old house, Bridgette and Ian. So, we have the complicated background stories of the researchers Aaron and Helen. We are also following characters in the London of the 1600’s. Ester is a scribe to a blind rabbi who is using an assumed name to write letters to expelled Jewish heretic Spinoza!
I expected more a of clear-cut definition of why Spinoza was considered a heretic. Ester proved that there was no God who could treasure martyrdom which meant that the mother of the rabbi she worked for died in vain. She had been tortured during the Spanish inquisition. What the writer came up with was unsatisfying.
I longed for a logical connection between Aaron and Helen versus Ester’s story. Still this was an illuminating novel dealing with Jews in London during this period.… (more)

A weighty read that was a slog at times, fascinating at times , and at other times just a good mystery. There are weighty themes in this novel dealing with women’s intelligence in 1660s(Ester Velasquez) and today( Professor Helen Watts.) Jewish women in history is a theme. One part I really enjoyed was the parts about the preservation of the unearthed 16th century documents and the handling of them.
There is also a sweet little mystery to be solved involving Shakespeare, Ester as a scribe disguised as a man and if Helen Watt and her grad student Aaron will find her story before another research team or before Helen’s Parkinson’s disease make her unable to continue.
Still, it’s an awfully long book and I did skip parts where Ester labors intellectually .… (more)