The Golem and the Jinni
Ratings298
Average rating4.2
This is a delightfully entertaining and thought-provoking book, embracing the cultural ferment of New York City at the turn of the twentieth century from a wholly original point of view. The golem and the jinni are immigrants: one arrives on a boat bereft of the master who has just awakened her and then suddenly died, while the other is accidentally set free from centuries of imprisonment by a tinsmith who tries to repair a flask from the old country. They must negotiate unexpected lives in this new, bewildering place, trying to find a way to survive and be themselves in a world that doesn't even admit that they can exist. Meanwhile, the forces that would rob them again of their newfound self-determination are closing in.
Though the two characters are very different – from the very elements of their being, earth and fire, to their moral outlook on the world – how they draw near to one another and form a kind of sympathetic alliance in their strange quest is a story both touching and thrilling. This is not a lead-footed allegory of the immigrant experience, but an imaginative leap into the questions that make fiction both fun and meaningful. Can free will be manufactured, or earned? Is love a phenomenon of feeling, or of action? What does one do if one literally cannot sleep? Through a wide array of characters and incidents, brought into play with impressive skill for a first-time novelist, Wecker gives the ring of truth to her fantastic story.This review was originally posted on The Emerald City Book Review
What a magnificent read! It's been a very long time since a book made me want to drop everything else and just read it. I still had some self-restraint and ended up intentionally stopping at points just to savor it a little longer- only to now be faced with such a big book hangover.
This is character-driven fantasy at its best. It's a great depiction of two people who feel utterly alone and alienated from their surroundings. Yes, it's about immigration, but they felt more like Herzogian Kaspar Hausers; people who don't fit it and know they never will, trying to come to terms with this. Such a charming and gentle story.
4.5 for sure. Thoroughly enjoyable fantasy/magical realism/folklore romp. Not a tear-jerker, not particularly profound, but an easy, enjoyable read. Here's hoping the sequel does not disappoint!
This has been on my list for a long time. I'm glad I finally got to it. Wecker does a fantastic job of I interweaving Arab and hasidic lore with the immigrant communities where the golem and the jinni reside, showing the 2 MCs' difficulty adjusting to the human world against the backdrop of different cultures creating a new home in the US.
This was great! It's a bit slow for the first 30% of the book but I didn't mind because we get backstory and the daily lives of our titular Golem and Jinni as they try to fit into human society. The story really starts to pick up after the two main characters meet. There are several different perspectives and all the characters we follow in those chapters play an important role in the larger story so I was never confused or feeling like certain viewpoints were meaningless. I loved the intermixing of both Arabic and Jewish mythology and felt like I was learning some interesting things. I wouldn't call this first installment a love story because there is very little romance in this book, but I think the second novel is going to focus more on the relationship between Chava and Ahmad.
An interesting idea of personhood, our responsibility to others and our responsibility to ourselves.
I borrowed this from the library but I will definitely buy this so I can return to it in the future.
I really enjoyed the book. All of it. The mixture of different cultures and legends and even ages, the characters that are easy to imagine and so lovable (even with all their flaws).
I'm happy that they got their almost happy end and looking forward to reading the second book.
Oh yes, all my highly intelligent predictions turned out to be wrong and it was fabulous )))
Uma clássica “fantasia no mundo real”, mas com um toque agradável de maturidade e originalidade.
Senti aqui a familiar sensação de presenciar magia, mas, diferente das sagas da minha adolescência, esse ambiente é usado para contar uma história mais orgânica, fugindo na maior parte do tempo da “longa missão importante” ou do “grande vilão apocalíptico”. Em The Golem and the Jinni, Wecker prefere falar, direta ou indiretamente, sobre as dificuldades da imigração à grande Nova York, as relações entre judeus e muçulmanos, o que é sua própria natureza e até que ponto vale à pena aceitá-la (ou negá-la). Todas temáticas interessantes que tornam a história densa e reflexiva, além de mágica.
A história me perdeu levemente ao tratar o antagonista de forma um pouco unidimensional, beirando o fim, mas o clímax em si foi uma conclusão tão satisfatória de todas as pontas tecidas ao longo do texto que isso foi rapidamente encoberto.
A narração também é interessantemente dinâmica: em terceira pessoa, mas sempre focando na perspectiva de alguma personagem. Apesar de, na minha opinião, tirar o foco de momentos importantes em alguns pontos, as mudanças de perspectiva mantêm o texto vivo e sempre cumprem um propósito.
DNF at 60%. I ended up googling a summary for the remainder of the book and glad I didn't waste anymore time on this.
Starting off, there is some beautiful atmospheric writing in this novel. In that regard, it reminded me of The Night Circus. Rich, evocative vocabulary that transfixes you.
Now to the characters... A Golem who has no master and a jinni with no master are living in New York, trying to blend in, while also exploring the world around them.
Now why the low rating? The plot and pacing had me bored. I kept going hoping the story would get more engaging, but it didn't. It was just so.... dull. Which is disappointing because the summary sounded very promising, the atmospheric writing was beautiful, but the pacing and characters were unfulfilling.
I think it was wonderful. :-)
Of course. I gave it 5 stars.
I think Helene Wecker managed to make golems and jinnis well-rounded creatures, without taking anything away from their traditional nature. In fact, I think she explains their traditional nature, without diminishing or what-s-it-called weakening, making it bland or boring, or less dangerous and terrifying.
I love the fact that she uses old traditions, mainly Jewish, that's not that usual in Fantasy.
The solution was not the best, though... it kind of fizzled a little towards the end. Started going down from the dance hall. The beginning was perfect.
I heard this was good, but I had no clue what I was in for. The romance is sweet and gentle mostly. The historical parts really set the scene very well. We get a good visit with different cultures as well. I didn't know I wanted to read a historical romance about a golem and a jinni, but I really did want to read it.
A blend of historical fiction and fantasy. The book paints a vivid picture of the Syrian and Jewish neighborhoods of 1900s New York and then chucks in a jinni and a golem too.
This was a lovely exploration of the immigrant narrative rewritten through the eyes of mythical creatures. The Jewish immigrants in NYC bring a golem, stalwart, stoic and short-lived. The Syrians ring a jinni, tempestuous, emotional and millenia old. The golem is masterless and wishes for a master, while the jinni is enslaved and wants to be free. They fight crime! Okay, not literally, but they do defeat an evil rabbi and exorcise an ice cream vendor. It's delightful and speculative fiction at its best: using the metaphor of the supernatural to explore the bounds of our wordl
I really enjoyed the writing however it felt incredibly long and at times superfluous - especially the parts with Fadwa and her father (took me 2 months to get through!), but the story kept me going back for more. I appreciated the relationship between the Golem and Jinni and liked how it ‘all come together in the end.' Will I read the sequel? Undecided.
There is no way I can describe this book as something I would like reading. It is not very intellectual but also not exactly a love story, It is just a well written novel with a touch of fantasy. It develops something like the movie Crash, telling the story of a few unrelated characters that at some point in the book meet each other and then realize how their existence is interconnected. The characters are relatable and compelling.
The book deals mildly with some interesting existential questions, like can a man made Golem have a soul? Fall in love? Is destroying her the same as killing someone? It talks about the value of community, loyalty, human nature, religion, friendship, selfishness.
But above it all, the story keeps you interested from the beginning to the end. The peaces of the puzzle are well laid out and things make sense when they are revealed. There is no major plot twist and even the climax is very short.
So, to summarize the story, I just need to talk about the characters. This is just some of them. As this is spoiler free, just remember that all of them are somewhat connected:
- Chava, the Golem: obedient, intelligent and curious. Made out of clay to be the wife of a merchant, she soon finds herself without a master, and must discover what it means to be human. More specifically, an immigrant jew widow female in the beginning of the 20th century England.
- Ahmad, the Jinni: independent, arrogant and reckless. Trapped in a bottle for centuries, released in a distant time and place, forever trapped in a human body. Must also discover how to fit in with the rest of humanity.
- Shaalman: knowledge seeker, corrupted by power. Creator of the Golem. He plays a big role latter in the story.
- Rabbi Meyer: good and pious man, the educator of the Golem.
The plot did have some characters making stupid decisions, but it was in accord with their personality. What I found lacking though was the missed opportunity of more connections between the characters. Two examples:
- I was expecting Maryan to be the descendant of the the Bedouin girl who the Jinni first loved, and that's how she came into possession of his prison flask and also how she somehow knew there was something wrong with him.- Also, the spark Saleh "removed" from a Bedouin girl could have been the in her by the Jinni, and when they met, something different could have happened.
This is the kind of book I love. It's a story filled with layers, with charming and relatable characters, with the fantastical and the ordinary...I highly recommend this one!
Chava: golem, terbuat dari tanah liat, dihidupkan oleh rabi yang terlibat ilmu sihir hitam. Ahmad: jin, terbuat dari api, dijebak penyihir Beduin sehingga terkurung dalam guci tembaga berabad-abad lamanya, sampai tak sengaja dibebaskan di Lower Manhattan. Kedua makhluk ini, dengan kisah masing-masing yang tak terlupakan, membentuk jalinan persahabatan––sampai pada suatu malam, insiden mengerikan membuat mereka terpaksa kembali ke dunia masing-masing. Namun, ancaman dahsyat akan menyatukan Chava dan Ahmad kembali, menantang keberadaan mereka dan memaksa mereka untuk mengambil keputusan luar biasa.
Sebenarnya ceritanya sangat menarik, begitu juga tokoh2 tambahan yang juga memiliki cerita2 tersendiri hingga jalan hidup mempertemukan mereka semua di Little Syria. Tapi apakah harus sepanjang itu? Buku ini 650 halaman lebih, ukurannya juga besar. Sempat hamper menyerah di tengah2 karena dengan segala POV dan background story masing2 aku bingung cerita ini nantinya akan bertemu dimana.
Namun klimaks dan ending sangay bagus, keluhan saya hanyalah buku ini terlalu tebal untuk stamina saya. Mungkin aku sudah agak malas dengan buku yg terlalu tebal akhir2 ini.
This was lovely and I liked it a lot, though I am honestly baffled to see comparisons to Winter's Tale (they're both “magical realism” stories set in a historical New York City, but the resemblance ends there). Telling a story of two immigrant cultures meshing and colliding by way of their myths/stories interacting (in the most literal sense) could have come off as heavy-handed, but here it's accomplished with grace and depth. Hard to put down as everything came together at the end. This was a good way to finish off 2017.
Endearing characters, arcane wisdom(?), and old New York City make this story into a wondrous mixture of history and fantasy. While the story starts out slowly, it unfolds in a delightful way. As the reader, you begin to grasp the connections between characters and their circumstances far before they do, increasing anticipation and keeping the pace. This is a complex tale, well woven by Wecker.
I'd recommend this to middle grades and up. There are some mature topics (an out of wedlock pregnancy, fighting, etc.), but nothing graphic.
What a beautifully told, riveting tale. I felt less like I was reading a book than sat by the hearth for story time. The Golem and the Jinni is simply yet powerfully written, steeped in mathematical mysticism, Arabian mythology, and Jewish folklore.
Our story is a fascinating mish-mash of fantasy and historical fiction that takes place, for the most part, in 19th-century New York City. If you're familiar with the Lower East Side, there's a bit of extra special magic in visualising the beloved, present-day streets overlaid with exquisite historical detail conjured from imagination and gleaned from old photos of the area.
It's amazing that this is the author's first novel. It's a sublime reading experience that I hope will be matched by future works.
The premise was good, but this book needed an editor. It should have had 150 pages trimmed off. Not sure I'd read the sequel.