Thursday, January 15, 2015

Non-Humans of New York

The Golem and the Jinni
Hele Wecker's The Golem and the (D)Jinni is set mostly in Manhattan, right at the turn of the 20th century.  The two main characters are Chava, a golem, and Ahmad, a jinn.  Chava was created to be the wife of a man who died on their voyage to the new world.  Ahmad has no idea how he ended up in Manhattan - his last memory is from about 1000 years ago.  In contrast, Chava's first memory is of waking up on the ship and meeting her (ill-fated) husband.

Ahmad and Chava both stumble through their new lives in New York, trying to understand humankind - the relationships that form between people, the decisions they make, how they treat each other, who has responsibility for what actions.  They also, serendipitously, meet each other one evening, and embark upon a friendship that helps both of them understand their place in the world and deal with the consequences of their natures and decisions.

I found several things very interesting about this book.  I'm a sucker for any story with mythology or folklore or mysticism, and this book is full of all those things.  For that reason alone, I wanted to read the book.  But there was more!  For example, I really liked the way Wecker played out the tension between each character's true nature - for Chava, to solve everyone's problems, for Ahmad, to disregard everyone's problems - and their attempts to fit into human civilization.  Chava, for example, is terrified that one day, her true nature will come out and she will beat everyone around her to a bloody pulp because that's what golems do when they are threatened.  In conrast, Ahmad thinks humans over-complicate everything, and people should just do what feels good and damn the consequences.

In that way, Chava and Ahmad play out traditional gender roles even though they are not human.  Ahmad toys with plenty of women, and they are the ones who have to wake up in the morning, bereft, while he just moves onto the next person.  But it's not that Ahmad doesn't care about those women; it's that humankind fascinates him, and he needs to understand the whole species, not just one person.  And so he moves on.  Chava's whole purpose in existing, on the other hand, is to do what other people tell her to do.  In fact, they don't even have to tell her, they just have to think it and she'll know.  She is therefore very eager to please and worries constantly about whether she did the right thing.

Though the main characters were pretty fascinating on their own, I think there were far too many secondary characters who didn't really progress the story that much.  There's a bored, rich girl (doesn't every book set in early 20th century America require one of those?).  There's a curious Bedouin girl.  A cursed ice cream seller.  A lonely, quiet boy.  A lonely, quiet man.  A concerned father.  A creepy old man.  A creepy middle-aged man.  A kind middle-aged woman.  And more, and more.  We get back stories on several of these characters.  And, in general, I enjoyed these back stories, but I don't think they were necessary.  The two title characters in the novel don't even meet until 1/3rd of the way through the book (what is this, Anna Karenina?).   And while I enjoy a good, atmospheric, meandering story, this one just felt weighted down by all those characters.

That said, it's a great story to read on a cold, damp night!

22 comments:

  1. I have wanted to read this since it first came out. I'm not sure why I haven't yet.

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    1. Well, it's a bit of a chunkster, that could be why. Or you could be like me and just prioritize loads of other books above it!

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  2. The library has it, so one day

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  3. I've been on the fence about whether this one was worth reading or not - the premise really intrigued me, but I'm not feeling really excited about it. The excess of characters problem doesn't usually bother me, but if it slows things way down that might be an issue.

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    1. I think you'd probably enjoy it if you like the multitude of characters. They add a lot to the atmosphere of the novel, if that helps.

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  4. I haven't had much luck getting into this book. I am sure I will like it as it gets going. I will keep trying.

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    1. Haha, that's pretty faint praise ;-)

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  5. Not a book I want to read, but I did love your blog entry title! Very witty!

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    1. Thanks! I love reading those blurbs on FB.

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  6. I have had this book for quite some time and have yet to read it! It does feel right for a cold night's read, that is for sure.

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    1. It would be a great winter weekend read!

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  7. Too many characters is not a problem for me - I like a large cast; but I do hate it when the characters feel like fillers, pointless. Still it does sound like a unique read.

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    1. I feel like it could have benefited from some editing. Not that the other characters weren't interesting, just that they didn't seem required to advance the plot.

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  8. What a great post title! I liked this one partly because of the expansiveness of its scale. That said, however, I agree that it might have used a bit of editing. That they don't meet until some of the story has been told was charming to me.

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    1. Yes, I liked getting to know them separately, I just felt like the book title and description implied they'd be spending much more time together.

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  9. I've been torn about trying this one and your post still leaves me hesitant. I think the gender roles could drive me nuts! Is it a conscious device of the author's that she uses to show the problems of such roles? That would probably determine whether I'll get along with it.

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    1. I think it probably was very conscious on the author's part, but I don't know if she delves as deeply into the issues or limitations that those roles have as you would like.

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    2. That said, the two characters debate and challenge each other's natures and roles a lot, which you would probably enjoy.

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  10. I jumped on the chance to add this one to my ereader when it was on sale and since then have been hearing all sorts of criticisms. Which I guess is good because sometimes going in with too high expectations can lead to big disappointment. Sounds like a great story that could have used a little editing...

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  11. It's a bit of a bummer that the story is weighed down my peripheral characters, but the rest sounds great! This one has been heckling me from the ereader for a while. I definitely think I'll try to get to it this year.

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  12. I have this sitting on my TBR shelf but I'm going to save it for a day when I have few distractions and lots of patience.

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  13. Great review, Aarti! The second paragraph especially is very true. I agree with you on the secondary characters. They were interesting enough to read about and helped set the scene but the book wouldn't have suffered without them.

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