The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker is a dense read, with new characters and plot lines introduced even 3/4 of the way through the book. Keeping up with every detail, every motivation, every twist was a bit laborious, but the book is saved by Wecker’s clear, insightful writing, and the powerful charisma of the Golem and the Jinni themselves.
A synopsis:
Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay by a disgraced rabbi knowledgeable in the ways of dark Kabbalistic magic. She serves as the wife to a Polish merchant who dies at sea on the voyage to America. As the ship arrives in New York in 1899, Chava is unmoored and adrift until a rabbi on the Lower East Side recognizes her for the creature she is and takes her in.
Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire born in the ancient Syrian desert and trapped centuries ago in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard. Released by a Syrian tinsmith in a Manhattan shop, Ahmad appears in human form but is still not free. An iron band around his wrist binds him to the wizard and to the physical world.
Chava and Ahmad meet accidentally and become friends and soul mates despite their opposing natures. But when the golem’s violent nature overtakes her one evening, their bond is challenged. An even more powerful threat will emerge, however, and bring Chava and Ahmad together again, challenging their very existence and forcing them to make a fateful choice.
I enjoyed seeing human nature through the eyes of the Golem and the Jinni – what they learned as outsiders, how they were forced to fit in, and how they ultimately – and with their own definition of success – learned to acclimate without losing themselves. I also enjoyed touring the historic New York City of 1899, and becoming intimately acquainted with the Jewish and Syrian neighborhoods the Golem and the Jinni, respectively, are “adopted” into.
This is not a love story, not in the way most readers might expect. The Golem and the Jinni don’t even meet until halfway through the book. More than love, this book is really about community and belonging, about loneliness and longing. The greatest emotional pull rests in the Golem and the Jinni not being able to be their true selves, their abilities each far outweighing their circumstances. This lack of freedom, the forced hiding and dishonesty, is the underlying tension that propels much of the story, in addition to a bit of mystery surrounding the Jinni’s confinement to human form, and a villain who rises to threaten them both. I was very eager to know how the story would end.
Allowing for its density and a periodic drag in pacing (I definitely skimmed through some sections), The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker is a unique and worthwhile read.
BOOK:30 