Now for the story...Otto Rotfeld of Konin, Prussia is failing in business. He decides to migrate to the U.S.A., but he needs a wife, so he goes to the scurrilous Yehudah Schaalman, a 93 year old kabbalist, or mystic. He makes a golem wife for him. What’s a golem? Well, normally it is formed from clay, has the strength of twelve people and is usually made to protect someone, but in this case to be the wife of Rotfeld. A golem is brought to life by special words spoken by the kabbalist and can be destroyed immediately with another set of words. Rotfeld, with the Golem in a crate, boards a ship and heads for N.Y.C. During the voyage Rotfeld says the words to wake his wife, but he later takes sick and dies. Now the Golem has no master, when they dock in N.Y.C., she has no papers, so she jumps overboard and walks under the water to land. Not to worry, she doesn’t breathe, eat, or sleep. She surfaces in the city totally uncertain of what her future will be.
Meanwhile in Little Syria of lower Manhattan, Boutros Arbeely, a tinsmith, receives a old copper flask from Maryam Faddoul, a coffeehouse owner with the instructions, “Would it be possible, she asked Arbeely, to repair a few of the dents? And perhaps restore the polish?” The flask has always been in Maryam’s family, as long as she could remember. Boutros Starts working on the bottle and out pops a jinni (you know it better as a genie). The Jinni is disoriented and wants to know where the wizard is that trapped him in the bottle one thousand years ago (in the Syrian desert). After realizing where he is, the Jinni becomes Arbeely’s apprentice. He also doesn’t need sleep and wanders the city at night. He becomes the best tinsmith in Little Syria, forming and shaping objects from the heat in his hands.
The focus switches to the golem, who is wandering the streets. Rabbi Avram Meyer spots her and knows what she is. He takes her in and tries to teach her how to survive in the world. He gets her a job in Radzin’s Bakery, where she becomes the star baker. The Rabbi introduces the Golem (now named, Chava) to his nephew, Michael Levy, who runs a hostel for new immigrants. Levy is infatuated with the golem (he doesn’t know what she is). The Golem is doing well under the tutelage of Rabbi Meyer. In the meantime, the Jinni (now known as Ahmad) is wandering the streets when he meets socialite, Sophia Winston (18 years old). He has an affair with her. Is that a good mating, a human and a jinni? I smell a future problem.
In the ensuing chapters, we learn about the past of the Jinni and his love affair in the Bedouin Desert with a human, Fadwa, one thousand years ago. This can’t be good. During the interval, we meet the mysterious ice cream maker, Saleh. Why can’t he look people in the eyes? Why is a doctor from Syria selling ice cream in N.Y.C. and contemplating suicide? By happenstance, the Jinni and the Golem meet in Central Park. He can tell she is not human, and she can see him glowing, since he is made of fire. This meeting will become sweet and sour in the following chapters. As a matter of fact, explosive at times. Then Something hits the fan (you know what) as Yehudah Schaalman boards a ship to N.Y.C. to find out what happened to the golem and to seek eternal life. The last time I met someone this evil was in Uncle Tom's Cabin with Simon Legree.
The last two hundred pages were turbulent! This is were I think Helene Wecker does her best storytelling. What the reader thinks he knows goes down the drain. The reader will be amazed how the author ties the Golem, the Jinni, and Yehudah Schaalman into a bundle of excitement in the explosive final chapters. The sidebar stories of Rabbi Meyer, Michael Levy, Sophia Winston, Maryam Faddoul, and Saleh, the ice cream maker, were ingenious accents to the novel as a whole. Move over Lev Grossman (The Magicians ), Guy Gavriel Kay (Tigana ), and Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind ), there is a new fantasy writer in town and her name is Helene Wecker. Do I recommend this novel? Do one legged ducks swim in circles?
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: According to myjewishlearning.com, "A golem is a creature made out of clay into which life has been injected by magical means. The Hebrew word golem means something incomplete or unfinished, as in the verse (Psalms 139:16) referring to the human embryo: "Thine eyes did see mine unfinished substance (golmi)."
"While the notion that it is possible to bring to life an artificial semi-human figure is found in the Talmud, the term golem for such a creature was not used until centuries later. In Ethics of the Fathers (5.7) the golem is contrasted with the wise man and thus denotes a stupid person, like 'dummy' in English slang."
"In a talmudic passage (Sanhedrin 65b) it is stated that the Babylonian teacher Rava (fourth century CE) created a man and sent him to Rabbi Zera who tried to converse with him but when he saw that the man could not speak he said: 'You belong to that crew (of the magicians), go back to dust."
We know that Chava in the novel was a beautiful woman, but is this what a real golem looks like:
Photo courtesy of portable-infinite.blogspot.com
According to Britannica.com, "jinni, plural Jinn, also called Genie, Arabic Jinnī, in Arabic mythology, a supernatural spirit below the level of angels and devils. Ghūl (treacherous spirits of changing shape), ʿifrīt (diabolic, evil spirits), and siʿlā (treacherous spirits of invariable form) constitute classes of jinn. Jinn are beings of flame or air who are capable of assuming human or animal form and are said to dwell in all conceivable inanimate objects—stones, trees, ruins—underneath the earth, in the air, and in fire. They possess the bodily needs of human beings and can even be killed, but they are free from all physical restraints. Jinn delight in punishing humans for any harm done them, intentionally or unintentionally, and are said to be responsible for many diseases and all kinds of accidents; however, those human beings knowing the proper magical procedure can exploit the jinn to their advantage."
When the Jinni came out of the flask at Boutros Arbeely's, did he look like this:
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