sam_bizar_wilcox's review against another edition
5.0
The Books of Jacob may well be remembered as Tokarczuk's greatest achievement. It is a massive novel, one that required years of research, and which spans a wide scope of 17th-century European history. It is also shockingly precise: there's very little that feels extraneous in this novel.
There will be, undoubtedly, criticism about the length of the novel. In a book so keenly interested in how ideas are generated and preserved, a book that also tracks the creation of an almanac and which explores the ways that literature depends on the tongue in which it is written, the colossal size feels more aligned with the central themes of the text. Which is, as is often the case with smart post-modern fiction, the text itself.
Ideas are problematized as they revolve around text. "In the beginning was the Word" becomes a controversial refrain, was the conflict between a sect of quasi-converted Jews and the Catholics in Poland. Where one group sees that statement as the end, the other (the central group of inter-devotional travelers) seems to attend to "the Word" in everything. The Word is not just creation, it is everything. Everything is mediated through language. Speech is converted from Hebrew to Turkish to Latin to Polish--all filtered, in this edition of the novel, through translation to English. The titular Jacob, whose name suggests that of the Jewish hero who quite literally wrestled with God, is a figure entirely devoted to reading religious traditions, and casting himself and his followers in roles as they accord to written or performed texts. In one scene, Jacob's followers are converted. Therefore, they must practice repeating their new Catholic names on the top of a mountain--they transform, through spoken repetition, their former Jewish identities into something other.
Language creates others in Tokarczuk's novel. Early in the book, one character is appalled at the idea that a book filled with contemporary folk wisdom be written for the Poles in Latin: "'which Poles, dear Father? Women, for example, rarely speak Latin, for they have frequently not been taught it. And the middle classes don't really know Latin at all [...].'" Here, language becomes an issue of access, where characters (and therefore, readers) must be carefully attuned to how information is shared, and to whom.
Thus introduces the Kabbala. What becomes a sort of conspiratorial throughline in the novel, even more than the title figure, Jacob, is the competing interests in elusive Jewish beliefs and the Zohar. Tokarczuk develops a very contemporary inquiry into the roots of antisemitism. Kabbala is something that is both revered, and, because of its inherent impenetrability, feared. Rumors of blood libel and ungodly alchemy swirl around the goyim as they gaze at this set of religious practices with unease. To understand requires knowledge of another language; everything is translation. Everything is corrupted by said translation. Cracks in meaning breed gossip and salacious rumors.
For all its ambition, The Books of Jacob can, too, be impenetrable. Just as text challenges its characters to read text and language, they must read one another. Family members face difficulty following and comprehending one another. The novel explores a variety of communicative ideas: talking, writing, glances, and sex. Yet, with the passage of time, characters slip away, change, or become translated to the point where they are no longer wholly recognizable as who they were at the beginning of their arc. Perhaps this is the challenge of humanity. Perhaps this is the challenge of the novel's scope.
Reading The Books of Jacob demands devotion. It, much like the texts that it so often alludes to, is a book that requires the reader to submit themself fully to the logic and space of the text. Once done, however, the experience of reading becomes an immensely rewarding one. If Tokarczuk may have been too ambitious for her own good, fair. Some ideas, narrative and linguistic, are left, by the end, less developed than others. But how remarkable is this book, regardless! Where Jacob Frank amasses followers, Tokarczuk does, too. Count me among her converts.
There will be, undoubtedly, criticism about the length of the novel. In a book so keenly interested in how ideas are generated and preserved, a book that also tracks the creation of an almanac and which explores the ways that literature depends on the tongue in which it is written, the colossal size feels more aligned with the central themes of the text. Which is, as is often the case with smart post-modern fiction, the text itself.
Ideas are problematized as they revolve around text. "In the beginning was the Word" becomes a controversial refrain, was the conflict between a sect of quasi-converted Jews and the Catholics in Poland. Where one group sees that statement as the end, the other (the central group of inter-devotional travelers) seems to attend to "the Word" in everything. The Word is not just creation, it is everything. Everything is mediated through language. Speech is converted from Hebrew to Turkish to Latin to Polish--all filtered, in this edition of the novel, through translation to English. The titular Jacob, whose name suggests that of the Jewish hero who quite literally wrestled with God, is a figure entirely devoted to reading religious traditions, and casting himself and his followers in roles as they accord to written or performed texts. In one scene, Jacob's followers are converted. Therefore, they must practice repeating their new Catholic names on the top of a mountain--they transform, through spoken repetition, their former Jewish identities into something other.
Language creates others in Tokarczuk's novel. Early in the book, one character is appalled at the idea that a book filled with contemporary folk wisdom be written for the Poles in Latin: "'which Poles, dear Father? Women, for example, rarely speak Latin, for they have frequently not been taught it. And the middle classes don't really know Latin at all [...].'" Here, language becomes an issue of access, where characters (and therefore, readers) must be carefully attuned to how information is shared, and to whom.
Thus introduces the Kabbala. What becomes a sort of conspiratorial throughline in the novel, even more than the title figure, Jacob, is the competing interests in elusive Jewish beliefs and the Zohar. Tokarczuk develops a very contemporary inquiry into the roots of antisemitism. Kabbala is something that is both revered, and, because of its inherent impenetrability, feared. Rumors of blood libel and ungodly alchemy swirl around the goyim as they gaze at this set of religious practices with unease. To understand requires knowledge of another language; everything is translation. Everything is corrupted by said translation. Cracks in meaning breed gossip and salacious rumors.
For all its ambition, The Books of Jacob can, too, be impenetrable. Just as text challenges its characters to read text and language, they must read one another. Family members face difficulty following and comprehending one another. The novel explores a variety of communicative ideas: talking, writing, glances, and sex. Yet, with the passage of time, characters slip away, change, or become translated to the point where they are no longer wholly recognizable as who they were at the beginning of their arc. Perhaps this is the challenge of humanity. Perhaps this is the challenge of the novel's scope.
Reading The Books of Jacob demands devotion. It, much like the texts that it so often alludes to, is a book that requires the reader to submit themself fully to the logic and space of the text. Once done, however, the experience of reading becomes an immensely rewarding one. If Tokarczuk may have been too ambitious for her own good, fair. Some ideas, narrative and linguistic, are left, by the end, less developed than others. But how remarkable is this book, regardless! Where Jacob Frank amasses followers, Tokarczuk does, too. Count me among her converts.
smokeyshouse's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
An epic...a thousand pages of vignettes, illustrations, narrative and reflections on Jacob Frank and his community. She is a master at revealing the minds and psyches of her characters.
catrat23's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
kurtie's review against another edition
5.0
Epic! Dense historic novel on Frankism, a messianic movement I hadn’t heard of. Centers on 18th century Poland and other locations in the Hapsburg and Ottoman Empires. At nearly 1,000 pages, it’s an accomplishment. Reader tip: go for ebook version. I started with hardcover but it was too bulky and heavy!
averyzim's review against another edition
4.0
i wouldn’t really recommend this almost 1,000 page book to anyone, but i enjoyed it. it asks a lot of its reader, including keeping track of millions of characters (that all rename themselves mid-novel) and understanding tons of in depth catholic/judaism/islamic dogma/doctrine, but somehow i was never bored and was actually excited to pick up this massive undertaking. what the plot lacked in flair the author made up for with beautiful writing. and i had to ~possibly inflate my rating just for how much i respect the author for writing this!
rebeccafm's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
booksbecreads's review against another edition
DNF pg 159
I'm not sure if its the translation, the number of pages or the book itself but I won't be finishing this one
I'm not sure if its the translation, the number of pages or the book itself but I won't be finishing this one
anniesmanybooks's review against another edition
4.0
An almost 1,000-page historical novel by Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob tells the story of Jacob Frank, an eighteenth-century Polish Jew who proclaimed himself to be the Messiah. Over four decades, Jacob travels all over Central and Eastern Europe, getting expelled, excommunicated, imprisoned, and worshipped, attracting 50,000 followers to his movement. The narrative is multi-voiced and multiethnic, told by priests, peasants, rabbis, aristocrats, royals, friends, family, and an immortal Jewish grandmother who watches over it all.
Epic, ambitious, dense, grand, sprawling, esoteric, poetic, exhausting, bloated, or a masterpiece? Maybe all of the above. Although many of us are reading The Books of Jacob because we want to finish the International Booker Prize shortlist, there are many other reasons to tackle Olga Tokarczuk’s magnum opus:
Read it for
1. Jacob Frank himself — a revolutionary mystic or a manipulative, opportunistic, narcissistic fraud?
2. an understanding of Jacob through texts such as diary entries, stories, prophesies, letters, and poetry
3. the complicated female characters
4. the fascinating cult
5. the picaresque across Eastern and Central Europe
6. the magical Chagall-like flights of imagination
7. 7 years of meticulous archival research and travel
8. the excellent translation by Jennifer Croft
9. the naked stuff (yes, there are orgies and a cultish Freudian obsession with boobs)
10. the sense of accomplishment after finishing the last page
11. Olga Tokarczuk’s rejection of chauvinist nationalism
12. the attempt to reimagine and restore an obliterated Jewish culture
The novel begins and ends in two formerly Polish, now Ukrainian towns. At one point, half of Rohatyn and Korolówka’s population was Jewish. 99 percent of the Jews in these towns were murdered in The Holocaust, the towns destroyed, their culture and history eradicated by Nazi and Soviet forces.
As Tokarczuk said in a 2019 interview, “Living here, in the center of Europe, where armies are coming and going and destroying everything, culture becomes a kind of glue.” So, there’s my final reason for reading: we need more glue.
Not quite a five star read for me as I admired some parts more than I enjoyed them, but pretty close. 4.5/5 ⭐️
Epic, ambitious, dense, grand, sprawling, esoteric, poetic, exhausting, bloated, or a masterpiece? Maybe all of the above. Although many of us are reading The Books of Jacob because we want to finish the International Booker Prize shortlist, there are many other reasons to tackle Olga Tokarczuk’s magnum opus:
Read it for
1. Jacob Frank himself — a revolutionary mystic or a manipulative, opportunistic, narcissistic fraud?
2. an understanding of Jacob through texts such as diary entries, stories, prophesies, letters, and poetry
3. the complicated female characters
4. the fascinating cult
5. the picaresque across Eastern and Central Europe
6. the magical Chagall-like flights of imagination
7. 7 years of meticulous archival research and travel
8. the excellent translation by Jennifer Croft
9. the naked stuff (yes, there are orgies and a cultish Freudian obsession with boobs)
10. the sense of accomplishment after finishing the last page
11. Olga Tokarczuk’s rejection of chauvinist nationalism
12. the attempt to reimagine and restore an obliterated Jewish culture
The novel begins and ends in two formerly Polish, now Ukrainian towns. At one point, half of Rohatyn and Korolówka’s population was Jewish. 99 percent of the Jews in these towns were murdered in The Holocaust, the towns destroyed, their culture and history eradicated by Nazi and Soviet forces.
As Tokarczuk said in a 2019 interview, “Living here, in the center of Europe, where armies are coming and going and destroying everything, culture becomes a kind of glue.” So, there’s my final reason for reading: we need more glue.
Not quite a five star read for me as I admired some parts more than I enjoyed them, but pretty close. 4.5/5 ⭐️
veryperi22's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Overarching, overreaching, fascinating and epic.
Listening to this book probably didn't do it justice. I'll skim the hardback as well.
Listening to this book probably didn't do it justice. I'll skim the hardback as well.
kaitlinalucas's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0