Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

11 reviews

beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

Just not invested in this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Murder

thepurplepixel's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The Weight of Ink was recommended by one of my senior colleagues who loves historical fiction. While the novel took some time for me to get into, once Ester’s story began, I was hooked.

Kadish weaves a story across centuries, following modern day professor Helen Watt’s and grad student Aaron Levy’s discovery of a collection of letters from the 17th century. The significance of the letters becomes apparent as they were written by a female scribe, a challenge to what the modern age understands of that earlier time period and culture. The more letters are read and translated, the more Helen and Aaron are given insight into the unique character of Ester. Kadish then switches to narrating the time of Ester’s dynamic life, describing her philosophical development during a volatile time in history, especially for a young Jewish woman.

I love how Kadish fleshes out the narrative for each protagonist and gives each a solid resolution. Even secondary characters, like Rivka and Mary, are given their due place. I also love the reflective themes of the novel. Kadish educated me on many things, including the 17th century, philosophy, and some components of Jewish culture and custom. I love that Kadish has her characters ask real questions, though I may disagree with how they’re answered. Indeed, I don’t know that Ester’s final philosophical views are as substantial as Kadish would suggest, given the correspondence and friendship Ester kept in the later part of the book. But the discussion is there, and for that I appreciate this book.

A few months ago I read The Invisible Life of Addie Larue. While The Weight of Ink lacks the fantasy elements in Schwab’s novel and does not have as strong of an indulgently romantic overtone, both examine a woman’s psychological and artistic birth and development in her quest for true independence. Readers of one would definitely appreciate the other.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Outing, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

tamara_joy's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Confinement, Infidelity, Racism, Grief, Car accident, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism

jlye's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and War

rubl_b's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I enjoyed this book; however, it was a litte long and slow. It really picked up and got interested in the last 1/3rd of the book. At that point I felt like I was really wondering what was gonig to happen next! But the first 2/3 were a little slow and hard to get through at times. Quite a few names and plot points/developments that I found confusing, maybe because it took me so long to read. However I liked the ending and though it was really well written.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Antisemitism, and Death of parent

atamano's review against another edition

mysterious medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity, Sexual content, Torture, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

mcbuckelew's review

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Wow. Really enjoyed the twists and turns of this book. Surprisingly exciting!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Homophobia and Antisemitism

wogslandwriter's review

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There are few books in the world that have imprinted themselves on my soul. This book is one of them. I do not think I will ever forget this book. Rachel Kadish expertly wove the present and the past together to create a beautiful and poignant story of excellent prose. She uses third person limited along with some expository sections to tell the story. I have read many books that have tried to do what Kadish did in this book and only she has fully achieved her goal. 
The paths of our three main characters: Helen, Aaron, and Esther are interwoven and unique with parallels between them all and a satisfying conclusion for each of them. Despite being fictional, I also learned a lot from the historical surroundings of the book and I look forward to doing more research on the history of the Jewish diaspora in the 17th century.
This book will change your life and you should definitely read it as soon as you can. I rented the audiobook for free from my library and it was fantastic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Death, Homophobia, Blood, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Chronic illness, Misogyny, Rape, Excrement, Vomit, Car accident, and Pregnancy

The book covers explicit descriptions of torture endured at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition. It also covers the expansion of Jewish people in London in the 1660's, as such there is some explicit antisemitism. There is also explicit descriptions of the house fire that killed Esther's parents. There is minor alcohol drinking by most characters at one point or another.

There is explicit stories and flashbacks of Esther's mother being an emotionally abusive alcoholic. There is a lot of death. A good portion of the book happens during an out break of the plague and four major characters die by the end of the story. Mary gets pregnant and it's mentioned only so much as in descriptions of her body and clothes. There is a violent mob scene towards the end where Esther is violently groped on screen. It's a short mention, but it is brought up later in her happy future as a reference to potential PTSD. There is also an explicit scene of Alvarro being outed as gay in front of a mob of spectators. He's dragged home by his father and then impressed upon a ship.

jenniferduann's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism

Moderate: Violence

foreverinastory's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Wow this was lovely. I definitely want to read more books like this or about Jewish History in general, especially ones not tied to WWII.

Rep: Elderly disabled female MC, American Jewish male PhD student MC, Refugee Jewish female MC, blind rabbi side character, gay jewish male side character, various other Jewish side characters, including Israeli side characters.

 CWs: Antisemitism, chronic illness, death, death of parents, homophobia and forced exile of gay side character, forced conversion to Christianity on threat of death, misogyny, public outing of gay character, religious bigotry, sexism, sexual content, murder of side character, terminal illness, violence, xenophobia, ableism, past mentions of torture, pregnancy of side character. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Outing

Moderate: Ableism, Torture, Murder, and Pregnancy