Follow the People of the Book through the Ages
Written: May 02 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: most 1996 segments, focused on the people, pushes diversity and tolerance
Cons: jumps around too much, vaguely disappointing ending, themes pushed a bit too hard
The Bottom Line: Although there's nothing terribly new about the book and I had some issues with a few of the decisions Brooks made, I liked People of the Book.
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| quasar's Full Review: Geraldine Brooks - People of the Book |
The basic story of Geraldine Brooks' latest novel, People of the Book, is not new. It follows the history of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a famous medieval illuminated haggadah rediscovered in the late 19th Century, presenting snapshots of the people who preserved it at different key points in time. It starts in 1996 with an Australian rare book conservator and the Muslim museum librarian who preserved the manuscript during the war ravaging Yugoslavia, but it also makes stops in 1894 Vienna, Spain during the Inquisition, and, of course, recounts the inevitable and expected tale of Nazi invasion and occupation. In each of these stops, some visited multiple times throughout the book, the focus is not on the manuscript itself but the people around it.
While several of these trips are interesting - I particularly enjoyed the look at medicine in 1894 Vienna - the piecemeal approach to storytelling and the frequent hopping about from one time to another didn't work for me. At the same time, the richness of the book comes from the historical overview of anti-semitism and intolerance through the ages. Brooks chose to feature a multicultural cast, to push the integration of Jew and Muslim and Catholic, of Spaniard and Albanian and Yugoslav, to showcase people of different races and religions and cultures respecting the history and beliefs of others in crazy times. The man who saved the hagaddah when the Nazis came and the man who saved it when the Serbs started bombing were both Muslim. One of the book conservators specializing in biblical Hebrew texts is an Austrian who served in Hitler's army. Even the Jews in the book are diverse, ranging from Jews hiding their religion to live in relative comfort in Catholic controlled Venice 1609 to Jewish physicians good enough to treat but not socialize with the business classes to Ladinos in the Yugoslavian resistance in 1940 to modern day Russian Jews in Brookline. Sometimes it seemed like just a bit too much. I'm all for pushing diversity and cooperation and having people help those under siege by the madmen of the day, but I had a really hard time buying that someone Muslim or Catholic risked his life to save the haggaddah each and every time the Jews have been persecuted throughout the years.
Although People of the Book focuses on the people, it follows the book religiously. This usually works very well, but in one case it meant we left one character in jeopardy and didn't return to her story. She did return 60 years and many pages later and we got a very hasty recap of those past events, but that's not the same thing as experiencing it for yourself.
More than half the book takes place in 1996 beginning with the restoration project and following Hannah Heath, the conservator, for much of the rest of the year. These sequences take place primarily in Sarajevo, Vienna, Boston, and London as Heath restores the book then chases down clues to its history through analysis of items found in the book (part of a small wing, a hair, various stains and bits of detritus on the pages). At the same time her personal life falls apart - she discovers the identity of her always absent father, her mother gets into a career threatening car accident, and several other things go horribly wrong. While not immune to pushing Brooks' message a little too hard, together these segments tell a compelling story focused on an interesting character. Heath seems reserved and prickly at the start of the book, but she mellows and opens up quite a bit as things progress. Although she did one thing that seemed out of character toward the beginning of the book, she always felt real and made a sympathetic focal point for the book. I liked her.
The end of the book takes place in 2002 and is almost an extended epilogue. It ties up several loose ends and gives us the chance to explore the issues around the proper disposition of recovered items and lost historical treasures. That said, I was vaguely dissatisfied with this ending. It does fit the story and themes of the rest of the book, though, so it's hard to complain too loudly about it.
All in all, although there's nothing terribly new about the book and I had some issues with a few of the decisions Brooks made, I liked People of the Book. Even though much of the book takes place in the recent past, I think this book would appeal primarily to fans of historical fiction. Give it a try if you like that sort of thing.
Recommended:
Yes
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