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600bars's review against another edition
4.0
Jacob the Mutant is constructed as an analysis of fragments found in Joseph Roth’s papers of an unpublished work that he only worked on while inebriated. The characters transform into other characters and the narrative switches settings without warning, but that makes sense because all that survives is fragments and we don’t know what’s in between. Our main character is Jacob Pliniak, a Rabbi in eastern europe who runs a tavern disguised as a Tiny Nocturnal Zoo which is actually a cover for his operation to assist people escaping pogroms. Then suddenly he transforms into Rose Plinianson, who is his own stepdaughter, and she lives in the US and her town is undergoing a plague of dance schools popping up everywhere. Other characters transform into similarly unrelated analogues. The narrator, the author Mario Bellatin, intersperses all of this with his memories of going to the zoo with his grandfather, who told him stories with characters that also happened to have all the same names as the characters in the Roth fragments. On top of all this, we get to the translator’s note at the end and the translator who is also named Jacob says that he was excited to work on this book because he is the reincarnation of his own great grandmother, Rose, who shares many characteristics with Jacob Pliniak’s wife. This all sounds confusing and it is but there are helpful maps/diagrams and the writing is very repetitive so that you don’t forget who’s who.
I have to admit that I didn’t know who Joseph Roth was until I was halfway through the book, and I only found out through sheer coincidence. I finished Blackfishing the IUD by Caren Beilin the other day, and while I was reading that I had made a list of every reference I didn’t know. I went back and looked up everything on the list. I was surprised to see a “Joseph Roth” on there, because I was also halfway through a book called Jacob the Mutant which was a collection of fragments by a fictional (so I thought) author also named Joseph Roth. What a coincidence! Of course, in the process of looking him up I realized his bio matched the book and the Roth was actually real. Serendipitous indeed, what are the odds of this.
Before this discovery, I had assumed the forward was fictional like a Borges story that's written in the style of literary analysis and the author is also a character. I would have probably assumed the translator was also a fictional character and they all existed only in the world of the book, because the translator’s note fits in too perfectly. I guess it doesn’t really matter either way, whether real or fictional it is serving the same purpose of having the author and translator and Joseph Roth living both inside and outside of the text, at least in my imagination. But I started looking at the translator’s instagram and he posts about his journey to find his great grandma and studies Kabbalah, I’m like damn this shit is like an ARG how can the metatextual elements be soooooo perfect????
Sometimes I feel sad to not get to read things in their original language but sometimes I think translation actually adds something to it, like in this book it added a whole other layer that wouldn’t have happened if the text was only in Spanish. And the act of translation itself harkens back to the book's themes of transformation. And there’s a lot in the book about language and losing Yiddish to English, and Jacob’s cousin’s boat docks in Veracruz, who is implied to be an ancestor of Mario Bellatin, who ofc writes in Spanish. This whole thing is magic tbh!
Eggs Golems Sheep Dancing is banned in the village but becomes nearly a scourge in the US town, “According to tradition, dancing and clapping helped because a kind of mystical wind would blow through the heart that would help the participating souls reach the highest point that could be reached while on Earth” 90. Religious Conversion Jewish Mysticism Sefirot Ablution Water Transformation Bathing in the Sea Sufism being closer to God if you do the rituals of bathing with clothes (purification) and/or dancing
When you repeat a story so many times it becomes a part of your memory as if it actually happened, and it may as well have because it’s equally vivid as your “real” memories. A fictional story becoming a real memory. Remembering things you are certain are true even when presented with direct evidence to the contrary– like faith but in reverse.
I have to admit that I didn’t know who Joseph Roth was until I was halfway through the book, and I only found out through sheer coincidence. I finished Blackfishing the IUD by Caren Beilin the other day, and while I was reading that I had made a list of every reference I didn’t know. I went back and looked up everything on the list. I was surprised to see a “Joseph Roth” on there, because I was also halfway through a book called Jacob the Mutant which was a collection of fragments by a fictional (so I thought) author also named Joseph Roth. What a coincidence! Of course, in the process of looking him up I realized his bio matched the book and the Roth was actually real. Serendipitous indeed, what are the odds of this.
Before this discovery, I had assumed the forward was fictional like a Borges story that's written in the style of literary analysis and the author is also a character. I would have probably assumed the translator was also a fictional character and they all existed only in the world of the book, because the translator’s note fits in too perfectly. I guess it doesn’t really matter either way, whether real or fictional it is serving the same purpose of having the author and translator and Joseph Roth living both inside and outside of the text, at least in my imagination. But I started looking at the translator’s instagram and he posts about his journey to find his great grandma and studies Kabbalah, I’m like damn this shit is like an ARG how can the metatextual elements be soooooo perfect????
Sometimes I feel sad to not get to read things in their original language but sometimes I think translation actually adds something to it, like in this book it added a whole other layer that wouldn’t have happened if the text was only in Spanish. And the act of translation itself harkens back to the book's themes of transformation. And there’s a lot in the book about language and losing Yiddish to English, and Jacob’s cousin’s boat docks in Veracruz, who is implied to be an ancestor of Mario Bellatin, who ofc writes in Spanish. This whole thing is magic tbh!
Eggs Golems Sheep Dancing is banned in the village but becomes nearly a scourge in the US town, “According to tradition, dancing and clapping helped because a kind of mystical wind would blow through the heart that would help the participating souls reach the highest point that could be reached while on Earth” 90. Religious Conversion Jewish Mysticism Sefirot Ablution Water Transformation Bathing in the Sea Sufism being closer to God if you do the rituals of bathing with clothes (purification) and/or dancing
When you repeat a story so many times it becomes a part of your memory as if it actually happened, and it may as well have because it’s equally vivid as your “real” memories. A fictional story becoming a real memory. Remembering things you are certain are true even when presented with direct evidence to the contrary– like faith but in reverse.
patmole's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
paperdollskaterboy's review against another edition
4.0
At times confusing and generously wise, this book was a wonder to immerse myself in.
5/5
reread:
what the hell was that
?/5
5/5
reread:
what the hell was that
?/5
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