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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is built on a smashing idea, the story of a 17th-century Jewish woman philosopher and two modern scholars who discover her papers and study her. (Comparison’s to A.S. Byatt’s Possession are inevitable.) Kadish’s research is impressive, and her reconstruction of the several-times-over-diaspora Jewish community of Restoration-era London—Jews who fled Portugal and later left Amsterdam—is vivid. There is interesting tension between their desire to live Jewish lives on the one hand, and their desire to assimilate on the other, mixed with a generous dose of PTSD from the Inquisition; they are distrustful of England’s proclamations of tolerance, with fresh memories of persecution and exile to remind them that tolerance can evaporate with little notice.
Against that backdrop toils Ester Velasquez, scribing for an ancient rabbi who is his excited at Ester’s sharpness and thirst for learning—the only student he ever had who was as brilliant, he tells her at one point, is the exiled heretic Spinoza. But while Ester is an exciting character, there’s very little about the book that measures up to the promise of its premise. The writing is tedious, writerly and melodramatic, belaboring every emotion. Some plot points are implausible to the point of annoyance, and annoyance made worse by the fact that they could have been excised without harm to the best parts of the story (I am thinking in particular of the ridiculous interlude where Ester attends the theater with a spoiled young woman she has been charged with taming, and the cloying romance of Ester’s that follows it—just painful to read, all of it.)
The modern story is all right, at its best when it traces the growth of trust and friendship between the two principals, the aging, ailing professor Helen Watt and the arrogant student who works for her, Aaron Levy. But this story takes forever to get off the ground, bogged down by interminable (and overwritten) backstory about—again—the star-crossed romances suffered by each of the them. Helen, pathetically, is somehow unable to let go of a lover from whom she parted half a century before (yawn), while Aaron obsesses over a hot girl he spent one afternoon with (eye roll). It’s astonishing that Kadish, who clearly has a comprehensive knowledge of philosophy and history, can’t seem to come up with a source of conflict for anyone but Ester that isn’t about luuurrrvvvve—and even Ester’s GREAT conflict of the mind isn’t good enough for her, but must be supplemented with a romance of its own. Feh.
These are ... not entirely book-ruining problems, but they come very close. This book would have been a masterpiece if some ruthless editor had slashed out a third of it, focusing it down on the parts that are really interesting and fresh: What drives a mind toward learning? What drives such a mind when everything in the world is arrayed against it? The book does explore these questions, and it may even be worth reading for what it has to say about them, but prepare yourself for a bit of an overwritten, honey-slathered slog.
Against that backdrop toils Ester Velasquez, scribing for an ancient rabbi who is his excited at Ester’s sharpness and thirst for learning—the only student he ever had who was as brilliant, he tells her at one point, is the exiled heretic Spinoza. But while Ester is an exciting character, there’s very little about the book that measures up to the promise of its premise. The writing is tedious, writerly and melodramatic, belaboring every emotion. Some plot points are implausible to the point of annoyance, and annoyance made worse by the fact that they could have been excised without harm to the best parts of the story (I am thinking in particular of the ridiculous interlude where Ester attends the theater with a spoiled young woman she has been charged with taming, and the cloying romance of Ester’s that follows it—just painful to read, all of it.)
The modern story is all right, at its best when it traces the growth of trust and friendship between the two principals, the aging, ailing professor Helen Watt and the arrogant student who works for her, Aaron Levy. But this story takes forever to get off the ground, bogged down by interminable (and overwritten) backstory about—again—the star-crossed romances suffered by each of the them. Helen, pathetically, is somehow unable to let go of a lover from whom she parted half a century before (yawn), while Aaron obsesses over a hot girl he spent one afternoon with (eye roll). It’s astonishing that Kadish, who clearly has a comprehensive knowledge of philosophy and history, can’t seem to come up with a source of conflict for anyone but Ester that isn’t about luuurrrvvvve—and even Ester’s GREAT conflict of the mind isn’t good enough for her, but must be supplemented with a romance of its own. Feh.
These are ... not entirely book-ruining problems, but they come very close. This book would have been a masterpiece if some ruthless editor had slashed out a third of it, focusing it down on the parts that are really interesting and fresh: What drives a mind toward learning? What drives such a mind when everything in the world is arrayed against it? The book does explore these questions, and it may even be worth reading for what it has to say about them, but prepare yourself for a bit of an overwritten, honey-slathered slog.
I made it to page 82, and that was a struggle. This book sounded like so much of what I would love. Historical fiction, shady academia, cool old ass documents that, ahem, should NOT be handled with cotton gloves because the cotton can and will snag on the paper fibers (don’t ask me why that minor detail in the book really got to me - it was just the icing on this Boring Book cake). As other reviewers said, it’s absurdly wordy and drawn out. Sometimes I don’t mind that - see Donna Tartt and The Goldfinch - but nothing was happening, I didn’t care about the “mystery” behind the documents, the characters were a snooze fest and the professor is unnecessarily mean/snobbish. Which is, perhaps, on brand for academia in 2000 (and today unfortunately), but as a graduate student myself it irritated me to no end. I hoped that when we FINALLY got to Ester the story would pick up pace, but alas. A reluctant DNF.
Would have DNF but finished it for book club. Very long. Dull. None of the main characters are compelling. Convoluted. Tried to accomplish and encompass too much and failed.
A trove of seventeenth-century Jewish documents discovered under a stairwell in an old house outside London – I was hooked immediately! The novel alternates among Ester, a young Jewish woman in 1660s London, Helen Watt, the aging, ailing historian who is called on to translate said manuscripts, and Aaron Levy, the American grad student assisting her.
Ester Velasquez is an orphan allowed to scribe for the blind rabbi who has taken her in. Her brilliant mind hungers for books and learning, but marriage is the only path open to her and will certainly require her to give them up. “How readily the rules of female behavior – gentleness, acquiescence, ever-mindfulness – turned to shackles,” she realizes.
I loved the philosophy, Jewish history, details about life in 1660s London (including the plague for timeliness during our COVID pandemic) and of course the manuscripts at the heart of the book. Ester’s parchment, ink, and wax become delicate artefacts for Helen and Aaron to handle with cloth gloves. Even though this book is long (559 pages), fully realized characters with complex back stories and a plot constantly unfolding with fresh surprises made it a page-turner.
Ester Velasquez is an orphan allowed to scribe for the blind rabbi who has taken her in. Her brilliant mind hungers for books and learning, but marriage is the only path open to her and will certainly require her to give them up. “How readily the rules of female behavior – gentleness, acquiescence, ever-mindfulness – turned to shackles,” she realizes.
I loved the philosophy, Jewish history, details about life in 1660s London (including the plague for timeliness during our COVID pandemic) and of course the manuscripts at the heart of the book. Ester’s parchment, ink, and wax become delicate artefacts for Helen and Aaron to handle with cloth gloves. Even though this book is long (559 pages), fully realized characters with complex back stories and a plot constantly unfolding with fresh surprises made it a page-turner.
informative
mysterious
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
Genre: Historical Fiction
Where: London
When: Dual timeline: 1660s and 2001
Thoughts/Reflections: Another book I probably wouldn’t have found without recommendation from a friend. I'm really glad I spent some time getting to know Esther Velasquez and Helen Watt. Two formidable women separated by centuries, trying to reconcile their choices and their sacrifices as they grapple with who they are and where they fit in the world. This is a story of Jewish history, of women’s history, of human history. I loved the way the author put words together – she made me see, and she made me think.
The author says of her work “The Weight of Ink reaches back in time to ask the question: what does it take for a woman not to be defeated when everything around her is telling her to sit down and mind her manners? I started writing with two characters in mind, both women who don’t mind their manners: a contemporary historian named Helen Watt and a seventeenth century Inquisition refugee named Ester Velasquez. It’s been a delight working on their story.”
It’s been an equal delight reading it.
My favorite words:
“How closely do YOU look at what's right in front of you?”
“Aaron had lately begun to understand that while he was terribly good at promise, he seemed to have promised more than he could deliver.”
“Hesitantly he worked the keyboard, and as he did it seized him: if he could only bring her into his excitement, pick her up with his two typing hands and carry her into the world as he saw it, she would know him. And no one had ever known him. He laid this thought before him, examined it for self-pity, found stores of it, and declared it true nonetheless.”
“Knowing when not to speak was a talent that visited Aaron rarely.”
“‘What is the purpose of study?’ the rabbi had asked. She'd said, ‘That the spirit be clothed in reason, which is more warming than ignorance.’ The rabbi had corrected, gently, ‘Yet the text we studied said knowledge, Ester, not reason.’ And she'd countered, ‘But reason is more warming, for it seeds knowledge. But knowledge can grow nothing outside itself.’"
“I understand why we sleep. To slip the knot of the world.”
“But she could not comprehend a love that must be purchased with pity.”
“The sole labor that remained for Aaron then, in these dwindling hours of reading, was to listen. No more, and no less. Which was, as he should have known all along, a historian's only true charge.”
I can’t tell if this book is brilliant or ridiculous. But the story is interesting and if it was in the form of an HBO miniseries, I’d watch it with enthusiasm.
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I wasn't keen on the narration, but the story was first rate!
*4.5 stars.
This was a wonderful book. The author clearly put a LOT of work into the historical detail in the book, and the characters were well developed. The (3rd person) prose is intimately close to the POV characters, sometimes a little claustrophobic with a slightly melodramatic feel to it, but that did add to the experience. The description of place - sights, sounds, smells, feelings - was pretty awesome too. I loved Ester and Helen, not so much Aaron, but that was intentional and there's no denying he had an arc. I loved the exploration about religion and belief, and the peek into what life was like in the 1660s in England, and learning some Jewish history that until now I knew literally nothing about. I also found the intriguing mystery of the historical pages irresistible.
There are a few niggles I have, such as the odd comment about what Americans and the English are stereotypically like, that confused me. I think most were from Aaron's POV (the American's), about the English, which kinda made sense maybe (one sees "British" stereotypes - and comments about the "British" - in American TV shows, movies, on YouTube, after all), but not all were from Aaron. It made it feel very much written by an American (I'm English). I also thought that
I've seen other reviewers mention the issue with the white cotton gloves. I too had heard they should not be used for handling old papers, so I googled, and I think it's possible that in 2001 the cotton gloves were still widely in use (especially when you consider that) - I found this article from the National Archives, published in 2013: The gloves are off
There is so much more to say about the merits of this book, but to conclude, this was an awesome read.
This was a wonderful book. The author clearly put a LOT of work into the historical detail in the book, and the characters were well developed. The (3rd person) prose is intimately close to the POV characters, sometimes a little claustrophobic with a slightly melodramatic feel to it, but that did add to the experience. The description of place - sights, sounds, smells, feelings - was pretty awesome too. I loved Ester and Helen, not so much Aaron, but that was intentional and there's no denying he had an arc. I loved the exploration about religion and belief, and the peek into what life was like in the 1660s in England, and learning some Jewish history that until now I knew literally nothing about. I also found the intriguing mystery of the historical pages irresistible.
There are a few niggles I have, such as the odd comment about what Americans and the English are stereotypically like, that confused me. I think most were from Aaron's POV (the American's), about the English, which kinda made sense maybe (one sees "British" stereotypes - and comments about the "British" - in American TV shows, movies, on YouTube, after all), but not all were from Aaron. It made it feel very much written by an American (I'm English). I also thought that
Spoiler
the fact there were two Patricias at the library turned all archivists/librarians etc into a stereotype, amusing though it was. Not helped by the awful way Aaron thought about the other librarian Anne, about whom I was hoping we'd find out more and he'd realise his arrogant ass was wrong about her! That never happened, which was a real shame.I've seen other reviewers mention the issue with the white cotton gloves. I too had heard they should not be used for handling old papers, so I googled, and I think it's possible that in 2001 the cotton gloves were still widely in use (especially when you consider that
Spoiler
Helen, an older woman, is a stickler about them, and there's a passage at one point which describes the problem the gloves gave her, along with her shaky hands, and her worry about damaging the papers, which may be hinting at the fact that these days they're not used any moreThere is so much more to say about the merits of this book, but to conclude, this was an awesome read.