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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
The Weight of Ink is so incredibly beautiful. You fall in love with each of the characters and root for them so desperately. Some of the writing can be a little dense, and there’s quite a bit of philosophy that takes a moment to decipher, but it adds to how complex and compelling this novel was. Everything connects and by the end the story is tied up in a bow that is simultaneously being separated as everything goes it’s own way. Definitely take the time to read this novel and really think on it, it is well worth it.
Many people loved this book, but I did not.
I had a hard time getting thru this book. I would go days and sometimes weeks without even thinking about it. But something always drew me back and wanted to know how Esther story ended.
I had a hard time getting thru this book. I would go days and sometimes weeks without even thinking about it. But something always drew me back and wanted to know how Esther story ended.
At the start, I loved that it was similar to Possession and People of the Book, but it’s about 1/3 longer than I needed it to be. Listening to the audiobook didn’t help-it is 24 hours of listening, and when the pace slowed, it really felt like it might not ever end. That said, the characters were interesting, the philosophy/concepts were handled well (no small feat), and if you’ve looking for an immersive, smart, historical fiction, this is pretty good.
Frustrated with the point of it. And Aaron.
My god, this book was an absolute masterpiece. One of the best books I've ever read. Ever.
This is a tough one to rate. It checks all MY boxes-historical fiction, strong female protagonist, and I learned something about an issue/time period I didn't know a lot about, and for that reason I give it 4 stars. However, it's not a book that I could recommend for many people's summer tbr list because it's a long book that is not a quick read. There are modern day niche-specialty historians geeking out on 17th century Judiasm and philosophy, and concepts that I didn't fully understand and, tbh, didn't always care about. I was very engaged with Ester's story, but less so with Aaron's, and Helen just broke my heart. I appreciate the astronomical amount of time it must have taken the author to research this book and I'm glad I read it.
I loved this book from the first sentense, it is complicated, and challenging to read. But in its complexity lies the beauty of the story. The way lives intersect, the way stories; our stories are told, or often mistold. And how those stories are lost to history, sometimes found; but mostly just melting away; make those stories no less brilliant.
While I appreciate the quality of writing, I thought this novel was somewhat dense with a less-than-satisfying payoff. It was transportive, however, and the back and forth between time periods was well done if not a little jarring.
I devoured this book!! One of my all time favorites. I cannot recommend this book enough.
18: The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish.
Recommended by more than one reading friend, this book was intense and interesting, containing layers of complexity worth unraveling. I am very glad to have read it with a book club and to have thus had a forum for discussing it. Everyone there enjoyed it as well, and they, too, were pleased to have read it. If I am critical, it is merely of the book's length being possibly a hundred pages...or maybe even a little more than that...longer than what might have been necessary for its stories. But at its length, it was a reading investment worthy of its subject, ultimately...and perhaps the length was necessary for that in some ways, spending that kind of quality time getting to know these individuals and experience some of their struggle with them.
Ester, Rivka, and Rabbi HaCoen Mendes's lives in the mid-1600s are highlighted and shared in a portion of the lengthy then-and-now(ish), back-and-forth story, and Aaron Levy and Helen Watt's academic investigation into writing produced then and newly discovered in the early 2000s, as well as their lives and interaction comprise the now(ish) portion of the story. Additionally, there is a small cast of other characters involved in each of the two timelines as well. I'm especially a fan of the two Patricias working in the library's conservation lab and rare manuscripts room in the 2000s and the very important roles they play, albeit quite silently...and some other characters, too, whom I won't say much about here for the spoiling nature of that sharing.
Rabbi HaCoen Mendes serves as the blind seer or prophet--a Tiresias of sorts--and he needs Ester to write for him, while he also provides home and more for her, given her family's tragic turns that brought her to him, leading to her being an orphan and dependent. Interestingly enough, Aaron, in contrast, claims to never really understand Shakespeare's The Tempest, though he sees all of this unfold and even at times while sitting in an establishment called Prospero's. But the story and these characters unfold themselves in valuable and interesting ways--and again, better that it is discovered and learned and appreciated through discussion of the book with others--rather than Kadish telling us what to think of it all as part of the story. That's a nuanced and valuable component of literary fiction, if you ask me, to figure out some things for yourself rather than have the author dump them all on you, telling you exactly what to see/know/think.
While the book is a recent winner of a National Jewish Book Award, I did not feel like I learned as much about Jewish history or its impact on current practices or culture here nor developed a better understanding of Judaism from reading this, necessarily, not like I do or have reading Chaim Potok's The Chosen or nearly anything by Michael Chabon. But I do appreciate the portrayal of these characters of Jewish faith and the history shared here, including how much I learned about Spinoza and other philosophers of that time.
I enjoyed the history, the presentation of ideas from, and the representation of, an era in time when it was forbidden for women to be learned, to read, to write, even, for certain to own their own written ideas and the implications of that on anything written at that time, and all sorts of new possibilities revealed in the sharing of that history. I have long enjoyed the theory that William Shakespeare was possibly a constructed identity, for instance, for a woman. And while this story takes a slightly different angle, I enjoyed and appreciated this perspective and possibility as well.
While I did not love this book quite as much as Pillars of the Earth for its presentation of an historical era long gone, I did very much appreciate and enjoy its depth and breadth and its portrayal of characters with great inner strength; numerous characters were carrying and/or fighting their own stuff, and they were not, as it was happening, necessarily admired or valued for their efforts. They struggled alone. These folks will live in my head for much time, yet, to come. They were believable and richly developed, and were not easily rescued from their difficulties by some other force or convenience but rather wrestled on their own...both gaining at times and then sometimes losing again.
Recommended by more than one reading friend, this book was intense and interesting, containing layers of complexity worth unraveling. I am very glad to have read it with a book club and to have thus had a forum for discussing it. Everyone there enjoyed it as well, and they, too, were pleased to have read it. If I am critical, it is merely of the book's length being possibly a hundred pages...or maybe even a little more than that...longer than what might have been necessary for its stories. But at its length, it was a reading investment worthy of its subject, ultimately...and perhaps the length was necessary for that in some ways, spending that kind of quality time getting to know these individuals and experience some of their struggle with them.
Ester, Rivka, and Rabbi HaCoen Mendes's lives in the mid-1600s are highlighted and shared in a portion of the lengthy then-and-now(ish), back-and-forth story, and Aaron Levy and Helen Watt's academic investigation into writing produced then and newly discovered in the early 2000s, as well as their lives and interaction comprise the now(ish) portion of the story. Additionally, there is a small cast of other characters involved in each of the two timelines as well. I'm especially a fan of the two Patricias working in the library's conservation lab and rare manuscripts room in the 2000s and the very important roles they play, albeit quite silently...and some other characters, too, whom I won't say much about here for the spoiling nature of that sharing.
Rabbi HaCoen Mendes serves as the blind seer or prophet--a Tiresias of sorts--and he needs Ester to write for him, while he also provides home and more for her, given her family's tragic turns that brought her to him, leading to her being an orphan and dependent. Interestingly enough, Aaron, in contrast, claims to never really understand Shakespeare's The Tempest, though he sees all of this unfold and even at times while sitting in an establishment called Prospero's. But the story and these characters unfold themselves in valuable and interesting ways--and again, better that it is discovered and learned and appreciated through discussion of the book with others--rather than Kadish telling us what to think of it all as part of the story. That's a nuanced and valuable component of literary fiction, if you ask me, to figure out some things for yourself rather than have the author dump them all on you, telling you exactly what to see/know/think.
While the book is a recent winner of a National Jewish Book Award, I did not feel like I learned as much about Jewish history or its impact on current practices or culture here nor developed a better understanding of Judaism from reading this, necessarily, not like I do or have reading Chaim Potok's The Chosen or nearly anything by Michael Chabon. But I do appreciate the portrayal of these characters of Jewish faith and the history shared here, including how much I learned about Spinoza and other philosophers of that time.
I enjoyed the history, the presentation of ideas from, and the representation of, an era in time when it was forbidden for women to be learned, to read, to write, even, for certain to own their own written ideas and the implications of that on anything written at that time, and all sorts of new possibilities revealed in the sharing of that history. I have long enjoyed the theory that William Shakespeare was possibly a constructed identity, for instance, for a woman. And while this story takes a slightly different angle, I enjoyed and appreciated this perspective and possibility as well.
While I did not love this book quite as much as Pillars of the Earth for its presentation of an historical era long gone, I did very much appreciate and enjoy its depth and breadth and its portrayal of characters with great inner strength; numerous characters were carrying and/or fighting their own stuff, and they were not, as it was happening, necessarily admired or valued for their efforts. They struggled alone. These folks will live in my head for much time, yet, to come. They were believable and richly developed, and were not easily rescued from their difficulties by some other force or convenience but rather wrestled on their own...both gaining at times and then sometimes losing again.