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A review by llsburg
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
5.0
This book is virtually flawless. Well written, cunningly structured, thoroughly researched, philosophically inspiring, with nuanced characters and realistic character development. What more do you want?!
(Note: The following contains some plot revelations, but nothing that would spoil the reading of the book.)
In the present, Professor Helen Watt (a dry, harsh British spinster who had once loved and left) and doctoral candidate Adam Levy (a flippant American philanderer who finds he has impregnated the one girl he can't forget) are brought to assess a cache of old papers found in a hidey hole beneath the stairs of an old manor. These papers, a mix of Hebrew, Latin, Portuguese, and English, are from the 1660s and contain surprising references to heretical philosophers like the Jewish apostate Baruch Spinoza. These were written for a rabbi (blinded by torture during the Inquisition) by his female scribe! Also in the present, we have delightfully high-strung librarians, a jerk of a department head, a rich couple struggling to give their empty relationship meaning, as well as flashbacks to Helen's romance with an Israeli soldier in the 1960s.
The book weaves between the present storyline and the story of Ester Valesquez, our scribe, who is uncharacteristically educated for a woman of the time. With lush details of London during the great plague - including the fashionable beauty patches I had never heard of before - Kadish teases out her story of the pursuit of knowledge and all the obstacles a female of the time would face ... including love. The wise rabbi, the damaged but strong maid Rivka, the vapid young Mary whom Ester is paid to chaperone, all sorts of dashing yet carelessly cruel men, even the whole Jewish community are all richly drawn, as is the history of Ester's mother and grandmother.
In unfolding layers, the story is revealed both to the reader and to the fictitious present-day scholars, but not always at the same time. It's an intellectual mystery. Though the book is long, I found it riveting.
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Interestingly and impressively, Kadish wrote her 1660s manuscripts in "Bygonese," an invented Old English made approachable for the modern reader.
(Note: The following contains some plot revelations, but nothing that would spoil the reading of the book.)
In the present, Professor Helen Watt (a dry, harsh British spinster who had once loved and left) and doctoral candidate Adam Levy (a flippant American philanderer who finds he has impregnated the one girl he can't forget) are brought to assess a cache of old papers found in a hidey hole beneath the stairs of an old manor. These papers, a mix of Hebrew, Latin, Portuguese, and English, are from the 1660s and contain surprising references to heretical philosophers like the Jewish apostate Baruch Spinoza. These were written for a rabbi (blinded by torture during the Inquisition) by his female scribe! Also in the present, we have delightfully high-strung librarians, a jerk of a department head, a rich couple struggling to give their empty relationship meaning, as well as flashbacks to Helen's romance with an Israeli soldier in the 1960s.
The book weaves between the present storyline and the story of Ester Valesquez, our scribe, who is uncharacteristically educated for a woman of the time. With lush details of London during the great plague - including the fashionable beauty patches I had never heard of before - Kadish teases out her story of the pursuit of knowledge and all the obstacles a female of the time would face ... including love. The wise rabbi, the damaged but strong maid Rivka, the vapid young Mary whom Ester is paid to chaperone, all sorts of dashing yet carelessly cruel men, even the whole Jewish community are all richly drawn, as is the history of Ester's mother and grandmother.
In unfolding layers, the story is revealed both to the reader and to the fictitious present-day scholars, but not always at the same time. It's an intellectual mystery. Though the book is long, I found it riveting.
-----------------
Interestingly and impressively, Kadish wrote her 1660s manuscripts in "Bygonese," an invented Old English made approachable for the modern reader.