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A review by tlaloq
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
5.0
If anyone had told me what this book "was about," I don't think I would have been even remotely interested. Going in blind, I was quickly engaged by the intertwining narratives of the 21st century protagonists with the 17th century subject of their research and a protagonist in her own right.
Backstories of the principal characters and even supporting cast are skillfully interwoven into the two primary story lines. The character arcs seem to flow naturally out of those backstories and the plot points as they take place.
Kadish's prose is skillfully rendered in the service of story, never being self conscious or getting in the way.
With little didacticism, Kadish enriches the novel with critical observations of contemporary and 17th century sexism; contemporary and 17th century anti-semitism; contemporary and 17th century academic/religious politics; developing 17th century theology, philosophy, and thought; the Spanish Inquisition; the plague; and contemporary Zionism. We also get some rich detail of managing 17th century households.
Suspense is built as the plot thickens. The reader anxiously pursues the solution to the various mysteries while dreading the book's coming to an end. At least, I did.
I very much appreciated that the meaning of life is revealed in this novel as it is in Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge.
I have one little quibble with an unnecessary introduction of possible connection to celebrity, but I suspect others won't have the same issue.
Highly recommended.
Backstories of the principal characters and even supporting cast are skillfully interwoven into the two primary story lines. The character arcs seem to flow naturally out of those backstories and the plot points as they take place.
Kadish's prose is skillfully rendered in the service of story, never being self conscious or getting in the way.
With little didacticism, Kadish enriches the novel with critical observations of contemporary and 17th century sexism; contemporary and 17th century anti-semitism; contemporary and 17th century academic/religious politics; developing 17th century theology, philosophy, and thought; the Spanish Inquisition; the plague; and contemporary Zionism. We also get some rich detail of managing 17th century households.
Suspense is built as the plot thickens. The reader anxiously pursues the solution to the various mysteries while dreading the book's coming to an end. At least, I did.
I very much appreciated that the meaning of life is revealed in this novel as it is in Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge.
I have one little quibble with an unnecessary introduction of possible connection to celebrity, but I suspect others won't have the same issue.
Highly recommended.