The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

8:38 pm 4 July 2014

	I was hesitant to pick this book up. I was not sure I'd like it. Well, I loved it. It is so well-written. It gives the legends of the Jewish golem and the Arab jinni and combines them in what I would call a love story. No, it is not a bodice ripper but it is a story of love and sacrifice. A middle-aged Jewish man from Danzig, Poland, wants to come to America and wants a wife so he asks a not-so-pious (meaning he dabbled in the dark arts) Jewish leader to create a golem for him. Unfortunately, he dies before they land in America. The golem is alone in America and a Jewish rabbi finds her and helps her. The jinni has been locked in a bottle for a thousand years and is finally freed but he is in human form and cannot change back into his jinni form. He forms a partnership with a tinsmith. The golem and the jinni meet because the jinni can tell there is something different about the golem and he takes her wandering New York City at night because neither needs sleep and both are restless inside at night. They form a friendship. They fight. They are more honest with each other than with the others in their lives. I enjoyed this book. I felt I knew these characters. I felt their pains and their triumphs. I liked that they could be honest. I loved how the stories of all the characters wove together from past to present, from Jew to Arab to American. I was touched by the stories of these people. I cried as I read Ice Cream Saleh's story. With everything that happens, the caring between people comes through and the sacrifices made shows the depth of the feelings between the characters. Whether is was Arbeely and the jinni or the rabbi and the golem, the help given by the human towards the mythical being is shown. Secrets are kept. The rabbi worries what will happen to the golem when he dies. The rabbi's nephew is smitten with the golem although he does not know her true nature. The golem feels the pains and disappointments of those around her--Anna, the Radzins, Michael. The jinni wants to be free of his imprisonment of the iron cuff yet he cannot be free. He is shakeled by the feelings of Matthew, Fadwa, and Sophia. Tragedy does strike and both of them have to decide how to handle it. I liked that though neither the golem nor the jinni were human, being around humans caused them to have human emotions and they dealt with those emotions. This is a book worth reading. I am glad I did.

I was hesitant to pick this book up. I was not sure I'd like it. Well, I loved it. It is so well-written. It gives the legends of the Jewish golem and the Arab jinni and combines them in what I would call a love story. No, it is not a bodice ripper but it is a story of love and sacrifice. A middle-aged Jewish man from Danzig, Poland, wants to come to America and wants a wife so he asks a not-so-pious (meaning he dabbled in the dark arts) Jewish leader to create a golem for him. Unfortunately, he dies before they land in America. The golem is alone in America and a Jewish rabbi finds her and helps her.

The jinni has been locked in a bottle for a thousand years and is finally freed but he is in human form and cannot change back into his jinni form. He forms a partnership with a tinsmith.

The golem and the jinni meet because the jinni can tell there is something different about the golem and he takes her wandering New York City at night because neither needs sleep and both are restless inside at night. They form a friendship. They fight. They are more honest with each other than with the others in their lives.

I enjoyed this book. I felt I knew these characters. I felt their pains and their triumphs. I liked that they could be honest. I loved how the stories of all the characters wove together from past to present, from Jew to Arab to American. I was touched by the stories of these people. I cried as I read Ice Cream Saleh's story.

With everything that happens, the caring between people comes through and the sacrifices made shows the depth of the feelings between the characters. Whether is was Arbeely and the jinni or the rabbi and the golem, the help given by the human towards the mythical being is shown. Secrets are kept. The rabbi worries what will happen to the golem when he dies. The rabbi's nephew is smitten with the golem although he does not know her true nature. The golem feels the pains and disappointments of those around her--Anna, the Radzins, Michael. The jinni wants to be free of his imprisonment of the iron cuff yet he cannot be free. He is shakeled by the feelings of Matthew, Fadwa, and Sophia. Tragedy does strike and both of them have to decide how to handle it. I liked that though neither the golem nor the jinni were human, being around humans caused them to have human emotions and they dealt with those emotions.

This is a book worth reading. I am glad I did.

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The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker