People of the Book: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks
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Book Reviews of People of the Book: A Novel
Book Review: EXCELLENT!
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book from cover to cover. I plan on making it one of the books I give as a birthday or holiday gift.Book Review: Enthralling
Summary: 5 Stars
I never thought that a book about the oldest haggadah would be so enveloping. I couldn't put it down.Book Review: Couldn't put it down
Summary: 4 Stars
A friend convinced me to buy this at a book sale our synagogue was running for Haiti last Spring. I finally started reading it this weekend and was once again sorry I'd waited to work on this gem. It was one of those stay up past midnight books, and when I was done I was a little emotionally exhausted.
The story of Hanna, the book conservationist who arrives in Bosnia to restore the book in 1996, and those who helped create the book intertwine and unfold backwards. Hanna, like Bosnia, like much of the world, is emotionally worn from an unloving childhood and even as an adult struggles with her mother. She finds out that she is not just studying the book but also aspects of herself; she is very much like the neurosurgeon mother she wars with, who claims that she doesn't just save lives, she saves souls. So, too, does Hanna- she doesn't just save things, she traces its story so that the creators as well as the creations may live on.
We come into the story- even the book- knowing that for all of the race-baiting hatred fomented over hundreds of years, many areas of the world lived in relative tolerance for long stretches of time, and it was during these periods that beautiful and learned creations were made possible. The accidents or "flaws" in the book help tell that human story, all of the chapters laced with varying degrees of the desire to illuminate the world with something better when even mere survival is not guaranteed. Zahra, the Muslim woman who is sold into slavery but becomes a magnificent artist in the employ of an emir and later uses her art to open the world to a deaf-mute boy; Ruth, the secret scholar in Spain of 1492 who manages to salvage not only her father's final piece of work in the haggadah but also her nephew despite the Inquisition and the Explulsion Order; the priest Vistorini and his friend/nemesis rabbi Aryeh of Venice who are united in their temptations, desperations, love of learning and, though unacknowledged, their past; the Jewish-Viennese doctor who is trying to make sense of the decaying world he lives in, symbolized by his growing list of patients who are literally rotting from the inside out with syphilis, including a desperate book-binder who falls back onto anti-Semitism to explain why his world is slipping away; Serif Kamal, the learned man of languages and books who risks his life to save not only books but people from the teeth of the Nazis; Lola, the poor, uneducated Jewish girl who loses everything not once but twice but lives to restore the book to it's rightful place; and Ozren Karaman, who risks his life to save the book for the future of his war-torn city even while the city destroys his family.
All of the historical characters jump off the page and demanded that I hear and understand their stories. I couldn't put it down until I had done so. It was, then, with disappointment that I returned to the present-day character of Hanna. Compared to the people whose stories she (partially) uncovered, Hanna seemed emotionally immature and oddly unsympathetic. These characters were holding their breath and walking a tightrope to survive without compromising all of their values. A woman of both means and education who was simply *unhappy* was a let down, and the happy ending at the end was unsatisfying.
That's why it got 4-stars, not 5. But you'll be so engrossed in the tale of the book and all of the people- and peoples- who had a hand in it that you'll be able to overlook that.
Book Review: most parts are interesting, especially the historical sections
Summary: 4 Stars
In her "People of the Book", Geraldine Brooks created a (mostly) imagined story of how the real Hebrew codex, the "Sarajevo Haggadah", was created and protected throughout wars, ethnic cleansing, discrimination, etc. This history is told in parts, generally in reverse chronological order, as the present-day expert Hanna analyzes each evidence found in the haggadah.
As a whole, the novel is very well written, and the historical parts are decorated with vivid details which help to immerse the reader into those periods. In the center of each story (as revealed by each evidence) is a political or sociological situation that serves as the cause for each main character's sufferings and actions. Several of those stories include heart-breaking and tear-jerking scenes. However, the present story of Hanna, which continues to develop between the historical parts, is banal and somewhat forced. Her struggles seem rather minor and a bit self-imposed compared to the struggles of characters in the historical parts. Her relationships with various people never fully develop. This is unlike A.S. Byatt's Possession, also a novel about literary experts investigating the history behind a poet's life, in which the present-day characters were more developed, more likable, and had better chemistry with each other.
I also read reviews likening "People in the Book" to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. The only thing in common is that Ph.D.'s in a field related to art history are lured to look at a piece of famous old art/book, and find some "clues" which eventually reveal some aspect of history to them. Literature snobs will cringe at Dan Brown's writing style. Thriller fans will be bored by the lack of action (Hanna does travel around, but not because someone wants to murder her - because she has lectures and awards and so forth).
I would have enjoyed reading just the historical sections of the book, and studying the interesting map of the "Global Journey of the Sarajevo Haggadah" on the pages before the novel begins. I could have quickly flipped through most of Hanna's parts, and not missed very much.
Book Review: Wonderful book with a few problems
Summary: 4 Stars
The book could roughly be considered a set of short stories with a single thread weaving them together. From the begging you meet Hanna she is a nice enough girl, probably the lest interesting character throughout the book. She analysis the Haggadah and you spend the rest of the book following her around the globe getting items she found in the book analyzed by various experts. There is an ongoing story about her life including her relationship with her mother and with the museum curator who preserved the haggadah during the Bosnian wars. There is a twist concerning the haggadah near the very end of the book (the last 40 pages), but honestly I don't think it was completely necessary. It seemed somewhat forced, although I have to say I enjoyed the situations it created.
The important part of the book are the stories intermixed with the work of Hanna. For every item that she is having analyzed there is a story included that gives a possible explanation for the particular item to have been present. These stories all promptly feature the oppression of the Jewish people. This creates a very depressing feel through out the book. Honestly when one of my friends suggested the book she told me that she didn't like it because it was a little too depressing. I did not find it to be particularly bad, but I can understand if you are not in the mood than it could be particularly bad. I enjoyed reading how the book survived through all the various challenges it faced, I only wish I could have spent more time with each story (possibly a whole book for each part).
Overall I greatly enjoyed this book, I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the journey one book can have through the world. I would also reccommend that if you read this book you should do some of your own research because not all the information is spot on.