I Has Book Review
Apr. 2nd, 2008 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
checkers65477People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks, is wonderful.
Off on a trip tomorrow! Back on Monday!
This is from Amazon:
Amazon Significant Seven, January 2008: One of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illuminated with images, the Sarajevo Haggadah survived centuries of purges and wars thanks to people of all faiths who risked their lives to safeguard it. Geraldine Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, has turned the intriguing but sparely detailed history of this precious volume into an emotionally rich, thrilling fictionalization that retraces its turbulent journey. In the hands of Hanna Heath, an impassioned rare-book expert restoring the manuscript in 1996 Sarajevo, it yields clues to its guardians and whereabouts: an insect wing, a wine stain, salt crystals, and a white hair. While readers experience crucial moments in the book's history through a series of fascinating, fleshed-out short stories, Hanna pursues its secrets scientifically, and finds that some interests will still risk everything in the name of protecting this treasure. A complex love story, thrilling mystery, vivid history lesson, and celebration of the enduring power of ideas, People of the Book will surely be hailed as one of the best of 2008. --Mari Malcolm
I've said many times that I'm not a fan of most historical fiction, but this is an exceptionally written, rich, complex story. Several stories, in fact; their details intertwined with the modern-day story that ties it all together. The stories are told in reverse order of when they occur, giving you several "Aha" moments when things are revealed that were a mystery earlier in the book. I was not sold on the main character, Hanna, until late in the story, though I loved the parts about her as book restorer. Fascinating stuff. I did find the romance a little contrived and could never quite come to grips with Hanna's mother, who seemed two-dimensional. I thought it was because we saw her only through Hanna's eyes, but as I got to know her through her actions she was still too bad to be true, I thought.
But these are minor quibbles. All the stories in the book are quite marvelous, and I LOVED something at the end, something so tiny, yet very satisfying. The themes of religious persecution, horrors of war, importance of family and a final message of Jews, Muslims and Christians not being so very different were subtly woven in. My father recommended the book to me and I recommend it, too.
Amazon Significant Seven, January 2008: One of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illuminated with images, the Sarajevo Haggadah survived centuries of purges and wars thanks to people of all faiths who risked their lives to safeguard it. Geraldine Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, has turned the intriguing but sparely detailed history of this precious volume into an emotionally rich, thrilling fictionalization that retraces its turbulent journey. In the hands of Hanna Heath, an impassioned rare-book expert restoring the manuscript in 1996 Sarajevo, it yields clues to its guardians and whereabouts: an insect wing, a wine stain, salt crystals, and a white hair. While readers experience crucial moments in the book's history through a series of fascinating, fleshed-out short stories, Hanna pursues its secrets scientifically, and finds that some interests will still risk everything in the name of protecting this treasure. A complex love story, thrilling mystery, vivid history lesson, and celebration of the enduring power of ideas, People of the Book will surely be hailed as one of the best of 2008. --Mari Malcolm
I've said many times that I'm not a fan of most historical fiction, but this is an exceptionally written, rich, complex story. Several stories, in fact; their details intertwined with the modern-day story that ties it all together. The stories are told in reverse order of when they occur, giving you several "Aha" moments when things are revealed that were a mystery earlier in the book. I was not sold on the main character, Hanna, until late in the story, though I loved the parts about her as book restorer. Fascinating stuff. I did find the romance a little contrived and could never quite come to grips with Hanna's mother, who seemed two-dimensional. I thought it was because we saw her only through Hanna's eyes, but as I got to know her through her actions she was still too bad to be true, I thought.
But these are minor quibbles. All the stories in the book are quite marvelous, and I LOVED something at the end, something so tiny, yet very satisfying. The themes of religious persecution, horrors of war, importance of family and a final message of Jews, Muslims and Christians not being so very different were subtly woven in. My father recommended the book to me and I recommend it, too.
Off on a trip tomorrow! Back on Monday!
