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Rachel Kadish

Autor de The Weight of Ink

4+ Obras 1,461 Miembros 66 Reseñas

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Incluye el nombre: Rachel Kadish

Obras de Rachel Kadish

The Weight of Ink (2017) 1,244 copias
Tolstoy Lied: A Love Story (2006) 139 copias
From a Sealed Room (1998) 70 copias
I Was Here (2014) 8 copias

Obras relacionadas

Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction from the Edge (2003) — Contribuidor — 118 copias
Promised Lands (2010) — Contribuidor — 11 copias

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Conocimiento común

Miembros

Reseñas

This excellent historical fiction novel is filled with fascinating tidbits. Like, the prophecy that Jews have to be present in all parts of the world before the messiah comes. Or a lost tribe of Jews had been found in Brazil. A bit overwritten with lines like “every molecule in her was alive, aligned, iron filings to a magnet” or “the world was a geography of hidden places”. I was getting dizzy following all the different story lines.
The plot follows two researchers that have found literary artifacts from the early 1600’s relating to London Jews. This discovery was initially found by owners of a four-hundred-year old house, Bridgette and Ian. So, we have the complicated background stories of the researchers Aaron and Helen. We are also following characters in the London of the 1600’s. Ester is a scribe to a blind rabbi who is using an assumed name to write letters to expelled Jewish heretic Spinoza!
I expected more a of clear-cut definition of why Spinoza was considered a heretic. Ester proved that there was no God who could treasure martyrdom which meant that the mother of the rabbi she worked for died in vain. She had been tortured during the Spanish inquisition. What the writer came up with was unsatisfying.
I longed for a logical connection between Aaron and Helen versus Ester’s story. Still this was an illuminating novel dealing with Jews in London during this period.
… (más)
 
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GordonPrescottWiener | 56 reseñas más. | Aug 24, 2023 |
3.5 ⭐️
Excellently written historical fiction. I loved the backdrop for this story and a few of the main characters. It did seem a bit long, but I love a good historical “mystery” that takes a while to figure out. I especially love reading historical fiction with two story lines, one in the historical time period and one in the modern period. It’s fun to discover what happened right along with the main characters.
 
Denunciada
thecozyshelf | 56 reseñas más. | Aug 6, 2023 |
A weighty read that was a slog at times, fascinating at times , and at other times just a good mystery. There are weighty themes in this novel dealing with women’s intelligence in 1660s(Ester Velasquez) and today( Professor Helen Watts.) Jewish women in history is a theme. One part I really enjoyed was the parts about the preservation of the unearthed 16th century documents and the handling of them.
There is also a sweet little mystery to be solved involving Shakespeare, Ester as a scribe disguised as a man and if Helen Watt and her grad student Aaron will find her story before another research team or before Helen’s Parkinson’s disease make her unable to continue.
Still, it’s an awfully long book and I did skip parts where Ester labors intellectually .
… (más)
½
1 vota
Denunciada
Smits | 56 reseñas más. | Apr 23, 2023 |
Not my kind of novel. I can tell that it was written with care and expertise. There were a lot of interesting things about it, especially the history. But oh lord it was so long. So very very very very very long.
1 vota
Denunciada
steve02476 | 56 reseñas más. | Jan 3, 2023 |

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Estadísticas

Obras
4
También por
4
Miembros
1,461
Popularidad
#17,584
Valoración
4.0
Reseñas
66
ISBNs
28
Idiomas
4

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