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39th out of 100 books
—
38 voters
The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life
by
Tom Reiss
"Lev Nussimbaum was a Jew who transformed himself into a Muslim prince and became a bestselling author in Nazi Germany. Born in 1905 to a wealthy family in the oil-boom city of Baku, at the edge of the czarist empire, Lev escaped the Russian Revolution in a camel caravan. He found refuge in Germany, where, writing under the names Essad Bey and Kurban Said, his remarkable b...more
Paperback, 496 pages
Published
March 14th 2006
by Random House Trade Paperbacks
(first published January 1st 2005)
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Mar 27, 2013
Bettie
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
biography,
nonfiction,
winter-20122013,
wwii,
paper-read,
dip-in-now-and-again,
azerbaijan,
adventure,
history,
jewish,
slavic,
anti-semitic,
dodgy-narrator,
wwi,
teh-brillianz,
italy,
germany,
france,
spring-2013,
austria,
iran-persia
Dedication:
For Lolek,
who showed me how to travel,
and Julie,
who keeps me from going too far.
I wish they had met.
Opening: On a cold morning in Vienna, I walked a maze of narrow streets on the way to see a man who promised to solve the mystery of Kurban Said.
It's hard to warm to the chameleon, Lev, however his times were eye-poppingly interesting/terrifying; he was forever out of the frying-pan and into the fire and it could be this reason that he kept shape-shifying Zelig-style. Re-inventing onese...more
For Lolek,
who showed me how to travel,
and Julie,
who keeps me from going too far.
I wish they had met.
Opening: On a cold morning in Vienna, I walked a maze of narrow streets on the way to see a man who promised to solve the mystery of Kurban Said.
It's hard to warm to the chameleon, Lev, however his times were eye-poppingly interesting/terrifying; he was forever out of the frying-pan and into the fire and it could be this reason that he kept shape-shifying Zelig-style. Re-inventing onese...more
From the Guardian Sept 2011: Recently I read The Orientalist by Tom Reiss, a fascinating account of the life of Lev Nussimbaum, a Jew from Baku who after the Russian revolution escaped via Turkey to Berlin. Semi-safely ensconced in the Weimar capital, he converted to Islam, taking the name "Essad Bey". A career writing bestselling biographies of Stalin and Mohammed followed. His escapades took him as far as Hollywood before he decided to return to Europe at precisely the wrong moment in history. read more of this review here: 
The Orientalist is, in the end, the story of one man’s accidental obsessive search for another man’s story. While in Baku (present day capital of Azerbaijan) writing a story about the revival of the oil business, Tom Reiss is handed a copy of Ali and Nino by a person called “Kurban Said,” and told that this book is both the Azeri “national novel” and the best introduction to the city he could possibly have. Soon, he finds that there is a huge controversy over the identity of the author- despite...more
Oct 09, 2011
Chrissie
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Chrissie by:
Inder
Shelves:
germany,
history,
italy,
kirkus,
bio,
text-checked,
soviet-union,
azerbaijan,
iran,
austria
Having recently completed Ali and Nino: A Love Story and having given it 5 stars, I wanted to know more about the author. The author Lev Nussimbaum, born a Jew, used the pen name Kurban Said. Actually both this book and The Girl from the Golden Horn were registered under the author Elfriede Ehrenfels in the German Nazi document Deutscher Gesamkatalog for the years 1935-1939! Who was this guy?! Why all the different names? He left Judaism and converted to the Islamic faith. This was not motivated...more
I'd give this more than 5 stars if I could. It was so unusual. It is written as a biography, but really more of a history. I learned so much fascinating stuff about Central Asia, about which really very little great material is written these days (Baku, in Azerbaijan, has been an oil boom town from the ancient to the modern world.) It also dealt heavily on the influence of the Bolshevik revolutions on the rest of Europe and how that played into WWII, which was still well done though more well kn...more
The Orientalist was a fascinating portrait of the son of a Jewish oil millionaire from Azerbaijan, Lev Nussimbaum, who reinvents himself as Essad Bey and becomes a best-selling author. There is interesting consideration of a lost, benevolent form of Orientalism, pan-semitism, the longing some Jews once had to close the gap with their Muslum brethren. Lev/ Essad was witness to the horrors of the Bolshevik revolution, and linked to it via his mysterious, revolutionary mother who killed herself by...more
On the surface this is a biography of an enigmatic man named Lev Nussinbaum who lived through the turbulent first four decades of the twentieth century. Lev was the jewish son of an oil millionaire from Baku, Azerbaijan. While the Bolshevik revolution forced he and his father to flee westward, eventually to Germany, he always identified with Central Asia, and Islam. He re-invented himself several times, usually masquerading as an Arabian prince. He became a famous author of the time under the na...more
A must-read for everyone who is familiar with "Ali and Nino" and is interested in the true identity of Qurban Said (aka Essad Bey, aka Lev Nissimbaum). This is one of the few cases when the adventures and exploits of an author are no less - may be quite a bit more - entertaining and exciting than the life of his heroes.
Tom Reiss did a marvelous job putting together the most convincing theory unveiling the identity of Qurban Said, and an equally admirable effort is devoted to uncovering the flaws...more
Tom Reiss did a marvelous job putting together the most convincing theory unveiling the identity of Qurban Said, and an equally admirable effort is devoted to uncovering the flaws...more
Pop History of the First Order.
Not the most amaaaazingly well-written book, but the subject matter is too awesome for that to matter much. Kind of like Magic Johnson: My Life, but EVEN BETTER.
The subject is Lev Naussibaum(sp?) née Essad Bey, née Kurban Said, née née nay nay etc: UTTERLY FASCINATING, in a manner that could only be the result of events in the first half of the 20th century.
The narrative drags the Mystical, Oriental 19th century kicking and screaming into the Dangerous and Cynical...more
Not the most amaaaazingly well-written book, but the subject matter is too awesome for that to matter much. Kind of like Magic Johnson: My Life, but EVEN BETTER.
The subject is Lev Naussibaum(sp?) née Essad Bey, née Kurban Said, née née nay nay etc: UTTERLY FASCINATING, in a manner that could only be the result of events in the first half of the 20th century.
The narrative drags the Mystical, Oriental 19th century kicking and screaming into the Dangerous and Cynical...more
This page turning book is more than a biography. It tells the story of how history's big events actually do shape people's lives. The oil rich Nussinbaum family waits out Bolshevik sieges of Baku relatively unscathed and the first of the many mysteries begins. Was Stalin, who was said to have stayed in the family mansion, a friend of Mrs. Nussinbaum? Was Mr. Nussinbaum providing the resources to help Stalin keep his army afloat in return for safety of his family?
In their eventual flight, both Le...more
In their eventual flight, both Le...more
Lev Nussimbaum was a Jew who transformed himself into a Muslim prince and became a best-selling author in Nazi Germany. Born in 1905 to a wealthy family in the oil-boom city of Baku, at the edge of the czarist empire, Lev escaped the Russian Revolution in a camel caravan. He found refuge in Germany, where, writing under the name of Essad Bey and Kurban Said, his remarkable books about Islam, desert adventures, and global revolution became celebrated throughout fascist Europe. His enduring master...more
Having just finished The Black Count, I decided I had to read another of Tom Reiss' historical biographies. Reiss seems to have a knack for picking very interesting people from history and then telling their life stories so it seems like you are reading a novel instead of a history book. "Lev Nussimbaum was an extreme example of a type once familiar in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries but now forgotten: the Jewish Orientalist...(who)saw the East as a place not to discover the exotic Other...more
"Who is this Essad Bey?" Trotsky asked in a 1932 letter to his son. By then, this mysterious writer had written bestselling biographies of Mohammed and Stalin, a book on the oil industry in Baku (in the early 20th century the Texas of the Caucasus), and a steady stream of articles on literary and political subjects from Tolstoy and Dreiser to the Ottomans and Americans ("American History in Five Hundred Words").
In one photograph he appears as a sporty figure in a fez; in another he is dressed as...more
A long time expatriate myself, in the Middle East, Europe & South America, I resonated with the cross-cultural themes of this story. It would make a great film, if done properly.
The identities and fates of men & women, like Lev Nissimbaum, are a leitmotif for the rest of us, seeking to escape the religious fanaticism, nationalism, and other manmade confines on this globalizing planet. Yet others are doing the exact opposite, at the same time, clinging to their disintegrating certainties,...more
The identities and fates of men & women, like Lev Nissimbaum, are a leitmotif for the rest of us, seeking to escape the religious fanaticism, nationalism, and other manmade confines on this globalizing planet. Yet others are doing the exact opposite, at the same time, clinging to their disintegrating certainties,...more
I almost stopped reading this book because it had more detail than I wanted. But I stuck with it and was rewarded with a really rich tapestry of the life of Lev Nussimbaum, a Jewish author, 1905-1942, who lived in the Middle East, Europe and the USA in the midst of the history surrounding WW I and II. My initial difficulties with the book were that it seemed overly academic to me (forty pages of footnotes and 26 pages of a selected bibliography). The academic issues faded away for me as I got in...more
Thankfully, this was a book that was actually compelling. It's a biography heavily placed into historical context, during the rise of the Soviet and the rise of the Nazis. The subject is Lev Nussimbaum, later known as Essad Bey (among other things), who was a successful and established author with a seriously intriguing and painfully tragic life story. From a wealthy Jewish family in Azerbaijan, he and his family flee the Russians as refugees and finally end up in Berlin, just in time for Hitler...more
Reiss persistently peeled away layers of fact and fiction to recount a remarkable life. He was also lucky: his subject's elusiveness made ferreting out truth difficult, but Reiss discovered six of Nussimbaum's notebooks in the possession of his last editor. Critics agree that The Orientalist fascinates from both a biographical and cultural perspective-it's rich in exotic settings and characters, from an Austrian baroness to a former Hollywood starlet. Despite its charm, the book has some faults.
...more
Entirely engrossing, but be warned...there's a lot of history in this book. A lot. Mr. Reiss moves from one war-torn country to another in his quest to hunt down Kurban Said, and along the way gives the sweeping history of Lev Nussimbaum.
While the history is relevant to Lev's life, there's a lot more history of the country, the politics, the people and the literary movements. I enjoyed the glimpses into the exotic places that I didn't really know a lot (or in some cases, knew nothing at all) abo...more
While the history is relevant to Lev's life, there's a lot more history of the country, the politics, the people and the literary movements. I enjoyed the glimpses into the exotic places that I didn't really know a lot (or in some cases, knew nothing at all) abo...more
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Jul 29, 2011
HA
added it
At some point in his young life, someone must've stood over Lev Nussimbaum/Essad Bey/Kurban Said and issued the age old curse, "May you have an interesting life", because the subject of this book certainly fulfilled that fate. "The Orientalist" is part detective story- unraveling the question behind the authorship of Azerbaijan's defining novel ("Ali and Nino") and part history of Jewish identity and the Russian Revolution in the Caucuses. The book also examines the intellectual, cultural and in...more
THis is an amazing story and a good book about it. Lev Nussimbaum was the son of a Jewish oil baron in turn of the 20th century Baku. The family was liberal and educated but was forced to flee when the Bolsheviks confiscated their property. Lev and his dad fled over the Caucasus to Italy and then Germany. Lev fabricated an identity as a Muslim and began a prolific writing career. His hatred and fear of the Reds drove him toward the German/Italian right and he had many Fascist friends. Still he w...more
Travel across few countries with changing identity from a Jew from Baku, who escaped the Russian Revolution in a camel caravan, to a Muslim prince. Lev Nussimbaum became celebrated as an adventurer and real-life Indiana Jones. Great story about dramtic, surreal, but real, and sometimes heartbreaking life.
Nov 16, 2010
Ruthiella
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommended to Ruthiella by:
Entertainment Weekly review
Shelves:
2010,
non-fiction
What I recall from my college freshman 20th century world history class: after WWI the old empires of Europe disintegrated and new forms of government (fascism, communism) developed which lead to WWII. However what really happend is a lot more complicated and truth is stranger than fiction. Reiss uses a historical backdrop to fill in some of the background of the sketchy life of Lev Nussimbuam, aka Essad Bey, aka Kurban Said. Some of the historical facts are a little dizzying, but the book has a...more
This was an interesting and highly readable book. The tale of a Jewish immigrant from Baku Azerbaijan who went on to convince the world that he was a Muslim prince named Essad Bey and further wrote a bestselling love story. The historic details of early Baku are worth the read alone.
The main reason I didn't rate this higher is that although it is a nonfiction book, the review quoted on the book's cover, "Spellbinding history...part detective yarn, part author biography, part travel saga...The Orientalist is completely fascinating" does not ring true for me. It was more spinach than dessert for me. Although there were some fascinating bits, it certainly did not for me rise to the level of another promotional quote used by the publisher "For sheer reading pleasure...this book...more
I have to get a copy of "Ali and Nino" now. The author dug up the story of Lev Nussimbaum´s life starting by getting curious about the author of this novel. And he dug up a lot of twists and turns. The biography also encompasses a lot of information on the developments all aorund the central character. Very interesting and informative to boot. When visiting Positano I remember having seen the grave - and we asked ourselves how a Muslim tombstone pops up on an Italian cemetery. We only got as far...more
I was captivated by the first 150 pages of this book, with its descriptions of 19th-century Baku. It made me really want to visit Azerbaijan and Georgia. The second half was a disappointment, though I don't think the author is wholly to blame. Reiss clearly worked very hard to find out everything he could about his elusive subject, and I credit him for sticking to facts even when it meant leaving gaping holes in the story. Unfortunately, I don't think he turned up enough material to carry a 340-...more
This was a fantastic book. It is not just a biography, but the complex story of how history and the person who the book was written about, Lev Naussimbaum, interacted in the early half of the 20th century. From Russia through the middle east, to Europe and America, and back to Italy, and a lot of interesting places and happenings in between. The book digs deeply into the background of the historic events taking place in the world at the time, giving them a unique and extremely interesting interp...more
From the Publisher (and I agree!) - A thrilling page-turner of epic proportions, Tom Reiss’s panoramic bestseller tells the true story of a Jew who transformed himself into a Muslim prince in Nazi Germany. Lev Nussimbaum escaped the Russian Revolution in a camel caravan and, as “Essad Bey,” became a celebrated author with the enduring novel Ali and Nino as well as an adventurer, a real-life Indiana Jones with a fatal secret. Reiss pursued Lev’s story across ten countries and found himself caught...more
A good non-fiction novel is distinguished from the rest by the depth of its sources. And I have no complaints about the number of resources used in this book (the references list goes on for nearly 50 pages). From this perspective, Tom Reiss has done a great job. Congratulations.
Has justice been done to the legacy of one of the most mysterious literary figures of the twentieth century- well that remains an unanswered question. True, Reiss introduced the name to us, told us about his childhood,...more
Has justice been done to the legacy of one of the most mysterious literary figures of the twentieth century- well that remains an unanswered question. True, Reiss introduced the name to us, told us about his childhood,...more
I need to re-read this as the history is worth the book alone. While the theme is based around a search for the "truth" behind Lev Nussimbaun aka Essad Bey, the actual book's value is in its history of multiple revolutions mid-19th and early 20th century plus description of the Jewish, Muslim, Christian context during this time. Lev is born Jewish but is constantly reinventing himself, eventually converting to Muslim and passing off as "the Orientalist." I had to read it in chopped up segments a...more
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TOM REISS is the author of the celebrated international bestseller The Orientalist. His biographical pieces have appeared The New Yorker, The New York Times and other publications. He lives with his wife and daughters in New York City.
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Mar 23, 2013 08:47am
updated Mar 27, 2013 02:33pm