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45th out of 100 books
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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 remarka...more
Paperback, 496 pages
Published
March 14th 2006
by Random House Trade Paperbacks
(first published January 1st 2005)
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Kelly
rated it
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- despit...more
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Chrissie
rated it
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 unco...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 unco...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 Dan...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 Dan...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, an...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, an...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...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...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...more
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Herb
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...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.
Ruthiella
rated it
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.
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 ...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...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...more
A sloppy slumgullion of biography and history. There is no real story here, and Reiss makes the historian's mistake of plucking everything from obscurity simply because it's obscure. He banks too hard on the atmospherics of the setting, trying to cast his boring narrative as a romantic mix of "Casablanca" and "Indiana Jones", but fails miserably. He doesn't come anywhere close to solving any mystery, and the information he collects doesn't hint at anything at all strange or d...more
I almost never read biography, but this was one of the most interesting books I've read in a long time. It covers the life of a mysterious novelist who starts his life as a Jew but spends much of his life as a Muslim (or perhaps pretending to be, it is very unclear even today.) What makes this such a good read is that the writer details the interesting moment in history in which this figure lives. He grows up in the Black Sea region just as the Russian Revolution is coming, escapes to the West ...more
If readers really understood what a yarn Tom Reiss has spun, they would be shocked. He took incredible liberty in writing his story though the book is promoted as biography and history!!!
A great yarn! Essad Bey would have loved it! Essad Bey fooled his readers during his own lifetime; Reiss continues the tradition.
For a more complex picture about the life of Lev Nussimbaum and Essad Bey and to learn what contemporaries thought about him in the 1930s, visit http://azer.com...more
A great yarn! Essad Bey would have loved it! Essad Bey fooled his readers during his own lifetime; Reiss continues the tradition.
For a more complex picture about the life of Lev Nussimbaum and Essad Bey and to learn what contemporaries thought about him in the 1930s, visit http://azer.com...more
Such an odd book. This is the story of one Essad Bey, purported Muslim prince who wrote biographies of Stalin and Nicholas II among other books-- in German. In the 1930's. In Berlin. And was feted by the Nazis. He also appears to have been the contemporaneous bestselling author Kurban Said, who wrote, among many romantic fictions probably the most well known Azerbaijani novel, 'Ali and Nino', about the love between a Muslim boy and a Christian girl, set in the oil capital, Baku.
In T...more
In T...more
A great read, rich with historical threads and exotic scenes. On the upper level it is the story of the author's detective work in discovering his subject.
Then within that emerges the life story of a boy becoming a man, in time spanning the years before the Russian Revolution to Nazi dominated Europe, and in space from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Bukhara to Persia to Constantinople to Vienna and finally Positano in fascist Italy. Throughout, in response to pressures of society and polit...more
Then within that emerges the life story of a boy becoming a man, in time spanning the years before the Russian Revolution to Nazi dominated Europe, and in space from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Bukhara to Persia to Constantinople to Vienna and finally Positano in fascist Italy. Throughout, in response to pressures of society and polit...more
Lev Nussimbaum was born in Kiev in 1905, and grew up in Baku, the only son of a Tiflis-born Ashkenazi Jewish oil millionaire. Lev's mother died when he was 5, and his father hired a German governess, thanks to whom Lev became fluent in German. Lev's pampered childhood was shattered by the Russian Revolution. He later wrote that father and son tried to escape the revolution first in 1918, by traveling through Turkestan and Persia, though the details of the journey sound fantastic and no documents...more
In the course of this biography, Lev Nussimbaum manages to show up in every exotic clime that can be imagined, from the oil-soaked landscape of Azerbaijan, to the cliff-side villages of the Amalfi Coast, and from deserts to drawing-rooms. Along the way he breaks bread with everyone from tribals to aristocrats, witnesses the turning-points of the century, and churns out reams of written material, including the still-in-print "Ali and Nino" - an inter-religious love story.
Le...more
Le...more
Charlaralotte
rated it
Recommended to Charlaralotte by:
The NY Times Books Review
Shelves:
read-in-2007
I picked this book up in Newark Airport & read it all during my trip to Portugal. What a find!
Suddenly all the history preceding WWI & II & the creation of Israel was spelled out for me. Fascinating story of solving the mystery of Lev Nussbaum's eclectic life as a Jew, as a Muslim, as a writer...
Just learning that at the turn of the 20th Century, the British proposed moving Jews into Palestine to "stabilize the situation."???!!!! Lord, everything we have been t...more
Suddenly all the history preceding WWI & II & the creation of Israel was spelled out for me. Fascinating story of solving the mystery of Lev Nussbaum's eclectic life as a Jew, as a Muslim, as a writer...
Just learning that at the turn of the 20th Century, the British proposed moving Jews into Palestine to "stabilize the situation."???!!!! Lord, everything we have been t...more
One-third biography and two-thirds history, this is the story an of obscure, forgotten author, Lev Nussimbaum, aka Essad Bey, aka Kurban Said, caught up in the throes of 20th Century Europe and the Near East. The son of a Jewish Baku oil millionaire, Lev escaped the Russian Revolution to remake himself as a German writer, "Muslim Prince," and biographer of Mussolini.
The very best parts of the book were the colorful descriptions of the oil town Baku, on the Caspian Sea in cu...more
The very best parts of the book were the colorful descriptions of the oil town Baku, on the Caspian Sea in cu...more
http://nhw.livejournal.com/466903.html[return][return]This is a biography of the author of Ali and Nino, the insufficiently famous great romantic novel of the South Caucasus. Although Ali and Nino was published under the pseudonym of "Kurban Said", the author was born Lev Nussimbaum, apparently on a train in 1905, and grew up in Baku where his father, a minor oil magnate, was doing good business with the Swedish Nobel brothers (of dynamite, and the Nobel Prizes); his mother may well ha...more
Rather than thinking of this as a biography, it may be more accurate to consider it a story of a man and his life in their historical context. I know that may not be a salient distinction for some, but I've read a good number of reviews that complain about the story being overly inclusive, padded, or wordy. It may be better to treat it as a text in which Lev Nussimbaum is an interesting and emblematic exemplar of the tensions and identity strains of the region in this era. Taking Nussimbaum's st...more
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American author and journalist. For his book The Orientalist, Reiss traveled to 10 countries, from Baku to Berlin to Hollywood, and published his initial investigation in The New Yorker.
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