The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
At close to twenty hours of listening, The Golem and the Jinni, is a fairly long audiobook, released in 2013 by Harper Audio and narrated by George Guidall. This is the debut novel for Helen Wecker, an Audie Award finalist in 2014.
The Golem is a woman who’s owner dies just prior to ‘waking’ her. She’s immediately in a dilemma, in that she has no master to serve. The Jinni, in a rather pedestrian manner, is accidentally released from a decorative container after being confined for over a thousand years. He’s not your three-wishes-type genie, rather he was imprisoned with an iron manacle on his wrist and comes ready to fight. The two go through individual trials, events of daily living sprinkle the pages, and they struggle to ‘fit in’ to their new worlds. Eventually, they meet. Thus is the thrust.
Liked: It’s a fun story, nothing overtly offensive, no sex, no bad language, just a thoughtful SciFi without zombies or fire breathing dragons.
Disliked: Not much really ‘exciting’ happens in this story, it’s not exactly a page-turner. But, it has it’s moments.
The Golem and the Jinni leans toward the author wondering aloud what might really happen in this somewhat strange story. It’s very imaginative and creative – but not what one would consider pulse-pounding.
As for narration, if you’ve never listened to George Guidall, do yourself a favor – he’s terrific.
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I enjoyed this one. It was my first exposure to the idea of the Golem, and now I seem to find it more common in fantasy books.
Yeah, I don’t normally read SciFi, lean toward those that are a bit conceivable. ‘What-if’ the world had a nuclear war, or what if there was really alien life. This is a stretch of reality, but I think it falls into the ‘what if’ category more than ears shooting fire.I enjoyed it, too.
