Bodmin, 1349 by Roberta Kalechofsky

Bodmin, 1349: An Epic Novel of Christians and Jews in the Plague Years by Roberta Kalechofsky

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Brilliant.
Out of print.
You can read the full text at my website http://www.seltzerbooks.com/micah/ano...
And her other works at http://www.seltzerbooks.com/kalechofs...

This epic novel vividly evokes life in medieval England during the Black Death.

Unfortunately it is relevant to what we are beginning to go through today.

I plan to reread it soon.

The back cover of the original 1988 edition reads:

"... an amazing work -- Cynthia Ozick

"Bodmin, 1349 is a masterful work. Language here is a powerful and highly original cognitive instrument, surpassing Eco's The Name of the Rose. -- Mario Materassi

"... skillful novel... grounded in well-documented data -- provides a fascinating glimpse of the rich relilgious heritage of both Christians and Jews." -- Publishers Weekly

"... a very unusual work of fiction and scholarship ... Bodmin, 1349 is a fascinating introduction to a vanished era." -- Sylvia Rothchild

"... remarkable novel ... every sentence in her book is grounded in little-known but fascinating details fo the daily lives of serfs, monks and Jews in the Middle Ages." -- Gerald Jonas

Here is history with veracity and humor, told from the point of view of all the social classes who experienced The Black Death.

Here is history with human faces in the characters of Will, a peasant from York, and his wife, Miriam, rumored to be Jewish, a "leftover" from the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290, who becomes a picaresque heroine through whom the events for the Black Death on the continent are told.

The novel is passionate and witty as it interweaves existing documents from the times, charters and chronicles, monastic life and town life, the rectory and the brothel, with fantasy, vision, and lyricism. It is a compelling work of the religious and historical imagination.




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