The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1) in /r/Fantasy Discussion Group

Dec 03, 2013 Tracy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 104-books-of-2014

A gorgeous brilliant and lovely first novel. The type of lush and lovely writing that picks up each character and let's them breathe so the reader can really come to care about them, and then gradually pulls all the narrative threads together into a satisfying ending. If you loved 'Shadow of the Wind' and 'Jonathan Strange', this is the book for you. ...more

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Jan 26, 2014 Casey rated it liked it

Shelves: the-not-so-serious-lit, book-club-pick

3.5 stars, but I'm rounding down because this was far longer than it needed to be.

I'm not even going to bother to tell you what a Golem or a Jinni is: other people have tried, and it really does make sense once you start reading. This is a story about outsiders to humanity, acting in a way that comes as unnaturally to them as it comes naturally to us. This is some nice fodder for both philosophical treatises on humanity and, by proxy, the immigrant experience. Unfortunately, the book never does 3.5 stars, but I'm rounding down because this was far longer than it needed to be.

I'm not even going to bother to tell you what a Golem or a Jinni is: other people have tried, and it really does make sense once you start reading. This is a story about outsiders to humanity, acting in a way that comes as unnaturally to them as it comes naturally to us. This is some nice fodder for both philosophical treatises on humanity and, by proxy, the immigrant experience. Unfortunately, the book never does this quite as effectively as, say, The Unbearable Lightness of Being or The Jungle.

But that's not my big issue with this: after all, most books aren't as good as the two I just mentioned. My problem was that it seemed that Wecker didn't know whether she wanted to write an updated fairy tale, or a sweeping epic narrative, or a quiet book about humanity, or an action-packed adventure story. So she kind of just wrote them all, and as a result things got a little muddled, to put it mildly. Thus, the pacing changed about 2/3 of the way into the book, characters I thought I knew did 180s on me, and story lines that should have stayed separate suddenly coalesced in a way that was so awkward I literally rolled my eyes while eating a grilled cheese sandwich at Panera. The exact moment this book completely lost me was when (view spoiler)

You'd think someone with an MFA would know better than to throw all regard to cohesive narrative structure out the window. Then again, it's possible that the MFA just convinces writers that they're totally allowed to break all the rules because, like, they already know them all. It's a good thing Tolstoy never got an MFA: I'm sure it would have drastically reduced his ability to write well.

Anyway, that's not to say this book wasn't fun: it was. It actually reminded me of the kind of mindlessly magical, adventuresome stuff that Neil Gaiman writes, and a lot of people seem to really like that. It's not exactly for me though.

My recommendation is to read The Snow Child instead: Eowyn Ivey managed to do the realistic modernish fairy tale without any dubious coincidences, and in less than 400 pages to boot. ...more

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Nov 18, 2013 Nicholas rated it liked it

The Golem and the Jinni is a thoroughly immersive tale that blends the Old World cultures of the near East in the bustling melting pot of New York at the turn of the last century. A newly created Golem from the Yiddish speaking regions of Germany and an ancient Jinni from the Syrian desert find themselves awakened into a thoroughly modern world amid circumstances that at best make them fishes out of water and at worst leave them despairing and morose about their ability to simply continue existi The Golem and the Jinni is a thoroughly immersive tale that blends the Old World cultures of the near East in the bustling melting pot of New York at the turn of the last century. A newly created Golem from the Yiddish speaking regions of Germany and an ancient Jinni from the Syrian desert find themselves awakened into a thoroughly modern world amid circumstances that at best make them fishes out of water and at worst leave them despairing and morose about their ability to simply continue existing. Fortunately, both are provided with tethers in their respective transplanted communities and before long discover some small amount of comfort and hope in each other as they unravel the mysteries of their pasts.

I'm really torn on this one. Wecker couldn't possibly have picked a better setting for her work and the atmosphere in this novel is vivid and engrossing. Mixing Jewish, Syrian and Arabic cultures and mythologies was a bold choice given the more recent history of those peoples and Wecker weaves a rich tapestry of them in the patchwork of immigrant communities that intertwined in the neighborhoods of New York in the early modern era that highlights a shared immigrant experience - the sense of dislocation, the desire for stability and the longing for the familiar. Bringing together the old mythologies of those peoples brought an extra layer of texture to a novel that could have easily been simply historical fiction and just as beautifully told.

That being said, I thought the plotting was horrendously slow. I didn't really struggle to continue, because it felt like taking a walk in the park. I enjoyed the surroundings and they kept pulling me back...I just wish the tour guide did more than meander. There are tons of subplots, which again, provide a richness and texture that add to the atmosphere of the novel, but they detract from any sort of direction for the central narrative. Nothing really significant happens beyond the anecdotal adjustments to modern life of mythological beings for the first two-thirds of the book (and the golem herself only gets a name roughly 90 pages in). The pacing is absolutely glacial until the last fifty pages, at which point the novel really begins to deliver on its potential. Wecker ties things up in a satisfactory fashion and expertly avoids the fantasy trope of good guys versus bad guys where one wins and one loses, which is pleasant because it matches the overall complexity of her tale. There's a confluence of events both hundreds of years and several months in the making. The lives of the Jinni and the Golem are contrasted and the question of essential nature is provocatively framed by many of the developments throughout the story. That's all well and good, but oftentimes it feels rather purposeless. Maybe that's the point and I was just too distracted to see it. Ultimately The Golem and the Jinni is a classic story about how immigrants build new lives for themselves. I was perhaps hinging too many of my expectations on the "fantasy" tag in the genre description.

Wecker's writing is top-notch as well and that alone was more than enough to keep me going given the crap from the genre I've been reading lately. Three and a half stars? Yeah, three and a half. ...more

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May 01, 2014 Vinay Badri rated it really liked it

A fascinatingly crafted story on a Golem & Jinni. A story of purpose, nature, and love. Remarkably well written, its a love story and yet not a love story.

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