The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1) in The Toast

Jul 18, 2017 Adam rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy, historical-fiction, audiobook

Coming into fantasy as an adult reader, I had a framework that mostly focused on avoiding hammy and obnoxious things that give the genre its bad name. As if, at some level, if you had a decent premise and wrote it without doing anything particularly dumb, it'd be good. The Golem and the Jinni solidly debunks that theory. It's a pretty good laundry list of things I look for--historical fantasy, ensemble cast with a focus on culture and social processes, subtle and culturally seated fantasy elemen Coming into fantasy as an adult reader, I had a framework that mostly focused on avoiding hammy and obnoxious things that give the genre its bad name. As if, at some level, if you had a decent premise and wrote it without doing anything particularly dumb, it'd be good. The Golem and the Jinni solidly debunks that theory. It's a pretty good laundry list of things I look for--historical fantasy, ensemble cast with a focus on culture and social processes, subtle and culturally seated fantasy elements, etc. It's more or less an extended version of one of the historical vignettes from American Gods, and it even has George Guidall reading, which goes a long way.

Unfortunately it doesn't go far enough. There's plenty of potential in the golem and the jinni and their backstory, opportunities for occult flair and grand cosmic mystery and Borgesian fantastical flights of philosophy. Instead, these ideas are treated with an almost unfathomable dryness and disinterest. I can't remember a single solitary moment that had even a familiar idea executed competently. There's just . . . nothing. The golem and jinni have their natures, but really all that does is impose a unique set of constraints and capabilities on their lives. I don't know why Wecker chose to write about these particular ideas but it's hard for me to believe she found anything exciting about them. It's the polar opposite of the exuberant idea-spilling of a Mieville novel.

I wouldn't mind having the fantasy elements didn't carry their weight if the rest of the story was satisfying. It has plenty to work with on this front too, with two immigrant communities very well seated in their historical context and a wide cast of characters in each. Then the Golem and the Jinni come into these communities and start stumbling across all these social foibles, crossing class boundaries and sexual mores and becoming part of dynamic labor markets affected by the industrial revolution. Then there's the contrast between the culture shock of the immortal/time-travelling jinni and the newborn golem.

Yet all this material too is executed in the least interesting way imaginable. Integration is smooth, ethnic conflict is mentioned but never comes close to affecting the plot, nothing is ever made of the interesting questions of labor and work ethic culture, and even the class barriers, which get a minor fuss, end up causing no real problems. All the golem's interesting learning and motivation questions are handwaved away by magic and instead her arc is half-assedly about, of all things, free fucking will (would someone please make authors get up to speed on this stuff before they twist a story into make a hamfisted "point" about it?).

The overall plot is the same way. It takes a potentially interesting series of characters and twists and arranges them in such a way that there are never any compelling mysteries on the horizon. It's not necessarily predictable, but it's certainly not interesting. Shalman's story and the Jinni's backstory come in with a lot of relevant information toward the end but it lacks any weight because they weren't set up effectively.

It's an odd thing, because it's a competently written and put-together book. Maybe this is Guidall's delivery, but it's never boring or awkward or incompetent in the moment, always engaging. It's just void of life, risk, creativity, personality. It feels more like an impressive formal exercise than a piece of art. ...more

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Mar 09, 2015 Maggie rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2015

Did I enjoy it? Yeah, I did. It was a little slow starting out, and I didn't always love the way that the backstory was revealed (random jumps to the past in the middle of chapters, a random storyline that you knew had to somehow tie into how the Jinni was trapped but seemed to mostly drag more than anything), and the big reveal of the bad guy at the end fell a bit flat for me, but by the end I was definitely invested in the story and was not unhappy with the ending.
Would I read it again? Yes
Who Did I enjoy it? Yeah, I did. It was a little slow starting out, and I didn't always love the way that the backstory was revealed (random jumps to the past in the middle of chapters, a random storyline that you knew had to somehow tie into how the Jinni was trapped but seemed to mostly drag more than anything), and the big reveal of the bad guy at the end fell a bit flat for me, but by the end I was definitely invested in the story and was not unhappy with the ending.
Would I read it again? Yes
Who would I recommend it to? This is a dumb question. Why did I decide to include this in my reviews again? I don't know, if you like urban fantasy set in NYC at the turn of the century, check it out. Maybe also if you're interested in the cultures of Syrian and Jewish immigrants to the US at the turn of the century.
Any other thoughts? As I mentioned above, I didn't always love the side/backstories that would pop up in the middle of chapters, but I did enjoy seeing how they all tied together at the end. The book was a good balance between being a fairytale like story/romance and a serious philosophical look at human nature, and I liked that dichotomy. The Golem and the Jinni's attempts to fit in and not draw attention to themselves while still remaining true to their own selves was well done. The book also delved into both the Jewish religion, culture, and beliefs, and those of the Middle East, which was very interesting. I like learning about cultures, and especially about belief systems, folktales, and mythology, so this kind of fit right into my interests. All of that, along with the information about NYC in 1899-1900, all seemed to be very well researched. I would have liked to see some of the other characters fleshed out a little bit, and some of the other characters seemed unnecessary as a whole (did the whole Sophia bit really add anything to the plot of the novel other to show that the Jinni was a rake and to provide a conveniently burning fireplace in NYC in the middle of summer? Also was Michael really necessary beyond being there to hold onto his Rabbi uncles papers so that the bad guy could get them later?) but I was satisfied overall with the novel.
I have had the Little Bird, Little Chaveleh song from Fiddler on the Roof stuck in my head on and off for the last week now, because the Golem's name was Chavah. ...more

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Oct 11, 2013 Heather rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I finished The Golem and the Jinni a few days ago, but I've been taking some time trying to figure out what to say about it. In the end, I'm not sure I can add anything that hasn't already been said. This is a stunning, beautiful first novel, not perfect but about as close as they come, and maybe the best book I've had the pleasure of reading this year (at any rate, it's definitely in the top 5). ...more

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