Ask Helene Wecker - Tuesday, January 14th discussion
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The Golem and the Jinni
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Brooke wrote: "In my copy of the book, I read an interview transcript in which you said it took 7 years to write The Golem and the Jinni. As a former English teacher, I often told my students good writing takes t..."You have made me look at Michael's death in a whole new light with this post. I always assumed his death was just a consequence of Shaalman's evil. You got me thinking, thank you!
Hello Helene,I learned of your book through a friend of your mother's and intrigued, read it immediately. I loved the unique characters, the setting and time period, and the writing. At my suggestion, my book club will be reading your book this year.
My question, which I know has already been asked, is if and when you will release another novel. I am looking forward to your answers to all the other questions as well. Thank you.
I loved your book. Being Muslim, I've heard a lot of Bedouin tales and stories from the desert, even though they were more religiously centered. This book was beautiful and rich in culture and mythology. I loved how stilted both the protagonists were at being human and how one tried too hard while the other didn't particularly care at all about it. It was a wonderful story that that explored the nooks and crannies of tales buried in my childhood. I just loved it. It was a pleasure from beginning till end.
How much research did you have to do to explore the mythos? Why choose the particular religions you chose to base the story on? Did you borrow anything from religions besides the ones mentioned in the books? Where did you find knowledge of New York City from back then and the little communities inside it? Also, a personal question: are you a feminist? And by feminism, I mean gender equality, not male bashing. Sadly, that distinction has to be made these days.
Hello Helen,I listened to your book on audible. I am really picky about my readers and this recording of your book puts it on the top of my list to tell others about. I wondered if you had any input into the selection of reader? I feel that audible is an important way to be discovered by new fans but it only works if the reader is a good one. I am finding that there aren't enough good ones out there.
I so very much enjoyed your book and really look forward to your future endeavors!
Thanks in advance for hanging out with us on Tuesday.
Becky
Helene,Thank you so much for writing this book, it was my favorite of 2013.
Not sure if this has been asked already, but what are your plans for your next book? Can't wait to see what more is in store!
Thanks,
Ivan
Hi Helene,thank you for discussing your novel with us. Everyone that I have spoken to in the Jewish community love it. As you know our Jewish community read is coming up in March.I so want you to come down south. I hope some time soon it happens. Like I said before it doesn't make sense why it has not happened. Since your novel is so popular.
My question how did you come up with such a fantastic story. Especially mixing cultures. I am so fascinating by blending the middle east with Jewish culture. Since, I am Jewish wondering if the problem of the middle east affected you to write a story mixing the two cultures together.
The other question is gender issues. It is interesting that you have Chava working in a bakery. Symbolism maybe of women creation, golem is creation? Was this intentional? If so, this was so creative, Helene.
Since there is so much success with The Golem and the Jinni do you feel pressured, where to find the next inspiration for your next writing project. Especially with the great success of the Golem and the Jinni. It must be overwhelming. Are you thinking of yet in the future of your next writing project?
I have put a link on my facebook and also sending it to our community I am hoping that The Grand Strand Jewish Reads community will come on and introduce themselves. I also wanted to tell you that our discussion in March is" Creation and Kabbalah: who is responsible for creation. I wish you so much happiness in your writing career.
See you in February and best wishes from Susan in Myrtle Beach, SC. http://susansliterarycafe.blogspot.com
http://bagelsbooksandschmooze.blogspo...
Hi Helene, I thought of another question..Where/what is is your favorite writing spot?
I am curious as to this because I seem to do my best writing in Panera or other similar places. Something about the hum of activity and background noise just inspires me.
Hi Helene. Really enjoyed your book. Congrats on writing such a lyrical yet grounded tale. Quite a feat to tie such disparate threads together into one coherent and seamless narrative.
Curious as to what your future writing plans are. Will you be continuing to write stories in this vein or is this book a one off for you and now you are going to write something with little or no fantastical elements to it?
Who are some of your favorite writers? I sensed some Neil Gaiman in your writing style.
Thanks for your wonderful book. Best wishes with your future writing projects.
Lou
Curious as to what your future writing plans are. Will you be continuing to write stories in this vein or is this book a one off for you and now you are going to write something with little or no fantastical elements to it?
Who are some of your favorite writers? I sensed some Neil Gaiman in your writing style.
Thanks for your wonderful book. Best wishes with your future writing projects.
Lou
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How did you manage to meld together so many ..."
Hi Elizabeth! Thanks so much for recommending the book to your friends and book group. Word of mouth makes such a huge difference.
The melding of cultures in the book took a long time to get right. I had to set up a few rules for myself as I went. For instance, I decided I couldn't use vernacular from one culture if I didn't know the equivalent in the other culture. That's why the Jewish characters don't use Yiddish expressions in the book: I've got next to no familiarity with Arabic sayings, and I decided that if I couldn't say it in Arabic, I wouldn't say it in Yiddish either. That was one of the things that helped to keep the two cultures "balanced" in their representation. (At least, I hope so!) I tried to make sure that all my characters (and their connections to their cultures) were well-developed, so that one set of characters didn't become a side note or a plot device for the other characters. But it took a lot of tinkering and quite a few drafts before I felt like I'd done a decent enough job.
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I loved this book! Thanks for taking the time for us here. I really hope you write tons more books :)"
Thanks, Jennifer! I hope so too. :-)
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I loved your book! I urged my mother to read it and she enjoyed it as well.
I was impressed by how you were able to write a gripping, entertaining story while at the same time there ..."
Ha, the old planner/pantser debate! I think I'm a little of both. When I started the book, I had no plan whatsoever. It took a few years(!) for the scope of the book to really show itself, and by that time it was a crazy tentacular mess of plot threads and half-developed characters. Finally I had to sit down and create a plan. But even then, the plan kept changing. I went through a few major rewrites before things really settled down, and still the plot particulars kept shuffling around. But I discovered that if I had some idea of my destination, I could keep forward momentum going, even if that destination changed.
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Hi Angela! Glad to hear you enjoyed the book enough to want a sequel. :-) I've got an idea for one, set a few years in the future. Nothing definite yet -- we'll have to see what happens!
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My question:..."
Hmm, that's a really good question. I'm not sure how much of it was deliberate, how much of it came from their natures and circumstances of creation (a clay woman created to be a man's wife vs. a mercurial, constantly changing creature of fire), and how much of it was my own learned cultural biases coming to the fore. Certainly it would've been a lot harder for the Golem to fit in if she was a more outgoing and independent personality like the Jinni -- and how much worse would the Jinni have fit in if he were a woman?? I've thought a lot about the gender roles in the book since it was published, and if I do end up writing a sequel, that's one of the themes I'd like to address.
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For years I've been searching for what I would call an American "classic," something I want future generations to read as outstanding and lasting examples of American culture. Yours is t..."
Hi Linda! Goodness, what praise. I'd dispute my place among your list of writers, but that's just me. :-) And at last, a vote against a sequel! I wonder sometimes about sequels, and if it's possible for a sequel to not disappoint in some way. Like I said earlier, nothing's set in stone.
To answer your questions: I knew about golems originally through my own Jewish heritage, but most of the golem stories I'd read before I started writing the book came from modern science fiction and fantasy. (I think the first golem I ever encountered was in one of the early Xanth books by Piers Anthony, GOLEM IN THE GEARS.) And yes, jinn/genies are much more familiar in American culture, but I think golems are catching up! There's a whole generation who know them now through games like Magic: The Gathering and World of Warcraft, even if they don't know the original folktales.
As to how I decided on a golem and a jinni: The whole thing started when I was writing a collection of short stories about my family and my husband's family. I'm Jewish, and he's Arab American. They were very realist stories based on true events, and I was having a hard time with them. A friend of mine suggested I add an element of fantasy, since that's the sort of fiction I tend to gravitate towards. So I decided to switch the two main characters, a Jewish woman and an Arab American man, with what I saw as the two most representative fantastical creatures from each culture: a golem and a jinni. And really, the whole thing took off from there!
The research took an insanely long time. The first two years were about 50/50 research and writing. Over the next five years of writing the research decreased and the writing increased, but even up until the end, I still had to research individual details.
Add my vote to the no sequel list! I think the ending is perfect. Just enough to get me thinking of what adventures they may have, and the happiness that I see for them both in each other. I do however want to read more and more from you! I loved your writing style. I could feel your love of culture and stories in every page of this book.
Thank you!
Salem wrote: "Add my vote to the no sequel list! I think the ending is perfect. Just enough to get me thinking of what adventures they may have, and the happiness that I see for them both in each other. I do ho..."
Agreed! No sequel - sometimes imagination makes the best sequel :)
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Coming to study in America from an Arab background, I began to realize my lack of knowledge about Jewish history and culture (sadly for obvious..."
Hello, Mohammed! Thanks a ton for your question. I feel it's an important one. (And believe me, I understand where you're coming from. As a Jewish woman growing up in America, my knowledge gap concerning Arab and Muslim culture was pretty huge. Educating myself has been a constant, ongoing project.)
I had a tricky time with the Jinni's character, and whether or how much to connect him to a specifically Islamic view of jinn. In the end I decided against it, because except for Saleh, all of the Syrian characters in the book are Christian (either Maronite Catholic or Eastern Orthodox), not Muslim. And from what I could tell in my research, Arab Christian belief in jinn falls more closely into the category of folklore than religion. (In other words, it's not specifically written into the religion, the way it is in Islam.) Because of this, I used a number of Arab Christian (mainly Lebanese) tales and folk wisdom for my research, in which the jinn are closer to the tricksters of the Thousand and One Nights than they are to the fully developed, religiously aware creatures described in the Quran. (Also, the Jinni's imprisonment in the flask happened before the wider spread of Islam, which I imagine is one of the reasons he's so clueless about religion as a whole.)
However, looking back on it now, I think I could have done a better job balancing all of this. You're right in that he seems more like a westernized "genie" at times, closer to our versions of the tales than the original tales themselves. I think a lot of this came from my own limitations as a Western writer. And it's yet another issue that I'd like to address if I ever write a sequel!
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Hi Milana! Thanks so much for your lovely comments!
I've got a few projects in the works, one a potential sequel (which seems to excite some readers and dismay others!). I've also got an idea for something totally different, an alternate-history dystopic thingy set in suburban Chicago in the early '90s. We'll see if either or both of them end up becoming a reality.
I read The Golem and the Jinni for book club this past summer and it remains one of my favorite novels. The way you fuse together fantasy, folklore/myth, historical narratives, religion, characters from totally different historical and cultural backgrounds...to say I'm impressed would be an understatement. The book was beautifully balanced in its representation and, reminiscent of Shelly's Frankenstein, the way that you critique nature versus nurture was well-crafted. Overall, I loved it!One of the strongest aspects of your story were your minor characters. From the first human Ahmad had contact with to Sal...it's truly remarkable.
Questions: Where did you get your inspiration for Sal? How did you manage balancing your minor characters in such a way that enhanced your two main characters' plight without overpowering them?
Looking at some of the comments about gender roles: as a gender & women's studies fanatic, I think you managed to critique gender and gender roles in a realistic way given the lens/context of the time period you were working with. You managed to give freedom to characters in ways only society at this time could comprehend. While it's Maryam's nature be to outgoing and seemingly flirtatious and she would only be accepted by society in such a light if she was married. That is accurate and still progressive for that time. Also, you had two weaker female characters both take control over their lives (give or take a pregnancy) and become stronger more realized women in the end who were able to deal with the consequences of their actions and face society's inevitable disapproval. I think you did a good job and really don't need to address gender roles much more progressively unless you jump forward in time (which sounds like a possibility).
If you do jump forward in time, which coincides with my only critique of your novel, do you feel that the Jinni would be content/happy staying in New York? I think he could be content for about a few months and that bridge would come crashing down. I don't think staying put is in his nature, especially given the limitations of his human form. I saw the couple more or less travelling for the rest of eternity, especially given their (somewhat) immortality, rather than staying put in any one place. Although this could give away some future plot, what are your thoughts here?
I never realized that the Jinni was so removed from religious beliefs (Islam) because he was trapped in the flask for so long!!! While writing my review of "The Golem and the Jinni" I was wondering about the same but thought that probably unlike humans they don't need religion to function. There was a passage where Jinni was talking about marriage and how it was such an absurd tradition and thought that perhaps he was the same with religion.
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Hi Bryan! So glad to hear you had those reactions while reading the book. Makes me feel like I did something right. As for your commission, the check is in the mail. ;-)
The flow of the book took an insane number of drafts to get right. (Or at least, as "right" as I could get it.) The ending itself required a major rewrite at the last minute. The very kind folks at HarperCollins gave me a deadline extension to accommodate it. (I also had a newborn daughter at home, which made things extra exciting.) The original ending just didn't fit the book at all. It was a muddled mess of plot points that tied up all the loose ends, but was completely emotionally unsatisfying. It was a traditionally "happy" ending too, which didn't seem to do justice to the very long struggles that the characters had endured. Even as I wrote it, I knew it was terrible, but I didn't know what else to do. So I sent it to my agent and editor, and we had a few long talks about it before I rewrote it completely. Even with all that planning, a few important elements of the new ending came to me pretty much as I was writing it. So much for careful planning!
Helene wrote: "Milana wrote: "Hello Helene! You have a beautiful vision that you are able to convey in your writing to your readers. I absolutely adored The Golem & The Jinni. It was the best book I read in 2013 ..."Hi,Helene I hope that you do a sequel ummm set in 1990's Chicago interesting? I'm sure that wherever you set your sequel will be up to you, but I hope that it is as fascinating as The Golem and The Jinni! As for other works I look forward to reading them thank you for writing such a wonderful and inciteful book!:)
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Will you be doing any book signings at Carleton reunions? I listened to the audiobook (and have to agree with the above comment/question about the choice of readers - George Guidall is one of my favorites), but I also have the book, which is beautiful, and an autograph would be lovely.
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Hi Linda! When I met my future agent at a Columbia University event in New York, I pitched it to him as "A female golem and a male jinni meet in 1899 New York." (I'd been told to keep my pitch down to one line, something short and memorable.) He was intrigued, and asked if he could read it. Unfortunately at that point I only had 50 pages of the book! But I sent him what I had, and we kept in touch after that, until I had enough of the book that he offered to take me on formally as a client. At that point, he pitched it to editors, drumming up interest (and eventually getting me a deal with HarperCollins). So in the end, I only had to pitch the book once. It's not the usual story, for certain; I have lots of writer friends who have to pitch their books over and over again. But "short and sweet" seems to work a lot better than long and overly detailed.
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Hi Jennifer, you library rule-breaker, you! (I have the same problem with library books, and always have. My high-school librarian told me once, "You know, if you turn the books in on time, you don't have to pay for them.")
Other than reading, the two research methods that helped the most were 1) visiting the NYC locales myself, to try to absorb the details and atmosphere, and 2) trolling through the New York Public Library Digital Archives for old maps and photographs. Really, I think 2) helped even more than 1). It's amazing what you can find in those digital archives, like photos of just about every street corner in New York, from any year since the beginning of photography. But the footwork was instrumental too. One very good decision I made was to visit the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side, where they've restored a number of old tenement apartments to how they would've looked at different times in the building's history. It really gave me a model for the Rabbi's apartment, and to some extent the Jinni's too.
As for specific advice I'd offer to new writers of historical fiction, I'd say it's very important to keep your research materials organized. (I'm a big fan of Evernote for notes organization.) Totally boring, I know, but you'll appreciate it when you need to compare sources, or when you're trying to remember if you read a particular detail or if your brain made it up.
As for the Golem's face, I have no idea! I'm awful with faces, and these days I can't recognize anyone on the magazine covers. Maybe, if anything, a plainer Rachel Weisz? Crossed with my sixth-grade Hebrew school teacher? Aaagh, I'm terrible at this.
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I was a pleasure reading "The Golem and the Jinni". The one thing which I loved the most was your choice of words and expressions. Every word fitted in exquisitely with the intended mean..."
Hi Sidharth! Thanks very much for your kind comments, and your questions.
Rabbi Meyer wanted to bind Chava to another master because he was worried about the dangers that an unbound golem would pose to the community (and to New York in general). Golems, by their nature, are dangerous and destructive creatures; even with a master, they can be hard to control. Chava is more intelligent than your average golem, but even so, just by existing she poses a threat. The Rabbi hoped that by figuring out how to bind her, he could lessen that threat -- but at the same time, he knew he'd be robbing her of her free will.
For your second question, I think you're referring to the drugged girl on the rooftop? I've gotten a lot of questions about her, and what she's doing in the book. Her only real purpose was to partially jog the Jinni's memory and remind him of Fadwa, who's part of his hidden past. But apparently I described her with too much detail and emphasis, since everyone asks me this question! And the answer tends to disappoint them, too. Sorry about that. :-)
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The Golem and the Jinni is easily one of the best books I read last year, and one of my favorites. It's the first book that made me cry tears of happiness - by the end, I was so ..."
Hello, Kritika! My goodness, thank you for your praise. I always feel a little guilty when someone tells me I made them cry!
I tried to develop the characters slowly, and give them the time and space to become real, full people. I also tinkered constantly with everyone's personalities as the stories developed, and then had to go back and rewrite their earlier scenes to make them consistent. This happened more with the Golem than with anyone else. At one point I rewrote her character completely, because she'd grown too much like a robot, too disconnected from everyone around her. That's when I added her ability to feel the fears and desires of everyone around her -- it gave her a connection to humanity that she really needed.
Sophia and Saleh were both special cases, in their own ways. Sophia originally wasn't very developed as a character; she was just this rich young woman that the Jinni happened to seduce one night. But then I decided that if she was just a random conquest, designed to get the Jinni from Point A to Point B, then I wasn't doing the character enough justice. So I started thinking more about *why* a young woman in her position would be so easily seduced. What was the Jinni offering her that she wanted? Why was she so willing in spite of the obvious danger? (And yes, he's very good at what he does, but let's not give him *all* the credit.) That was when her character started to get more interesting.
As for Saleh, he was a totally unlooked-for gift. I was reading through an old newspaper article from the turn of the century about Little Syria -- a terrible article, really condescending, "let's go look at the foreign people" sort of stuff. But it had an illustration of a man sitting on a curb, a thin, very sad-looking man in his late forties or early fifties, wearing a small white turban, and holding a churn. The caption read "An Ice-Cream Seller." I was completely taken by the contrast: that he made ice cream, which we think of as a happy thing for kids, but he looked like the most sorrowful man on earth. I thought, "Who *is* that guy?" And all of a sudden I knew. His whole backstory just came to me. I sat down and wrote it all out, and it all survived pretty much intact into the final draft of the book. Really, he was the one guy I didn't have to figure out bit by bit. He was sort of my rock, actually.
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One of the many things I liked about your book was the simplicity of your lyrical and ethereal prose stylings. It had a whimsical fairty-tale quality that made it all the more enjoyable.
..."
Hi, Squire! In my mind, the Jinni's name isn't something that can be said out loud by a human. I imagined jinn language as something approximating the sound of the wind, something unintelligible to other creatures. I love stories in which "true names" are used to bind people (and monsters), like in old folk tales and the "Vampire Princess Miyu" anime series. But sometimes it seems like the real name is sort of a letdown. I remember reading a fantasy novel where a character's true name is revealed, and it was so prosaic, after such a long build-up, that I went, "That's it?" (This is also why I hope they never reveal the Doctor's true name in "Doctor Who." God forbid it's something like Leonard or the Time Lord equivalent.) So in the end, I decided to let it remain a mystery.
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Hi Nicole, thanks so much for your kind comments!
To answer your first question, the first draft was absolutely nothing like the finished book. For one thing, it went much more quickly. I got a lot of comments from my readers like "slow down," "give us more detail," so the book kept getting longer with each rewrite. Also, I took a lot of wrong turns at the beginning. At one point I ditched about half the book and started over. Not to mention that I never actually got to the end of the book until almost seven years into the process, when I was under contract with HarperCollins! It felt like Zeno's Paradox at times, where you never quite reach the end of the race.
Quite a lot of the book changed once I got my agent. He helped me to focus the plot and tighten up the writing. With his help, I cut something like 15% of the book overall, much of it at the sentence level. My editor at HarperCollins was instrumental in helping me shape the second half of the book, especially the ending. (See one of my answers above for how I had to rewrite the ending at the very last minute.)
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Hi Nancy! The short answer is that I'm Jewish (Ashkenazi, grew up Reform), and my husband's Arab American. (His dad grew up Muslim in Syria; his mom grew up Polish Catholic; he himself grew up sort of atheist/agnostic/Buddhist.) I've gotten more interested in Jewish religion and mysticism as I've gotten older, but as for my own beliefs, they vary widely from day to day. My own spirituality is mostly influenced by Buddhism, but I feel a stronger cultural pull towards Judaism, as far as ritual and comfort and the like. So, in writing the book, I started out with all of that as a background, and added a lot of research as I went.
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Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.
First, I just want to say how much I enjoy your novel, The Golem and the Jinni. Once I read or listen to a book with such i..."
Hi Jack! Thanks so much for your lovely comments!
Really, I think my process is a mishmash of everything you describe. At the very beginning I tend to start with an idea, or a theme I want to explore. Maybe not even the characters yet, just the idea, or a scene that seems to embody the idea. Then the characters start to develop. At some point I realize I need research, so I pause everything for Google searches. The research leads to more ideas, which leads to interesting connections. And then suddenly the whole thing's exploded into a giant mess, and I'm trying to say everything all at once. So I have to pare back, and remember my original idea, and maybe make a plan to keep myself organized. Then more research, and more ideas and details, and hopefully a satisfying ending. At that point I take a step back and try to figure out just what it is I've got. Of course, this is the ideal version; in reality it tends to be even messier!
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Hi James! Thanks so much -- didn't Mr. Guidall do an amazing job? I was completely blown away when I heard his performance.
I've answered the first part of your question in a few of my earlier posts, so I'll concentrate on the second part. Not sure if interactions between cultures will become a hallmark of my work, but it's certainly one of the things I'm interested in. I love questions of culture and religion, and tradition vs. assimilation, and all the different forces that go into shaping our identities. Especially here in America, where there's such a love of iconoclasm and independence on the one hand, and tradition and religion (quasi-Puritan at times) on the other. It can feel very schizophrenic, and we all end up navigating the problems in different ways. That's the stuff I love to chew over.
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Hello, Scarlett! I love those happy book accidents. I've discovered some of my favorites that way.
Telling the story through the Golem and Jinni's viewpoints could be really, really hard, especially at first. I had to keep in mind all their abilities and limitations, and really try to imagine how they'd react to a given situation. In fact, the scenes where they're walking together at night were the hardest in the book to write, because I had to deal with both of their viewpoints at the same time! In the end it took a lot of tinkering and a lot of rewrites, as well as early-draft readers who pointed out my very obvious mistakes along the way. :-)
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2)..."
Hi Yasir! Yep, jinn exist in many countries in the Middle East and Muslim world, but I decided that for the purposes of this book, the Jinni was the only one of his kind in New York. In a way it makes sense, since immigration to the U.S. from the Middle East was still getting underway in the late 1800s. I figure he's a pioneer of his kind, just like the first Syrian émigrées who came over in the 1860s or so. But yes, I wouldn't be surprised if he started meeting more of his fellow jinn in NYC!
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Thank you for writing a great novel that transforms the reading experience beyond the paper (or screen) to the imagination. The world you created was both realistic and fantastic. Di..."
Hello, Monica! Thanks so much for your comments, I really do appreciate them.
From the very beginning, the New York setting presented itself to me as the perfect location for the story. I figured that if I wanted a golem and a jinni to bump into each other somewhere in the U.S. in 1899, then New York was one of the few places that made sense. I suppose I could have set it in Detroit or Cincinnati, but I wasn't as enamored of them as I was of New York, which has such a fairytale feel built into itself already -- all those layers of dreams and stories and hopes and new beginnings. (Of course, I'm sure it helped that I was living there at the time!)
Helene wrote: "Mohammed wrote: "Hello Helene! I'm so excited to see this discussion.Coming to study in America from an Arab background, I began to realize my lack of knowledge about Jewish history and culture (..."
Thank you so much for your answer. I never considered the exact timeline he was imprisoned, and now it makes much more sense. It also shows me how your research has gone deep into folklore and not only religious texts, and that's even better.
I truly appreciate you writing this novel and admire the elements of coexistence it has, of course in addition to it being a well-researched modern fairytale and just a cool book!
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I absolutely adored your book. It was so beautifully written, I couldn't wait to commute to and from work for an hour so I could lose myself in Chava and Ahmed's story.
I would just like t..."
Thanks, Hollie!
It's a really good question, and a hard one too. Part of me wants them to have a good and happy life together. But the larger part of me knows that any measure of happiness would be really hard to come by, for both of them. There's so many differences between them, and so many hurdles to overcome (and that may not be in their nature to overcome). In the end, I don't know what would happen! I suppose if I write a sequel, we'll all find out together.
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Hi Claire! Thanks so much for your wonderful comments! I'm glad you felt pulled into the book -- I think that was my goal, even if it wasn't always a conscious one. I tried to use a lot of visual elements, especially since the setting plays such a strong role in the book. It helped that the Golem and Jinni are looking through New York with new eyes, so everything is noteworthy to them. But at the same time I didn't want to bore the reader with too much detail. My agent and editor helped me to pare things back whenever I got too wordy and descriptive, which was often.
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Hi Becky, what a great question! I think they're using a combination of Yiddish and Arabic to talk to each other, and maybe a little English from time to time. I can imagine them in ten years' time or so, having picked up all sorts of interesting vocabulary from different languages, and talking to each other in a crazy pan-lingual code that no one else would possibly understand...
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Hi Christine! Thanks so much for your comments -- and that's a great question about the elements. I knew a little bit about elemental symbolism before I started, but I also think there's a lot of elemental symbolism and lore already "baked into" the old golem and jinni tales. Clay, especially, has a lot of religious symbolism already in it, as it's what Adam and Eve were fashioned from in the Abrahamic tradition. So it's another signifier that humans are "playing God" in creating golems, and going beyond the bounds of what's allowed. Meanwhile, fire is both an aid and a destroyer, dangerous to handle, and hard to control -- and that's certainly what the Jinni is too.
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I've skimmed through the questions you've received so far, looking for a different wording or complimentary take on what I'm interested in. There are so many! I know you've got your work..."
Hi Henry! To answer your question about building the relationships in the book, I used all these methods and more. Certainly I used my own experience in a long-term relationship at times, especially when I was writing the dynamic between the Golem and the Jinni. (Which is not to say that their relationship is based on my marriage -- far from it!) There were times when I planned for a character to react in a particular way to an event, and then got to the event itself and realized there was no way they'd do that! So I had to either change their reaction, or go back and change the situation itself. And I spent a *lot* of time writing extraneous or out-of-character relationship stuff that ended up on the cutting-room floor. I shudder to think about it now.
2) The professional editing process was really hard in some ways, and a total relief in others. Sometimes it takes having an agent or editor (or good friend) pointing out all your missteps and extra junk and everything else that tends to accumulate in a book as you write it. At one point, going on my agent's advice, I cut the book by about 15%, and it felt like a good spring cleaning.
As for that balcony scene, I kept it deliberately PG-13 partly because I was mindful of younger readers, but mostly because I wanted to concentrate on what was going on in Sophia's mind at the time. (That's also why you see it from her viewpoint, and not the Jinni's.) I'll also admit that I'm totally intimidated by sex scenes, and I have a very hard time with them. They're nearly impossible to get right -- either they're too explicit, or too vague, or just plain laughable. Maybe I'll tackle a few in my next project -- or maybe I'll just wimp out like usual. :-)
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Congrats on the success of The Golem and the Jinni! I enjoyed it and so did my book club.
I'm curious about your experience getting the book published. I'..."
Hi Ralph! Thanks so much, and I'm glad your book club enjoyed the book.
I had a very atypical publishing experience, as far as debut authors go. I met my future agent while I was at Columbia, and we kept in touch for a number of years while I worked on the book. When, about five years into the process, he decided there was enough of the book to sell it as a partial, I signed with him formally as his client. At that point we spent about a year polishing up what I'd written and planning out the rest of the book. (The plan eventually changed, of course.) During that process, he was working behind the scenes in NY, mentioning the book to editors he knew. That way, when the time came to pitch the book, he had a number of interested parties already lined up. The book went to auction, and I chose to go with HarperCollins from the publishers who came out on top. It was, in the end, a very low-friction way to get a first book published. Meanwhile, all of my writer friends are busting themselves pitching agents, and biting their nails waiting to hear back from people. So I've got a bit of guilt about the whole thing. :-)
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Your tale of the immigrant experience in New York was incredibly inventive, with a strong sense of place and time. I'd like to know if you chose these very odd mythical creatures as y..."
Hi Lorraine! I definitely had the oddness of the immigrant experience in mind when I chose these mythical creatures. (The specific creatures themselves came from my personal cultural connections.) They're sort of the ultimate immigrants, in a sense. They aren't just new to America, or life in New York, but to humanity in general. Using them let me blow up the immigrant experience into something larger than life, and make it truly alien.
Ask Helene Wecker - Tuesday, January 14th
Books mentioned in this topic
The Golem and the Jinni (other topics)The Golem and the Jinni (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Helene Wecker (other topics)Helene Wecker (other topics)
My questions are: "Will this be an ongoing series? Or do you have other characters and worlds to explore?"