I’d like to think my 6% Polish ancestry shows.
Hi everybody! I’m back with a video chat on how to read The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk. I have so many thoughts about this door-stopping, religion-busting, historical-mythical saga! Please let me know if you’ve read it!
tl;dr:
Give in to confusion
You won’t remember every one of the hundreds of characters! Ride the waves!
Watch the women characters
Keep an eye on Yente and Jacob.
Read books by Jewish authors and translators.
Try Robert Alter’s The Hebrew Bible or Simon Schama’s History of the Jewish People.
Some relevant links:
Jonah Goldman Kay, Jewish Telegraphic Agency: Is it a Jewish Novel?
Shalom Goldman, Tablet Magazine: A Polish Christian Writes the Great Jewish Novel
Dwight Garner, New York Times, calls The Books of Jacob a “thunderslog.”
Simon Schama in conversation with Adam Hochschild in 2014, JCC San Francisco
Robert Alter and Marilynne Robinson talking about the Psalms, 92nd St Y, 2007