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Reading Wednesday
Dec. 25th, 2019 09:17 amRecently finished: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. As I mentioned last week, I appreciated this far more than I thought I would, considering Atwood's been a bit garbage politically lately and I wasn't convinced that The Handmaid's Tale needed a sequel. But Aunt Lydia's chapters are reason enough. She's such an incredibly fascinating, well-written character that the entire book becomes a compelling, urgent read, and I couldn't put it down. I also really did like Agnes in the early chapters, Daisy not-so-much, as she was more of a cipher. I appreciated the look into how institutions under oppressive systems can contain emancipatory elements.
About the ending.
( spoilers )
The World That We Knew, Alice Hoffman. This one's set during the Holocaust. A German Jewish mother sees the writing on the wall and decides to send her young daughter across the border into France. But she's also taking care of her own mother, who's paralyzed and can't flee, so she does what any good mother does and asks the rabbi to make a golem to protect her kid. The rabbi refuses, but his daughter, who has been watching and observing her father's work even though it's forbidden to women, is willing to do it.
I was sold on the premise alone because I love me a golem story. It's haunting and tragic, with the Angel of Death, a man in a black coat, lurking in the corners of the narrative. Again, I couldn't put it down. My main issue with it is that the rabbi's daughter was a far more interesting character than the lead character, and I would have liked more of her story and less of the romantic angst.
Current reading: Nothing yet because I was too tired to start something last night; about to start Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach.
About the ending.
( spoilers )
The World That We Knew, Alice Hoffman. This one's set during the Holocaust. A German Jewish mother sees the writing on the wall and decides to send her young daughter across the border into France. But she's also taking care of her own mother, who's paralyzed and can't flee, so she does what any good mother does and asks the rabbi to make a golem to protect her kid. The rabbi refuses, but his daughter, who has been watching and observing her father's work even though it's forbidden to women, is willing to do it.
I was sold on the premise alone because I love me a golem story. It's haunting and tragic, with the Angel of Death, a man in a black coat, lurking in the corners of the narrative. Again, I couldn't put it down. My main issue with it is that the rabbi's daughter was a far more interesting character than the lead character, and I would have liked more of her story and less of the romantic angst.
Current reading: Nothing yet because I was too tired to start something last night; about to start Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach.
