I was intrigued when I first heard of The Golem and the Jinni: with all of the animosity between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East, I wondered at what could be accomplished in a literary meeting between mythical creatures of their respective cultures. It was therefore disappointing when I realised that this jinni wasn't associated with Muslims but Bedouin and Maronite Christians -- and I'll admit this disappointment wasn't really the fault of the book, just my preconceived notion (but I do see from wikipedia that jinn are mentioned often in the Qur'an. Maybe the author considered this angle but didn't focus on it because she set the story fifty years before the creation of Israel?) All I knew previously about the jinn is from The Arabian Nights and Bugs Bunny cartoons, and all I knew about golems was from The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay-- and Chava is definitely a golem of a different sort. I also thought that having these creatures be fish-out-of-water immigrants to New York City at the turn of the twentieth century would be a refreshing take on a story that's been told quite a bit, but you know what? When you are essentially indestructible, have no need for food or shelter for survival (yet are immediately provided with a home and a job), and can automatically speak any language that's spoken to you, there's very little at stake-- this is nothing like a real immigrant story.
I did really like the characters of both Chava, the golem, and Ahmad, the jinni: they were perfect foils for each other as they sought to orient themselves in the unfamiliar society that traps each of them in different ways. The peek into Kabbalism and the creation of the golem and the flashbacks to the Syrian desert of long ago through the jinni's eyes were my favourite parts: these stories were mystical and magical while also sounding reasonable and straightforward; they made it perfectly logical to believe that the mythical can coincide with our workaday world. I did, however, think this was taken too far with Yehudah Schaalman's ability to manipulate people with a mere grasp of his claw-like hand -- maybe I'm just more willing to believe in the spiritual than the downright magical.
I thought this book started off interestingly and about halfway through, when Schaalman had the revelation that he needed to go to New York, I began to find it exciting -- each of the creatures had allies and also people who were beginning to think that something wasn't quite right about them; there was a feeling of a net beginning to tighten around them, and then…nothing happens for the longest time. Honestly, I think that Helene Wecker was trying for the epic here, wanting to introduce a varied cast of characters who would portray all the different aspects of that time and place, but if this book had been tighter in its focus on the golem and the jinni, it would have been much more enjoyable for me. I understand that Anna and Sophie represented opposite ends of the social classes, and I suppose that they allowed for worthy observations (premarital sex/unwed pregnancy, while universally frowned upon, has different consequences for the rich and the poor! The jinni makes Sophie a golden sculpture of a bird in a cage, but hey, golden bars are still bars!) but I don't think they were necessary for the story. I also would have chopped out Matthew and his mother and even Michael -- everything this character does could have been done by Rabbi Meyer if he had stayed around a little longer. Maybe Maryam could have been Arbeely's wife -- it seems like it could have been easy to edit this down to a fundamentally more interesting story. I wanted more Scheherazade, less Edith Wharton.
There were also long scenes that seemed unnecessary which tried my patience. For example, to have the jinni drown himself in the fountain, just to be rescued by the golem, felt like a device used solely to have him carried to Sophie's house so that that storyline could be resolved. And was it resolved? Is she still sick? I say strike out the whole Sophie thing. And a last complaint -- the ending. Why would the golem and the jinni, two basically masterless, powerful creatures choose to remain in New York where the surrounding humans annoy and threaten them? Why wouldn't they move to the jinni's glass palace in the desert-- they would be safe (not least of all from rainfall or persistent yearnings) and not likely to come across a person who could guess their true natures (which happened with amazing frequency in the city).
On the other hand, when The Golem and the Jinni stuck to the narratives of the main characters, I found it to be intriguing and enchanting. I also enjoyed the back stories of those characters who related directly to the myth and magic surrounding the main characters (like Fadwa and Schaalman and Mahmoud Salah). As a meditation on all the different ways we humans allow ourselves to become trapped (whether by religion or culture or the necessities for survival), it was astute and thought-provoking. I get the feeling that Weckman was so fascinated with what was obviously a lot of research, that what she learned about the period and place was so interesting, that she couldn't help but leave it all on the page. To me, this is a book that would have benefitted immensely from a cool and heartless editor's pen.
I usually collect lines and phrases that I find well-written or profound but I didn't find this book to be very quotable. This is the only line that stuck out:
So perhaps this God of the humans is just a jinni like myself, stuck in the heavens, forced to answer wishes. Or maybe he freed himself long ago, only no one told them.In the end, this book was enjoyable if bloated and I look forward to whatever Helene Wecker conjures up next.
Now, like I said in the review, I don't have a lot of patience with the "magical", but that doesn't mean that I'm not open to evidence of the "spiritual", and that includes a lot of wacky stuff like demons and angels and space aliens (to the extent that they aren't necessarily from space, but perhaps a different dimension and...oh, there's no way to say that without sounding like a looney...) So I like to watch different reality shows on the subject and I have recently encountered Jewish and Arabic mythology.
Actually the day before I started listening to The Golem and the Jinni, I was watching Weird or What, hosted by William Shatner, and there was the craziest jinni story. Here's the link to the guy's website, and I hope he doesn't mind me quoting at length:
The legend goes that the farmer Marao Lopez had captured a creature, shown it to a few of his farm hands and when it squawked and lunged for them (what would you do if you were tangled up in a nasty trap?) they did the only thing that came to mind . . . they dipped the creature into a vat of acid which peeled off his skin and killed him. The men eventually took their possession to a university in Mexico and they were told that it was like nothing born of this earth, though it did have some components that appeared human (like a hybrid?) The scientists said the creature could not have been a mutant of any kind as it had no DNA and all living things should have DNA. Tests revealed a creature that is unknown to scientists – its skeleton has characteristics of a lizard, its teeth do not have any roots like humans and it can stay underwater for a long time (well, if it’s dead, that last statement has no meaning). Supposedly, we hear on good authority that the farmer who caught the creature in the trap (there was said to be a second one who escaped) died shortly after all this attention when he was in a bad car accident and burned to a crisp. A case of the Ultra-Terrestrials seeking revenge? My notion was, and this was what I told Shatner’s producers, that the creature could not have been a space being. First off, it was too tiny and fragile to wheel itself about at the speed of light. And where was the craft that it arrived on Earth in? And what about the lack of breathing apparatus? And how could a super smart alien (it had an enlarged brain, the examining scientists had said) get himself caught in such a primitive trap? It didn't add up, as far as I was concerned, to something extraterrestrial, that’s for damn sure. But what of another possible explanation? In the book Round Trip To Hell In A Flying Saucer, we dealt with the existence of the Djinn, a shadowy race of demonic creatures known in the Islamic faith as living in another dimension and for the most part cursing humans and committing dastardly deeds. They often appear as smoke and possess people just like the devil would do in our Western culture. And the thing is, if you compared a picture or illustration of the Djinn, they offer up a reasonable resemblance to the alien baby of Mexico.
And so exactly what is a Djinn (often spelled Jinn)?
Well, we know about the Genie in the bottle from A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, but otherwise most of us who are not of the Islamic religion don’t really know the story/nature of the Djinn and who they really are. Easily put into the category of Ultra-Terrestrials, they are not the nicest of entities.
The following is a definition that seems most prevalent . . .
The word “Djinn” translates as anything that is concealed or invisible. The Djinn are a race that has no defined physical form of their own, so they are therefore invisible to the naked eye. However, they are shape shifters who can take on the physical form of just about anything they want. Many say that they walk among us every day.
You will often see smoke when your Djinn appears, not because the smoke IS the Djinn, but because it accompanies him/her. It is simply a sign that your Djinn is nearby and ready to communicate, and signifies the presence of energy.
Djinn can also appear with orbs, streaks of light, mists or other kinds of phenomena. It can be a big, awe-inspiring appearance, or a subtle, almost-not-noticed kind of appearance. With Djinn, like people, no two are exactly alike and there are countless ways they may manifest.
Some Djinn will never manifest in any kind of physical form, but that doesn't mean that they aren't there and watching you. These Djinn will generally communicate with you only during dreams or meditation. They aren't any more or less powerful than other Djinn, they just choose to present themselves differently. So I took a shot and took the train to Toronto where I lauded my theory of the Djinn. I am sure this is the first time the subject of aliens versus the Djinn has been discussed on a widely-viewed television program. Of course, my statements were broken up into brief sound bites but I do believe I got the message across to Shatner, as well as his very obliging producers and crew, that all strange looking beings do not have to come from a place far, far away in another galaxy, but might be here living right alongside us. We could almost reach out and touch them . . . and possibly some of us have. The world of Ultra-Terrestrials is a mystifying one, and there is a lot to learn about those that seem flesh and blood one moment but can metamorphose, can alter their shape, size and appearance as well as their density.
I laughed when I was watching this episode -- the "expert" takes one look at a picture of a so-called alien and says, "It's ridiculous to say what you have there is an alien. It's obviously a djinn!" But, when I started listening to the book the next day, one of the first scenes has our jinni assuming the form of small animals to make himself inconspicuous around humans. Of course this information was available to the author as well, but I found it significant if only to remind me that while I may not believe what others believe, that's no cause to laugh at them. (Okay, maybe sometimes it's okay to muffle a snicker...)
Another show I like to watch is Paranormal Witness. One of the reasons I like it is because I find the people, real people not actors, who tell their stories about ghosts and hauntings are just so believable to me. The last episode I watched had young girls, in tears, describing how they had seen their mother choked and lifted off her feet by an unseen presence -- they honestly did not seem to be faking the fear. My favourite episode involved the "dybbuk box", and I know it doesn't involve an actual golem, but since early in The Golem and the Jinni it is said that the local villagers worried that Schaalman was possessed by a dybbuk, I'm putting this story here:
The term "Dybbuk Box" was first used by Kevin Mannis to describe the box in the item information for an eBay auction. Mannis, a writer and creative professional by trade, owned a small antiques and furniture refinishing business in Portland, Oregon at the time. According to Mannis' story, he bought the box at an estate sale in 2001. It had belonged to a Holocaust survivor of Polish origin named Havela, who had escaped to Spain prior to her immigration to the United States. Havela purposely sealed a dybbuk inside the box after it contacted her and friends performing a seance with a homemade oracle board.
On opening the box, Mannis found that it contained two 1920s pennies, a lock of blonde hair bound with cord, a lock of black/brown hair bound with cord, a small statue engraved with the Hebrew word "Shalom", a small, golden wine goblet, one dried rose bud, and a single candle holder with four octopus-shaped legs; all items supposedly used in Jewish folklore to exorcise demons.
Numerous owners of the box have reported that strange phenomena accompany it. In his story, Mannis claimed he experienced a series of horrific nightmares shared with other people while they were in possession of the box or when they stayed at his home while he had it. His mother suffered a stroke on the same day he gave her the box as a birthday present – October 28. Every owner of the box has reported that smells of cat urine or jasmine flowers and nightmares involving an old hag accompany the box.
Iosif Neitzke, a Missouri student at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri and the last person to auction the box on eBay, claimed that the box caused electronic failure – phenomena from lights burning out in his house to computer failure, a mysterious insect swarm centering around the box, and unexplained medical conditions such as extreme and sudden hair loss. Jason Haxton, Director of the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, Missouri, had been following Neitzke's blogs regarding the box and when he was ready to be rid of the box Neitzke sold it to Haxton.
Haxton wrote The Dibbuk Box, and claimed that he subsequently developed strange health problems, including hives, coughing up blood, and "head-to-toe welts". His wife experienced "bloody, weeping, blisters" after coming in contact with clothing he wore during a failed containment attempt. His office also experienced the bursting of light bulbs, shared by Neitzke and Mannis and computer failures akin to Neitzke's experiences. Upon removal of the box from the museum, Haxton had locked the box in the back of his truck, parking it at his home in the evening. Haxton experienced nightmares of Hag-like women, not unlike Mannis's claims. The final straw, Haxton claims, happened while he and his son were watching television and his son noticed a black flame-like mass in the room with them. Haxton consulted with Rabbis to try to figure out a way to seal the dybbuk in the box again. Apparently successful, he took the freshly resealed box and hid it at a secret location, which he will not reveal.
It may not sound like much but it was compelling because I believed these three men as they told their stories. And like any good horror story it is left open-ended: Haxton won't reveal the location of the dybbuk box but he knows he needs to find a way to destroy it since he "won't be around forever" (cue the Jumanji drums).
And I do know this fascination makes me sound flaky but there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio...
