People of the Book - a few thoughts -- Book Review
I was in a major reading slump when People of the Book arrive from a BookCrossing friend in Toronto. I trust her recommendations so I was hopeful, but still a bit dubious that anything could shake me out of my reading doldrums. Insomniac that I am, I opened People of the Book at about 11:30pm, bored with TV and fidgety. After the first few page of People of the Book, I knew that I finally had a novel in my hands that would keep me company, late into the night, and keep me wanting to read “just one more page” before finally turning out the light.
This is second book I’ve read by Geraldine Brooks-the first being Nine Parts of Desire, a nonfiction. People of the Book is a skilled blending of truth and fiction. Brooks carefully researched what was known (or surmised) about the famous Sarajevo Haggadah, extrapolated from historical fact, and then let her fertile imagination run wild with vivid imagery and characters so strong they hover over the pages like holograms. The story is as bright and luminous as the celebrated illuminations contained in the five-centuries-old Haggadah, an ancient Hebrew prayer book. Books from this time period, whether Jewish or Muslim, would have been devoid of drawings or illustrations which could be interpreted as ‘rivaling God’s creation’. The wonder of this book was its illustrations and how they came to be included in a religious book of this nature.
Brooks created a stunning story. She weaves back and forth between the work and life of Hanna--the scientist whose area of expertise is studying, conserving, and restoring medieval manuscripts--and the lives of each person whose hands created, held, cherished, and ultimately saved this extraordinary book from destruction during the time of Nazi book-burning. We are taken from Sarajevo in the 1990s to Spain in the 1400s and Vienna in the 1800s, and back and beyond again; we are introduced to multilayered individuals spanning every age from child to elderly, and representing belief systems from Muslim and Jewish, to Christian and Agnostic. Each person’s story provides fascinating insight into their cultures and adds another piece to the puzzle of the illustrated Haggadah.
People of the Book is intelligently written and the story that unfolds is skillfully told. A joy to read. A pleasure to recommend.