People of the Book: Survival and Responsibility

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	• People of the Book: A Novel Geraldine Brooks Viking Adult, 2008 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 136 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Expected more...

As a huge fan of Geraldine Brooks' previous novels, March and Year of Wonders, I really expected to like this book so much more than I did. The underlying story of the journey of the hadassah is fascinating and should have been more than enough to carry the book. I found myself continuously distracted by the story of Hanna, the present day heroine who tries to uncover the secrets of the book. Hanna wasn't a particularly interesting or likable character. Her relationship with her stereotypical powerful mother was completely pointless. The "love affair" seemed contrived and superficial. Does she really need to sleep with him the first day she meets him? The caper they pull at the end of the book was ridiculous and unbelievable. Midway through the book, I felt like I was reading a rip-off of The DaVinci Code. This just wasn't what I've come to expect from Brooks. Unfortunately, I think one of the previous reviewers was correct in guessing that this book was written specifically with a screenplay in mind. It could have been a much better read if it had focused more on the journey of the hadassah and the people who were involved with it, instead of trying to weave in the present-day nonsense.

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People of the Book

A superbly crafted book illustrating the travels of the Sarajevo Haggadah through the centuries as it comes into contact with numerous people, who each leave a clue in the book, that allows the narrator to unravel its journey from then to now. As usual, Geraldine Brooks offers us an excellent rendition.

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People of the Book

While there are some nice historical stories interspersed throughout the book, the main character is not believable and the story line is predictable. The different historical stories all ended without closure, which left me unsatisfied.

People of the Book: Survival and Responsibility

When I was young, I can remember being totally shocked when I first read of the sack of Alexandria and the destruction of its library. We're talking hundreds of thousands of scrolls by the greatest thinkers of the day, the loss of incalculable knowledge.

So when a book was written about survival - I sat up and took notice. It is a book whose central character is not the female narrator, whose intermingled personal and professional life as a book conservator provides the contemporary framework for the story, but a real book -- the so-called "Sarajevo Haggadah".

The history of this Hebrew codex has been largely hidden, but there are some things that are known. Scholars believe it was created in Spain in perhaps as early as the mid-14th century, CE, during the Convivencia, when Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived together in relative peace. The Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 by Ferdinand and Isabella, and nothing more is known of the book until the 17th century, when it reappeared in Venice and was passed by a Catholic priest named Vistorini, which saved it from the book burnings of the Inquisition.

The book passed through Vienna and in 1894 the Haggadah was sold to the National Museum in Sarajevo by a man named Joseph Kohen. Its survival was still not assured. During World War II, it was smuggled out of the Museum by a Muslim scholar under the nose of the Nazis and kept safely in a Muslim home or mosque. During the Bosnian War of the 1990's it was hidden inside a bank vault.

That this priceless book, one of the most beautiful medieval Jewish manuscripts, is still in existence was the result of good fortune, bravery and sacrifice. In all the years of its existence, the Sarajevo Haggadah was not broken, and it was not burned. It survived the Spanish expulsion, the Inquisition, two World Wars and the Bosnian bloodletting. It was saved at least twice by Muslims. Had it been separated or destroyed, its story would have been destroyed with it. Used in celebrating the Passover service, the Haggadah speaks of the liberation and survival of the Jewish people, and by its existence its own.

What does this tell us and what can we learn from all the people who had possession of it and protected it? As we buy and sell rare materials, what is our collective responsibility in preserving and conserving the books that now exist for future generations?

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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