18
Nov
2009
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Will somebody please tell me what the Hell this is supposed to be on the cover of this book? I get that it’s supposed to be gold leaf and lapis or whatever, but what is it a picture of?
I hoped that that by the end the book, they’d talk about the weird abstract snake page in the Sarajevo Haggadah, which is the book in question. But, it seems to be a fairly normal haggadah, as far as subject matter goes.
A haggadah is the book that is used during the Jewish holiday of Passover, which depicts the story of Exodus.
This haggadah, has a few interesting qualities to it. For one thing, it is illuminated, much like Christian manuscripts were in the Middle Ages. However, at the time it was made, most Jews took the law against graven images from (crap…it’s Deuteronomy I think…suddenly I can’t remember) very seriously, so to have an illuminated haggadah is very strange.
One of the pictures includes an African woman, which is also strange.
Book conservationist, Hannah Heath, is brought to Sarajavo to work on the book. As she does, she finds more and more curious clues to the book’s past: A butterfly wing, a white hair, a wine stain, and the place where the book’s clasps should be.
Of course all Hannah ever finds out is where these things came from, but we get the inside scoop as Brooks moves back and forth between the past and present, and we meet the people, Jews, Muslims, and Christians, who worked on, prayed with, and risked their lives for the haggadah.
While I liked this book, I thought that the twist ending was profoundly stupid, as well as the romantic angle. I don’t want to give anything away so I won’t go into details, but suffice it to say it was totally unnecessary. The relationship with Hannah’s mother and her past were a pretty good story line and could have tied the story up neatly without the aid of the big twist and the romance.
Buy People of the Book on Amazon
If you like this book/author, you might like:
(my reviews in blue)
The Book of Q by Jonathan Raab
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Baudolino by Umberto Eco
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Antonietta by John Hersey
The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Watermark by Vanitha Sankaran
Other works by Geraldine Brooks:
Year of Wonders
Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women
March
Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal’s Journey from Down Under to All Over
Don’t have much to say about the book itself, but the cover looks to me to be the wing of some kind of insect, perhaps? It’d make sense given you mention a butterfly wing in the context of the story. My guess would be that. (:
The picture on the front is / are butterly wing(s). At least that was the first thing that I saw.
I decided not to read this book when my mother promptly turned around upon finishing it and recommended it to me. I knew from that point the chances of me enjoying it would be slim to none. Have you read March by this author? I’ve heard good things about that one (although, something tells me there was a very good reason Ms Alcott kept Mr. March a largely silenced character in Little Women)
I always thought the cover image was a butterfly wing, but I haven’t read the book.
I haven’t read the book either, but yeah, I thought it was a butterfly wing as well. I didn’t read it because my mother finished reading it and told me the idea was very cool, but the book didn’t work it out that well. I do want to try Geraldine Brooks at some point – I know she’s done a memoir about tracking down her pen friends from childhood, and I am curious about that one!
I thought it was a butterfly wing, too. I have the book on my shelf, but have yet to read it. After reading your post, I’m not so sure that I’m as eager to read it as I was before. Oh well, I’ll read it at some point. Cheers!
It looks like a butterfly wing, but then it look like something from Egypt. I have not read the book, but I have sceen this book before.
You kill me.
Yes, it IS a butterfly wing. In the story a butterfly wing is found inside a book, and it’s very much a part of the story. I think this book is much better than “March” and highly recommend it to all of you. “Nine Parts of Desire,” a nonfiction book, is the first book I read by Geraldine Brooks and, I have to say, it was very informative about women in the Middle East. Read it, if you get a chance.