An unorthodox but valuable introduction to the youngest of the major Western monotheisms.
Intricately crafted fiction woven from strands of the life of Mohammad, founder of Islam.
Over the past century, many great Western authors have used their writerly skills to fill in gaps in the Judeo–Christian tradition. Thomas Mann retells the story of Genesis’ Joseph in Joseph and His Brothers, Joseph Heller repackages the tales of King David in God Knows and a variety of authors—Robert Graves, Norman Mailer and José Saramago, to name a few—deliver refurbished versions of the gospel narrative. With his debut title, Kartal joins a small group of authors devoted to doing the same for Muslim tradition. The figure of Bahira—or Sergius—is a contested one for both Christians and Muslims: Tradition has it that Sergius, a heterodox Christian monk, was the first man to realize that Mohammad was a true prophet of God. For Muslims, Sergius’ revelation seems to prove that Christianity’s promise is fulfilled by Islam. For Christians, the fact that Sergius recognizes Mohammad’s gifts confirms Christianity’s superiority. These debates, however, are of secondary interest to Kartal, whose gorgeous prose plays out the relationship between the two men in novel form. For Kartal and for the sources on which he relies, Sergius meets Mohammad when the latter is just a young boy. But where others dismiss the child’s shaking spells, Sergius acclaims them signs of the divine presence. Much of what follows is Kartal’s invention, but as such, it is thoroughly engrossing. He writes with wit, concision and no small humor, and, while fictive, the novel is also thoroughly informative. In this excellent piece of religious invention, readers uninformed of the Muslim faith will learn much from the cast of characters surrounding the young prophet, as well as from tales of his youth and young adulthood, his loves and his losses.
An unorthodox but valuable introduction to the youngest of the major Western monotheisms.Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2012
ISBN: 978-1467950503
Page Count: 362
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Hoffman (The Red Garden, 2011, etc.) births literature from tragedy: the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.
This is a feminist tale, a story of strong, intelligent women wedded to destiny by love and sacrifice. Told in four parts, the first comes from Yael, daughter of Yosef bar Elhanan, a Sicarii Zealot assassin, rejected by her father because of her mother's death in childbirth. It is 70 CE, and the Temple is destroyed. Yael, her father, and another Sicarii assassin, Jachim ben Simon, and his family flee Jerusalem. Hoffman's research renders the ancient world real as the group treks into Judea's desert, where they encounter Essenes, search for sustenance and burn under the sun. There too Jachim and Yael begin a tragic love affair. At Masada, Yael is sent to work in the dovecote, gathering eggs and fertilizer. She meets Shirah, her daughters, and Revka, who narrates part two. Revka's husband was killed when Romans sacked their village. Later, her daughter was murdered. At Masada, caring for grandsons turned mute by tragedy, Revka worries over her scholarly son-in-law, Yoav, now consumed by vengeance. Aziza, daughter of Shirah, carries the story onward. Born out of wedlock, Aziza grew up in Moab, among the people of the blue tunic. Her passion and curse is that she was raised as a warrior by her foster father. In part four, Shirah tells of her Alexandrian youth, the cherished daughter of a consort of the high priests. Shirah is a keshaphim, a woman of amulets, spells and medicine, and a woman connected to Shechinah, the feminine aspect of God. The women are irretrievably bound to Eleazar ben Ya'ir, Masada's charismatic leader; Amram, Yael's brother; and Yoav, Aziza's companion and protector in battle. The plot is intriguingly complex, with only a single element unresolved. An enthralling tale rendered with consummate literary skill.
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1747-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
Constructed with delicacy, lyricism, and care, Hertmans’ novel still feels occasionally static.
A Christian woman and a Jewish man fall in love in medieval France.
In 1088, a Christian girl of Norman descent falls in love with the son of a rabbi. They run away together, to disastrous effect: Her father sends knights after them, and though they flee to a small southern village where they spend a few happy years, their budding family is soon decimated by a violent wave of First Crusaders on their way to Jerusalem. The girl, whose name becomes Hamoutal when she converts to Judaism, winds up roaming the world. Hertmans’ (War and Turpentine, 2016, etc.) latest novel is based on a true story: The Cairo Genizah, a trove of medieval manuscripts preserved in an Egyptian synagogue, contained an account of Hamoutal’s plight. Hamoutal makes up about half of Hertmans’ novel; the other half is consumed by Hertmans’ own interest in her story. Whenever he can, he follows her journey: from Rouen, where she grew up, to Monieux, where she and David Todros—her Jewish husband—made a brief life for themselves, and all the way to Cairo, and back. “Knowing her life story and its tragic end,” Hertmans writes, “I wish I could warn her of what lies ahead.” The book has a quiet intimacy to it, and in his descriptions of landscape and travel, Hertmans’ prose is frequently lovely. In Narbonne, where David’s family lived, Hertmans describes “the cool of the paving stones in the late morning, the sound of doves’ wings flapping in the immaculate air.” But despite the drama of Hamoutal’s story, there is a static quality to the book, particularly in the sections where Hertmans describes his own travels. It’s an odd contradiction: Hertmans himself moves quickly through the world, but his book doesn’t quite move quickly enough.
Constructed with delicacy, lyricism, and care, Hertmans’ novel still feels occasionally static.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4708-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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