Books You May Not Like: People of the Book

I don't know if it's kosher to write a response to a book before you have finished reading it.  The idea is a liberating one, in my mind.  One of the problems with blogging is that suddenlly one starts thinking more about what one will write about an experience than the experience itself.  For books, I find this dampens the pleasure of reading.

So, I am going to go ahead and tell you all that I absolutely love this book so that I can stop worrying about that kind of stuff and go on and read the rest of it unfettered by the chains of self publishing.

I consider myelf a fan of Geraldine Brooks; I enjoyed Year of Wonders  and I thought that March was excellent, well deserving of it's 2006 pulitzer prize (as if I am in a position to judge...).   People of the Book was published in 2008 and I had often held it in my hands, ready for purchase, only to be put off by the plot summary on the back; I guess the Sarajevo Haggadah didn't grab my attention as much as the Plague or the Civil War.  But then the local Border's announced it was closing, and during the mad dash for heavily discounted books I wrestled this one from the delicate hands of a short, stocky bald man.  Such hands!  Good enough for modeling, I dare say.  In order to honor him and our struggle, I had to buy it.  It would be dishonorable to do otherwise.

I was glad I finally got around to reading this one, as it has cemented Brooks' status as one of my favorite writers.  Brooks' specializes in historical fiction, but this one is a little different becuase we are jumping around in time, from Sarajevo in World War II, then to Vienna and inqitision Venice, and finally back to Spain, as we are treated to little vignettes on the people that have come into contact with the Haggadah.  These stories are woven into a larger plot line as a book restorer, Hanna, tries to trace the history of the book.

Like Brooks' other books (though I don't know about her latest, Caleb's Crossing, which just came out), People of the Book is refreshingly spare in an age when many historical ficition writers feel that the tome is the only way to give weight to a subject.  She doesn't waste a word, doesn't bludgeon you with historical and technical details, but sketches in just enough to give make her fiction vividly alive.  The way she writes her characaters, it's like looking into a portrait from years ago, and you stare into it enough and manage to touch the soul of the person staring back at you.  She manages to capture that somehow, and put onto the page.  Somehow, she to packs a lot of thought into something that reads as lightly as a feather.

So you go, Geraldine Brooks!  As for the rest of you....Christ, look at the time.  Goodnight.