arts & entertainment
A Couple Of Greenhorns,
Magical Realism Style
First-time novelist Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni
is making the rounds as one of the must-read books of the summer.
Diane Cole
Special to the Jewish News
R
eading Helene Wecker's debut
novel, The Golem and the Jinni
(Harper), is akin to embarking
on a magic-carpet journey in time to a
place that resembles the roiling ethnic
neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan circa
1900.
Here, newly arrived Eastern European
Jews and Syrian Arab immigrants inhabit
their own adjacent but separate enclaves
and practice their different religions, all
the while remaining mostly indifferent to
one another, and almost entirely invisible
to the rich folk who rarely venture south
of their splendid uptown mansions.
But look more closely at the historically
accurate street settings and tenements,
and you'll find you're actually visiting a
multi-cultural fairy tale, replete with the
mystical folklore and supernatural beings man about to leave Eastern Europe for
born of diverse traditions.
America. When her master dies suddenly
This is a realm in
as their ship is crossing
which the Jewish Golem
the Atlantic, the young
(a super-humanly strong
"widow" is left at the New
human-like creature cre-
York docks to find her
ated from mud by kab-
own way in a perplexing
balistic magic to serve a
world where she is an
master) and the Arabian
alien in every possible
Nights-like Jinni (a mag-
way.
ic-wielding spirit made
By contrast, the Jinni
of flame that can take on
arrives in New York via
human form) not only
an elaborately decorated
can exist but can co-exist
Arabian copper flask,
with each other.
used for storing olive
The Golem in ques-
oil, which has passed
tion is female, fashioned
from one generation and
by a shady kabbalistic
homeland to another over
The Golem and the Jinni
conjurer named Yehudah
several centuries, before
combines reality and
Schaalman, to serve as
reaching "Little Syria"
fantasy in the early 20th-
the obedient wife of an
in Lower Manhattan. Its
century Lower East Side.
unattractive business-
other use — to store a
jinni — is only discovered when the local
tinsmith attempts to repair its dents, and
out pops a fully grown man, naked except
for an iron cuff, and lacking any memory
as to how he came to be enslaved and
bottled for close to a millennium.
The origins of these two characters are
disparate, but in order to survive in the
new world in which they find themselves,
they must learn to adapt, accommodate
and make the best of it.
We soon learn that within each of these
creatures exist equal amounts of enchant-
ment and potential for destruction.
Can they learn to tame and train their
natures, as part of the cost of civilization?
It's a dilemma that sounds very human,
except that they are not at all human —
indeed, they must learn to pass as human
— and therein lies the fun and the adven-
ture of this well-wrought entertainment.
Outwardly, to most passers-by, the
Meet The Author
Novelist builds on her own experience as the Jewish wife of an Arab American.
I
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
school at Columbia University [in New
York City] and started working on the
novel."
elene Wecker remembers
The storyline, which introduces a
happy summers in Michigan,
Jewish and an Arab character from lore,
visiting relatives and enjoy-
comes together in New York's immigra-
ing lake activities offered by
tion community of the early
Camp Michigania, the U-M
1900s and builds on her own
alumni family camp in Boyne,
experience as the Jewish wife
Michigan. The daughter of
of an Arab American.
Shel and Gail Wecker (nee
"The book reflects the plu-
Ehrenberg), both Oak Park
rality of my family as it grew
High School grads who moved
to be," says Wecker, 37, who
to the Chicago suburbs, Helene
will address readers at 7 p.m.
dreamed, even in those early
Monday, July 22, at Nicola's
years, of becoming a writer.
Books in Ann Arbor.
Helene W ecker
Practical considerations first
"I love the idea of New York
turned her toward marketing,
having all these cultures, in
communications and public relations.
some cases blending but in others sort of
"It took about seven years of work
existing cheek by jowl. All of them have to
to admit my heart was elsewhere," says
struggle in very similar ways, coming to a
Wecker, talking from her California home
new country and having to figure out who
in the Bay Area and planning a Michigan
they are in this new place:'
visit to introduce her first novel, The
Wecker's writing started with realistic
Golem and the Jinni.
short stories about the family back-
"I was going to be very angry with
grounds of both her and her husband.
myself if I didn't give writing a real try. I
A friend suggested rooting fiction in the
started to take a few courses, entered grad fantasy that Wecker preferred reading.
H
46
July 18 • 2013
"I went back to the drawing board and
made the main characters folkloric, and
the story sprang from there Wecker says.
"At first, the characters were sort of stand-
ins for me and my husband or generic
Jewish girl and generic Arab boy.
"They quickly took on their own lives
and concerns. The woman Golem, made
of clay, is solid and quiet, seeming to exist
to serve others. The [male] jinni, made
of fire, is passionate and changeable, daz-
zling and self-centered.
"The ways the two would interact, con-
stantly fighting because they are so differ-
ent, became the emotional engine for a lot
of the book."
Wecker, who is looking forward to
seeing her grandmother, Pesia Wecker
of West Bloomfield, as well as her aunt
and uncle, Evelyn and Fred Freeman of
Farmington Hills, had to do considerable
research to develop the characters and
establish the historic setting.
"I had to learn what it was like to live in
New York at the turn of the 20th century,
and I had to learn the religious underpin-
nings of the people's lives" the author
explains.
"I grew up in a Reform household
outside Chicago and had to learn about
Orthodox Judaism. Sometimes, it felt like
a different religion:'
Wecker's husband, physicist Kareem
Kazkaz, grew up without religious prac-
tices, not going to mosque or church,
although his dad grew up Muslim in Syria
and his mother grew up Polish Catholic in
Chicago.
Currently, Wecker attends High Holiday
services and goes to "random Shabbat
and Jewish activities with friends"
The couple met as undergraduates
at Carleton College, a small liberal arts
school in Minnesota. They have a daugh-
ter, Maya, who recently celebrated her
first birthday.
"Since working on the book for seven
years, I realized how diverse Judaism has
been in America" she says. "It was so
much more of a kaleidoscope than I had
ever understood"
❑
Helene Wecker will talk about her book at 7
p.m. Monday, July 22, at Nicola's Books, 2513
Jackson, in the Westgate Shopping Center in
Ann Arbor. (734) 662-0600; nicolasbooks.com .