Helene Weckerʼs ‘The Golem and the
Jinniʼ
Chris Bohjalian May 17, 2013
You think a relationship is complicated when a woman is from Venus and a
man is from Mars? Trust me, thatʼs a piece of cake compared with the
hurdles that a modest golem and a mercurial jinni face when they fall in
love. After all, a golem is a monster made of clay — the cool earth — and a
jinni is a creature born of fire. And in Helene Weckerʼs charming, albeit way
too long, first novel, “The Golem and the Jinni,” their relationship is tested
by a megalomaniacal Bedouin wizard, the golemʼs evil creator, and all the
enticements that Manhattan can offer a couple of curious immigrants at the
turn of the 20th century.
I canʼt make this stuff up. Fortunately, Wecker can.
It would be impossible in this space to do justice to Weckerʼs humongous
research into golems and jinnis and what lower Manhattan was like before
World War I, but, suffice it to say, she has done her homework. Likewise, it
would be difficult to describe all the characters who come and go in this
doorstop of a book, some drawn far more authentically than others.
But the folks who really matter are the golem and the jinni, and they are
among my favorite fictional people I spent time with this spring. Chava, the
golem, is created by a genius psychopath named Yehudah Schaalman. He
lives in a shack in the woods outside Danzig and makes Chava from clay for
a fellow named Rotfeld who wants a wife to bring to America. “Give her
curiosity,” Rotfeld demands. “And intelligence. I canʼt stand a silly woman.
Oh, and make her proper. Not . . . lascivious. A gentlemanʼs wife.”
But she is still a golem, her creator reminds him, which means sheʼll have
“the strength of a dozen men. Sheʼll protect you without thinking, and sheʼll
harm others to do it. No golem has ever existed that did not eventually run
amok. You must be prepared to destroy her.” (Precisely why a wicked,
ambitious sorcererwho can create golems from clay lives like Hobo Joe in
the woods is never explained.)
Unfortunately, on the boat to the New World, Rotfeld dies, leaving poor
Chava to navigate New York on her own.
And then thereʼs Ahmad, the jinni. About the same time that Chava arrives
at Ellis Island, a humble tinsmith in Lower Manhattan polishes a flask and
accidentally liberates him. Ahmad is in most ways the opposite of Chava: an
impetuous lothario and libertine. His soul is as hot as Chavaʼs is cold. Alas,
Ahmad is imprisoned by an iron cuff on his wrist that can never be removed,
so he is not the sort of jinni who can grant a wish (or three). But he can
make his skin so hot that he molds metals with his bare hands. He becomes
a partner in the tinsmithʼs business.
Meanwhile, Chava is befriended by a kindly retired rabbi who — unlike every
other human being on the Lower East Side — can see right away that she is
a golem. He gets her work at a bakery and then dies.
This will prove especially problematic when her creator becomes convinced
that the secret to immortality can be found in Lower Manhattan. He has no
idea sheʼs there, but he winds up in exactly the same tenement for new
arrivals where the kindly rabbiʼs nephew works.
The book is awash in this sort of coincidence, including Chava and Ahmadʼs
eventual, inevitable meeting. But as different as the two are, they share a
boundless curiosity and friendship grounded in one reality: They will always
be outsiders in this strange new world.
At these moments I most appreciated what an inventive and utterly lovely
story Wecker is sharing. Unfortunately, these moments are swamped by
pages and pages of the jinniʼs ancient backstory, historical minutiae and the
histrionics and melodrama of the sorcererʼs quest for eternal life.
Nevertheless, Wecker is a gifted new voice. I wonʼt reveal here whether
opposites do, in the end, attract. But Iʼm glad that her talents have been set
free in this novel.
bookworld@washpost.com
Bohjalian is the author of 16 books. His new novel, “The Light in the Ruins,”
will be published in July.
THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI
By Helene Wecker
Harper. 486 pp. $26.99