People of the Book Takes Us on Adventures in History

Most of us enjoyed the stories in The People of the Book, that author Geraldine Brooks used to create a fictitious but engaging history of the real illuminated Haggadah known as the Sarajevo Haggadah. Two Austin women (Amy and Traci, friends of mine) who haven't been to our group but who had read the book and wanted to discuss it joined us, both adding wonderful interesting comments to our discussion! Please keep in mind that your friends might want to join us and that anyone is invited to our meetings any time.

As usual, we went beyond the obvious stories in our discussion. Jennifer led the discussion with a list of questions.

The first question asked us to compare and contrast the perspectives of Hannah and Ozren, regarding Ozren's sick child. Ozren seemed more fatalistic, whereas Hannah wanted to do everything possible to help the child. We could easily understand Hannah's feeling as coming from the American culture of fixing everything. We decided that Ozren's background of war and death and strife in Bosnian colored his way of coping with his son's illness.

Another question involved Rabbi Ayreh and Father Vistorni. Vistorni asked Ayreh to tell the printer that a book was not acceptable to the Church, but Ayreh refused. Among Ayreh's possible reasons for this was one that a visitor to our group, Amy, suggested. Because Jews feel that books are sacred, the Rabbi would be averse to doing anything that would lead to destruction of a book.

We covered 9 questions. Then, as we often do, we critiqued the end of the book! Some of us felt this time that the book had an extra ending added on. Could this have been because of a suggestion by an editor? The critique was that the ending went on and on, and that the beginning of the book and the characters involved with this ending, Amitai and Werner, had not been developed enough to merit such important roles at the end of the book. Those of us who criticized the ending felt that the theft of the book at the end did not add to the quality of the story and that the book could have ended with the final chapter on Lola.

There is a copy of the Sarajevo Haggadah available for $350. There are a few photos from the book that you can look at following this link: http://www.amazon.com/Sarajevo-Haggadah-Eugen-Werber/dp/9958100886/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277691567&sr=8-5

How to Read The People of the Book

The Barnes & Noble press release about The People of the Book is a good introduction and offers some good advice for getting the most out of this powerful book that we will discuss on June 21st:

Before you give yourself up to the sweep and scope of People of the Book, the captivating novel from Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks, grab some paper and a pen. You’ll be glad you did. From the opening chapter to the closing page, Brooks crams so many people, places, and events into her ambitious and intricate account of a Jewish prayer book that she leaves you longing for a scorecard.

Brooks starts out easy. It’s 1996 and Hannah Heath, an expert in rare books, has been lured from her laid-back life in Australia to Sarajevo, “where they just stopped shooting at each other five minutes ago.” Hannah’s job is to conserve and analyze the world-famous Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the earliest illuminated Jewish texts. The ancient manuscript, filled with images so rich and beautiful that it is now a priceless artifact, has appeared, vanished, and reappeared numerous times in its 500-year history. Its most recent rediscovery in war-torn Sarajevo, where a Muslim librarian has saved this Jewish holy book, is nothing short of a miracle.

Though Brooks’s book is a work of fiction, the Sarajevo Hagaddah itself is quite real. The author first learned of it during her stint covering the Bosnian war for The Wall Street Journal. When the manuscript suddenly resurfaced, speculation about where it had been, and how and by whom it has been saved over the course of its lifetime, fueled her imagination. With scant information to get in her way, Brooks was free to blend existing fact with her own lively fancy.