So there was this book, and I read it
Feb. 14th, 2012 01:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwexNormally I don't blog about books I read. I tend to think nobody is much interested in books on automated trading/finance, or philosophy/cognitive science, or design/UX, which is most of what I read these days.
The science fiction I read is all old stuff. Like, last month I read Bruce Sterling's Zeitgeist which was a very funny and very Bruce book, but it's set in 1999 and it's all about the turn of the millenium, and it's about four parts historical to one part SF to one part magic realism that sort of mashed up John Crowley and James Blaylock and if none of that makes even the least bit of sense to you... well, you have my sympathy but I really can't do a better job of describing it if you don't have the literary referents. I think Zeitgeist is worth reading if only for the joy of the language - I read passages aloud to Pygment because they were just so much fun - but I wonder how many of my friends it would appeal to.
But that's not what I came to talk about. I came to talk about a book that is unusual in so many ways it's worth discussing. The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar (who is a man, despite the name) is a graphic novel that tells a story of an early-19th century Jewish Rabbi in Algeria and his daughter. It's told from the point of view of the rabbi's cat who, among other things, gains the ability to speak.
It's a very Jewish book, in the sense not only that it's about Jewish characters but it's full of FUJT and it's a lot about how those characters are treated by a non-Jewish world, how they see themselves and other Jews, and how they react to aliens, which is to say everyone not from their little town and not Jewish.
I laughed out loud at the book many times. It's also very adult, despite being a graphic novel, dealing with adult themes and adult words. The humor and events are so thoroughly soaked in Jewish culture and society that I wonder if anyone not familiar with those things would get it, or find it funny. And it's really sui generis - I've never seen or heard of anything like this before, though Sfar has done other graphic novels that I might pick up.
The only weakness I found in the book was the ending. It just sort of... stops. There isn't a lot of resolution, but perhaps that's also in keeping with the Jewish (cultural) tradition that the only proper way to answer a question is with another question.
The science fiction I read is all old stuff. Like, last month I read Bruce Sterling's Zeitgeist which was a very funny and very Bruce book, but it's set in 1999 and it's all about the turn of the millenium, and it's about four parts historical to one part SF to one part magic realism that sort of mashed up John Crowley and James Blaylock and if none of that makes even the least bit of sense to you... well, you have my sympathy but I really can't do a better job of describing it if you don't have the literary referents. I think Zeitgeist is worth reading if only for the joy of the language - I read passages aloud to Pygment because they were just so much fun - but I wonder how many of my friends it would appeal to.
But that's not what I came to talk about. I came to talk about a book that is unusual in so many ways it's worth discussing. The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar (who is a man, despite the name) is a graphic novel that tells a story of an early-19th century Jewish Rabbi in Algeria and his daughter. It's told from the point of view of the rabbi's cat who, among other things, gains the ability to speak.
It's a very Jewish book, in the sense not only that it's about Jewish characters but it's full of FUJT and it's a lot about how those characters are treated by a non-Jewish world, how they see themselves and other Jews, and how they react to aliens, which is to say everyone not from their little town and not Jewish.
I laughed out loud at the book many times. It's also very adult, despite being a graphic novel, dealing with adult themes and adult words. The humor and events are so thoroughly soaked in Jewish culture and society that I wonder if anyone not familiar with those things would get it, or find it funny. And it's really sui generis - I've never seen or heard of anything like this before, though Sfar has done other graphic novels that I might pick up.
The only weakness I found in the book was the ending. It just sort of... stops. There isn't a lot of resolution, but perhaps that's also in keeping with the Jewish (cultural) tradition that the only proper way to answer a question is with another question.
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no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 06:58 pm (UTC)For example, in the book the Rabbi is talking with someone near sundown on Saturday and is offered tobacco to smoke in his pipe. He avers that he can't smoke it yet, but he's allowed to fill and tamp his pipe. Then he goes outside to check if he can see three stars yet. THAT is an FUJT.
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Date: 2012-02-14 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 07:04 pm (UTC)What little I know about the rules on what is considered "work" and therefore can't be done on the Sabbath do occasionally boggle me, though. I believe I read somewhere that anything that was done as part of building the temple counted as work. Thereby leaving most women's work fair game to keep on working at, I'd think.
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Date: 2012-02-14 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 07:35 pm (UTC)