Sepharad

This review is based on the English translation: This volune is a tour-de-force, a multilayered novel that grapples with the themes of love, exile, and estrangement without once slipping into sentimentality. The dizzying series of vignettes--the Hungarian Jew in Tangiers, the lonely provincial clerk in an unnamed Spanish town, Munzenberg's harrowing flight from his erstwhile Stalinist allies, Jean Amery's terrible hours inside a Gestapo torture chamber--enable the patient reader (this book is no "thriller") to better understand one of the 20th century's most harrowing motifs: exile. And it is this theme, ultimately, that not only provides the scaffolding for all of Molina's stories, but also establishes the link between the extermination of Europe's Jews and the 1492 Spanish Expulsion. If I had to point to the novel's flaws, I would say that several characters are somewhat stereotypical: the Spanish officer in the marauding German Army who falls in love with the hounded Jewish woman is a bit trite, as are the descriptions of the shopkeeper's attempts to "deflower" the cloistered nun. These are forgivable lapses, however, and do not diminish the originality of this beautiful novel.

Sepharad, the modern Hebrew for Spain, is unlike any other book I have ever read. And, it is extraordinary. Munoz Molina, a highly respected, award-winning Spanish writer, has written a novel comprising 17 short novellas; each stands on its own and, yet, there are interwoven themes and characters throughout. The book is told in a variety of narrative voices; sometimes it is Molina himself -- the writer writing about the writing of this book -- and sometimes it is an unknown voice telling a story to another person. Part of the thrill of reading this book is in anticipating and then figuring out who is telling the story contained within a particular chapter. What is the book about? Well, let's see. Not an easy question to answer. As the title suggests, it is a book about Spain's Jewish diaspora of 1492 and what has resulted in response to that exile. It is about displacement and a sense of otherness. It is also about the Holocaust. It is about Stalin and the systematic purges of the Russian population. In short, it is about history and the effects of exile. The characters are both fictional and drawn from real life; Primo Levi, Jean Amery, Leon Trotsky, Franz Kafka, Eugenia Ginsburg all make appearances in Molina's astounding book. This is not an easy book to read. You will not pick it up and think to yourself, 40 pages in, Oh, I get it now; i see where the plot is going. In some ways, there is no plot. Or perhaps more to the point, the narrative arc is one of complex, winding paths circling an end point rather than a straight line heading towards a destination. But, if you're prepared to do some thinking and to work hard at your reading, you will be rewarded BIG TIME. There is so much here. So many deep and fascinating thoughts. I have to be honest. This is not a book for everyone. You have to be a dedicated reader and you have to work hard. You will DEFINITELY be rewarded. The words and thoughts will stay with you long after you have regretfully finished the final amazing chapter.

Munoz Molina has crafted an utterly brilliant novel that weaves a number of different stories together into a tapestry both sad beyond words and strangely uplifting. His work evoked memories of Solzhenitsyn's finest passages about life in Satlin's camps. Munoz Molina demonstrates how the human spirit can rise above degredation and despair to find dignity and hope. A wonderful achievement.

I've never read anything quite like Sepharad. I thought a bit about W.G. Sebald's work while reading this wonderful book, however, Munoz Molina -- or his exceptional translator -- is more of a poet. The stories that comprise this novel are all about displacement -- enforced and circumstantial -- in a way that is clearly unique to post-WW II Europe. They are stories of wandering while standing still. I was very moved by the book and intend to recommend it to all of the intelligent readers in my world.

Sepharad is a collection of chapters that make us question who we are in this time and this place. The poetic lyricism of the language is mesmerizing, pulling us back and forth from the 1940s to the present day, to the 1600s, to the early 20th Century. We jump from Spain, to New York, to Russia, to Paris following the Jewish diaspora over the centuries. There is no timeline to restrict us.We are reminded of Kafka's Metamorphosis in which Gregor wakes up one morning as a giant bug; not the same being as the day before. We are reminded of Kafka's Trial in which the accused is never informed of his crime, other than the crime of being born. Are we the same person today as yesterday or the one we will be tomorrow?My only regret is that I cannot read this book in the original Spanish. The translation is sheer poetry; the original must be a song.