The Book of Splendor: A Novel

I'm sure you've had this experience.... You are reading a book and you keep turning back to look at the picture of the author because the book is so well written that you can't believe someone could have written it. Amazingly creative and brilliantly written book about the mysteries of life placed in a medieval Jewish community. It provided me with a touchstone about the place of Jews today based on how they lived and were viewed then.

In 1601, Rabbi Judah Loew fashioned a golem from river mud and breathed life into the giant figure to save his Prague community from the Jew-hating townspeople and the whims of a half-mad emperor. From this legend Sherwood builds a magical, earthy tale of passion, the loneliness of difference and the timeless, fruitless search for earthly immortality. The novel opens with the wedding of the orphan seamstress Rochel to the older shoemaker Zev. Though grateful, she finds him physically repugnant. Then one day she meets the eyes of a handsome giant. Beyond the physical attraction, they recognize a kinship of otherness - the golem without a tongue and the daughter of a Cossack rape - and a passion for the details of life, like the play of light on a leaf, the song of a bird, a rainbow in a mud puddle. Meanwhile, the petulant Emperor Rudolph II, wallowing in luxury and self-importance, surrounded by scientists like Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, botches a suicide attempt and decides he must live forever. To this end he summons alchemists and magicians and the rabbi who created life from mud. Knowing they will die when their impossible task is complete, the alchemists put on a splendid, desperate show. Rabbi Loew, facing the massacre of his community, approaches his task more somberly, but with equal ingenuity. As tensions build between Christians and Jews, Catholics and reformers, the emperor sinks deeper into madness, and Rochel and the golem struggle against their passion. With the plot driven by petty, grasping minds, ugly rages and great passions - as well as a few serious ideas, good souls and quick thinkers - the novel mingles comedy and pathos, set in a muddy, stinking, pestilential city brightened by the beauty of art, nature and human joy. Sherwood's ("Green," "Vindication," a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award) irreverent, muscular prose is up to the task; witness the emperor's birth: "His mother refused myrrh and valerian root, Turkish poppy, did not even take a drink of water, but bore her pain, which she thought her Christian obligation, although no woman was ever sainted for giving birth, save Mary."

To be sure, tourism in Prague must have increased after publication of this book. As a result of Ms. Sherwood's vivid descriptions, Prague becomes the main character in this story.In the acknowledgements (how many novels have you read that have acknowledgments?), Ms. Sherwood calls this a historical fantasy -- a perfect description. As she explains, some of the characters and events are historical, some fictional, some historical who have been somewhat fictionalized. Which parts are historical and which fictionalized is not really important, the engrossing story stands on its own merits.The Book of Splendor -- even the title evokes a sense of mystery -- has all the elements of a great movie: engrossing plot, detailed and sympathetic characters, colorful, even exotic location, and more than a little mystery. Not mystery as in Perry Mason, but mystery as in an exploration of the complexity of human relationships, the wonder of self-sacrifice and (not to be flippant) the meaning of life. All of this is overlaid with the uneasy co-existence of Christianity and Judaism in turn-of-the-17th Century Prague. And, then, there is the Golem, a mythical creature brought into being where the land and water come together, by means of spell and incantation. That he isn't a man is clear, but, is that because he is less than a man -- or more?Fluid prose, subtle symbolism and well-balanced, intertwining story-lines: Ms. Sherwood handles it all, and beautifully.

I was lucky enough to be introduced to this book by attending one of Frances Sherwood's readings. So I can hear the whole story in her voice, which is an added pleasure for me.This book is a great read, whether you generally go for historical fiction or not. It will keep you in your chair turning pages until long after your hot tea goes cold. The characters are engaging, wonderfully strange at times, and their lives are moving. Sherwood captures the intensity of life in the threatened Jewish community of Prague. The suspense created by their uncertain fate keeps the story rolling. Emperor Rudolph II is one of the most memorable quirky characters you're likely to encounter. He's both an historical personage and a freshly realized person. The colorful historical detail is balanced by a powerful story that has the authority and charm of a folk tale (for adults). The book has received endless praise in the major reviews. Richard Eder in the NY Times makes the point that the book is wise as well as fun. That's true. On the other hand, don't let the fact that the book is a brilliant piece of "literature" scare you away from the pure reading pleasure. There's plenty of fantasy and drama in this book, too.