The Books of Jacob - Olga Tokarczuk (Blog Tour & Review)

Author: Olga Tokarczuk

Translator: Jennifer Croft

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Publication Date: February 1, 2022

Rating: 3/5

(This review is part of the Wingate Prize blog tour organised by Random Things Tours)

About the book:

The Nobel Prize-winner's richest, most sweeping and most ambitious novel yet follows the comet-like rise and fall of a mysterious, messianic religious leader as he blazes his way across eighteenth-century Europe.

In the mid-eighteenth century, as new ideas -- and new unrest -- begin to sweep the Continent, a young Jew of mysterious origins arrives in a village in Poland. Before long, he has changed not only his name but his persona; visited by what seem to be ecstatic experiences, Jacob Frank casts a charismatic spell that attracts an increasingly fervent following.

In the decade to come, Frank will traverse the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires with throngs of disciples in his thrall as he reinvents himself again and again, converts to Islam and then Catholicism, is pilloried as a heretic and revered as the Messiah, and wreaks havoc on the conventional order, Jewish and Christian alike, with scandalous rumours of his sect's secret rituals and the spread of his increasingly iconoclastic beliefs.

The story of Frank -- a real historical figure around whom mystery and controversy swirl to this day -- is the perfect canvas for the genius and unparalleled reach of Olga Tokarczuk. Narrated through the perspectives of his contemporaries -- those who revere him, those who revile him, the friend who betrays him, the lone woman who sees him for what he is -- The Books of Jacob captures a world on the cusp of precipitous change, searching for certainty and longing for transcendence.

Review:

        After reading more than a dozen pages, I had the strange inkling I am out of my depth here. It was not the length, that didn't daunt me. I am used to devouring thick volumes of historical fiction and this looked like another adventure. But Olga Tokarczuk had other ideas. There is no wonder this is a favourite pick for the award committees. If literary criticism asks us to be active readers questioning the hegemony, then this novel makes sure that we go through the promise.

        The author always keeps us from getting immersed in the story. The moment we get attached to one character's viewpoint, another is introduced and the string is broken. Clearly, this is not a comfort read rather it takes up a large chunk of your brain and energy. The first hundred pages don't even make a mention of Jacob. Pace is restored once his story comes alive through other characters associated with his life.

        It is definitely a strange story, one we would have written off as the idiosyncracies of a creative brain, if not for its historical basis. Jacob Frank succeeds in creating ripples among Jews and Christians alike with his proclamation as Messiah, rejection of the Talmud and licentious rituals. Not a pleasant story and the author's use of magic realism just adds to the strangeness of it. 

        The novel in the end makes us wonder about history. Are we really learning lessons from it or does it only sow the seeds of discord?

Meet the author:

Olga Tokarczuk is one of Poland's most celebrated and beloved authors, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Man Booker International Prize, as well as her country's highest literary honor, the Nike. She is the author of eight novels and two short story collections, and has been translated into more than thirty languages.