The Hidden Palace
Aug. 22nd, 2021 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraThe Hidden Palace, Helene Wecker. Back in January, when I was listing top-priority books, I didn't even know this was coming out, but it immediately became the most exciting thing coming out this year once I heard. It's been eight years since The Golem and the Jinni - longer than the seven-year wait between Conspiracy of Kings and Thick as Thieves, or the seven years since Goblin Emperor (Witness for the Dead being a close runner-up in excitingness) - and I'm sure part of what makes these books so precious is their rarity. I mean, I'd like to think I would still recognize the excellence of Wecker or MWT if they were churning out a book a year, but any one book might not feel as special. In any case: new Golem and the Jinni! !!!
A note about rereading: I did reread the first one immediately before reading the new one (why would I not, I love it so much, pay no attention to the stack of other books I'm supposed to be reading), but I thought Wecker did a relatively thorough job recapping/reintroducing everybody, and one could probably plunge straight in and be fine. I mean, I wouldn't start the series here, but if you're looking at *your* stack of other books you're supposed to be reading, this can be one more rather than two more.
Everything else behind the cut!
So, I loved it. It was slow and sometimes quiet and so alive in its details - I don't usually mean "slow" as a compliment, but I do here. The pacing felt right for the length of the story being told (15 years!), and I felt like that gave it space to show gradual change vs sudden change vs stasis. I loved the ways the various characters crossed paths and how that circled around and built to the final cascade of events. I thought the famous historical events (the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, the Titanic, the war) were well-incorporated. Despite the pain, I really appreciated that it wasn't just a happily-ever-after for Chava and Ahmad, that we got this long, detailed look at the difficulties of their relationship, and how it fell apart, and where they ended up. (At the end, when they're huddling together under the column, while Yossele and the jinniyeh fight - imagine, like, a Donato Giancola painting of that scene, oh my god.) I cried about Yossele. (And I was sad about Arbeely, although I thought Ahmad's long, indirect grappling with grief was really powerful.) I was intrigued by everyone's trajectories at the end.
I very much hope we get another one someday. I hope this is the middle of the Golem and Jinni trilogy - Wecker has said in an interview she'd like to write a third book, and while I don't think it would be terribly unresolved to end it here, I would of course like to see Chava and Ahmad see each other again someday. And I want Ahmad to get to fly in an airplane, ideally while open-cockpit planes are still common, and I want to see what Kreindel is like as an adult (and Toby - would he go fight, when the US enters the war? he'd be 18 in 1918, I think? for that matter, what would Kreindel do in the war - my great-grandmother was some kind of Navy something in New York in WWI, I think possibly a translator given how many languages she spoke, so I would be selfishly thrilled to see Kreindel do something similar with her interest in translation.) Chava's House for Gifted Youngsters is an interesting concept (I think primarily to me in how it's a reorientation away from service to humans, and a move toward the creation of a space in which she can come to a less other-defined identity?), although in some ways it might be most interesting if she *doesn't* find anyone else. And I would really like to see Sophia Winston get an amazing third act.
I will say that it's a very het sort of book. I mean, I read het, but I felt like there was a lot going on here with dualities and oppositions and the interplay of Male vs Female with Fire/Air vs Earth/Water and Isolation vs Connection (and maybe Assimilation vs Identity and Art vs Service.). It worked ok for me - I don't really believe in The Gender Binary, but then I don't really believe in the four-element theory either, but it works as an artistic thing. And I'm also somewhat willing to read Maleness or Femaleness as something more like some characters' Jewishness, like, important to them but not binary. But if I liked the book less, I probably wouldn't have been quite so generous about it.
I will probably nominate it for Yuletide! There are a few Golem and the Jinni fics out there, but not a lot, and I feel that there could be more, and more post-this-book in particular.
A note about rereading: I did reread the first one immediately before reading the new one (why would I not, I love it so much, pay no attention to the stack of other books I'm supposed to be reading), but I thought Wecker did a relatively thorough job recapping/reintroducing everybody, and one could probably plunge straight in and be fine. I mean, I wouldn't start the series here, but if you're looking at *your* stack of other books you're supposed to be reading, this can be one more rather than two more.
Everything else behind the cut!
So, I loved it. It was slow and sometimes quiet and so alive in its details - I don't usually mean "slow" as a compliment, but I do here. The pacing felt right for the length of the story being told (15 years!), and I felt like that gave it space to show gradual change vs sudden change vs stasis. I loved the ways the various characters crossed paths and how that circled around and built to the final cascade of events. I thought the famous historical events (the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, the Titanic, the war) were well-incorporated. Despite the pain, I really appreciated that it wasn't just a happily-ever-after for Chava and Ahmad, that we got this long, detailed look at the difficulties of their relationship, and how it fell apart, and where they ended up. (At the end, when they're huddling together under the column, while Yossele and the jinniyeh fight - imagine, like, a Donato Giancola painting of that scene, oh my god.) I cried about Yossele. (And I was sad about Arbeely, although I thought Ahmad's long, indirect grappling with grief was really powerful.) I was intrigued by everyone's trajectories at the end.
I very much hope we get another one someday. I hope this is the middle of the Golem and Jinni trilogy - Wecker has said in an interview she'd like to write a third book, and while I don't think it would be terribly unresolved to end it here, I would of course like to see Chava and Ahmad see each other again someday. And I want Ahmad to get to fly in an airplane, ideally while open-cockpit planes are still common, and I want to see what Kreindel is like as an adult (and Toby - would he go fight, when the US enters the war? he'd be 18 in 1918, I think? for that matter, what would Kreindel do in the war - my great-grandmother was some kind of Navy something in New York in WWI, I think possibly a translator given how many languages she spoke, so I would be selfishly thrilled to see Kreindel do something similar with her interest in translation.) Chava's House for Gifted Youngsters is an interesting concept (I think primarily to me in how it's a reorientation away from service to humans, and a move toward the creation of a space in which she can come to a less other-defined identity?), although in some ways it might be most interesting if she *doesn't* find anyone else. And I would really like to see Sophia Winston get an amazing third act.
I will say that it's a very het sort of book. I mean, I read het, but I felt like there was a lot going on here with dualities and oppositions and the interplay of Male vs Female with Fire/Air vs Earth/Water and Isolation vs Connection (and maybe Assimilation vs Identity and Art vs Service.). It worked ok for me - I don't really believe in The Gender Binary, but then I don't really believe in the four-element theory either, but it works as an artistic thing. And I'm also somewhat willing to read Maleness or Femaleness as something more like some characters' Jewishness, like, important to them but not binary. But if I liked the book less, I probably wouldn't have been quite so generous about it.
I will probably nominate it for Yuletide! There are a few Golem and the Jinni fics out there, but not a lot, and I feel that there could be more, and more post-this-book in particular.
