September 1, 2021
Given how she balances fact and fiction on a knife's edge, one can expect blazingly original Nobel Prize winner Tokarczuk (Flights) to do justice to enigmatic 18th-century Polish religious leader Jacob Frank in this fictionalized portrait. Frank first appeared in a Polish village as a young Jew who seemed to come out of nowhere, went on to enthrall crowds as he traveled the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires, converted to Islam and then Catholicism, and was both loved and hated, worshipped and condemned. What a saga--and, not surprisingly, it runs nearly 1,000 pages.
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Starred review from December 20, 2021
Nobel laureate Tokarczuk’s subtle and sensuous masterpiece (after Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead) weaves together the stories of characters searching for a meaningful life and spiritual truth in Eastern and Southeastern Europe during the second half of the 18th century. The novel’s wide cast includes Nahman, a Jewish merchant who has abandoned his familial responsibilities to study religious philosophy; and Moliwda, a Polish Christian ashamed of his past and intrigued by Judaism. They are connected by their fascination with the novel’s central character, Jacob Frank, a charismatic Jewish merchant who proclaims himself the Messiah and gathers a following with his erotic and liberated vision of life. Jacob’s Jewish followers are encouraged to eat religiously banned food products and get baptized, and—importantly for the libidinous Jacob—adultery is no longer frowned upon among his following. Readers are rewarded throughout with tender and ebullient moments, such as the jubilant dancing of Jacob and his followers as they wait to cross into Polish territory on a mission to spread his message. Nahman and Moliwda spend a good deal of time holding conversations on conundrums that are difficult for them to square, such as life’s difficulty despite the purported goodness of God. In the hands of Tokarczuk and Croft, these concerns feel real and vital—the result of Tokarczuk’s deep investment in her material. This visionary work will undoubtedly be read and talked about by lovers of literature for years to come.
Starred review from December 1, 2021
Described as Polish Nobel laureate Tokarczuk's magnum opus, this impressively sprawling story reveals the life and times of Jacob Frank, an eighteenth-century Jewish messianic figure. Frank is enigmatically charismatic and incredibly disruptive: a self-described "simpleton" sporting Turkish garb who violates social norms. Opening in 1752 in Rohatyn, a Polish market town, and passing through numerous other European and Ottoman locales, the novel delves into the circumstances that shaped and elevated Frank, including the fact that Jews were forbidden from buying land and overburdened by taxes, and therefore seeking deliverance. In this bizarre, intricate journey based in history, Frank and his followers come to reject the Talmud and, eventually, convert to Catholicism. With language that's engaging, erudite, and spiced with witty colloquialisms and wonderful turns of phrase via Jennifer Croft's supple translation, Tokarczuk explores the state of being an outsider in places with fixed cultural boundaries and how Frank tries to work the system to his and his followers' advantage. Among the intriguing, diverse cast are Nahman, Frank's ardent supporter, and Yente, a dying woman whose spirit views events from above. A wealth of fine quotidian detail and brilliantly connected narrative threads draw the reader in. With its length, dozens of characters, and theological discussions, Tokarczuk's panoramic tale requires commitment, but it is masterful.
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Starred review from January 1, 2022
A charismatic figure traverses Europe, followers in tow. The latest novel by the Polish Nobel Prize winner to appear in English is a behemoth, both in size and subject matter: At nearly 1,000 pages, the book tackles the mysteries of heresy and faith, organized religion and splinter sects, 18th-century Polish and Lithuanian history, and some of the finer points of cabalist and Hasidic theology. At its center is the historical figure Jacob Frank, who, in the mid-1750s, was believed to be the Messiah by a segment of Jews in what is now Ukraine. Jacob preached that the end times had come and that morality, as embodied by the Ten Commandments, had been turned on its head. He led his followers to convert first to Islam and then, later, to Christianity. He himself was accused of heresy by all three major groups. Tokarczuk's account is made up of short sections that alternate among various points of view. These include some of Jacob's followers, a bishop with a gambling problem, a noblewoman who self-interestedly supports the "Contra-Talmudists' " attempt to convert to Christianity, and Jacob's grandmother Yente, who is neither dead nor entirely alive, a state that allows her consciousness to roam widely, observing the novel's action. Gritty details about the realities of daily life at the time alternate with dense passages in which Jacob's followers argue about theology. "The struggle is about leaving behind that point where we divide everything into evil and good," one says, "light and darkness, getting rid of all those foolish divisions and from there starting a new order all over again." The book (which has been beautifully translated into English by Croft) has been widely hailed as Tokarczuk's magnum opus, and it will likely take years, if not decades, to begin to unravel its rich complexities. A massive achievement that will intrigue and baffle readers for years to come.
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April 2, 2022
In stark contrast to her earlier genre-bending Flights and the dark crime of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, 2018 Nobel Prize winner Tokarczuk now tries her hand at the historical novel. Drawing on the life of the controversial 18th-century Polish Jew and self-appointed messiah Jacob Frank, the author follows his peregrinations with his followers throughout eastern Europe in a vertiginous series of events. Although the pagination is backward, in deference to Hebrew tradition, the narrative moves forward for over 900 pages through seven "books," themselves fragmented into several hundred smaller sections. The almost mythic voice of the omniscient narrator is assisted in the telling by a disciple and by epistolary exchanges, set apart in different fonts. In one of many nods to magical realism, the disembodied spirit of Frank's grandmother presides over the whole story. Because of the swarm of characters, a list of names and relationships to each other would have been helpful and arguably indispensable. VERDICT Its extensive length, levels of detail, and geographic and temporal expanse give this a Tolstoyan feel. Enhanced by maps and illustrations and supported by extensive documentation, this saga will reward those who persevere.--Lawrence Olszewski
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