The Golem and the Jinni

Helene Wecker

2013

May, 2026

4/10

The characters in the book long for understanding, but the book really doesn’t portray much misunderstanding. In fact, the emotions are quite surface-level throughout, creating a rather distant atmosphere. It is as though we are distant observers, perhaps listening to a narration rather than experiencing anything. This makes for an easy read, but it truly lacks depth, in my opinion. We may grow close to the characters, gaining deep understanding of them, but never do we really feel what they feel. A missed opportunity.

Even characters like Michael suffered from this. His issues with relationships are merely touched on for a paragraph or two involving the golem towards the end of the book. In fact, that is what I would describe as this book’s major flaw: distance. Everything is kept at a distance at all times. 

I wouldn’t describe this as a bad book, necessarily. Rather, the afterword makes it very clear what the original intention of the book was: cultural storytelling. Not that I have anything against learning about Middle Eastern culture in New York City at the turn of the 20th century. Rather, I would not choose to read a book about Middle Eastern culture in New York City at the turn of the 20th century.

The story itself was interesting. I appreciated the human elements brought into both of the creature protagonists. However, the characters felt so infuriatingly lifeless. All of them. There was something so hollow and empty about everything. It almost felt like a story being told in the form of, “She went here and did this, then this happened, so she went there and that other thing, but this other guy did this thing in the meantime.” There were so few moments of depth. Not even meaningful deaths were meaningful.

Again, it wasn’t a bad book. But I would never choose to recommend it, and I will not be reading the sequels. It was an easy read. It doesn’t take much effort on the reader’s part for understanding, and I at least appreciated that aspect when reading it while I was tired.

I will say that I also appreciated the author’s depictions of religion from such an unbiased standpoint. There was so much religious talk, but the conclusion was always to make your own conclusions because nobody knows the real truth. That was a nice and fresh change.

It does make me a little sad, though, that for such a long book, this is all I have to say. I didn’t really take anything away or get anything out of the reading. I may as well have not read it.