Member Review
Review by
Eva Kelly H, Reviewer
The book THE GOLEM OF BROOKLYN is a short comedic novel by Adam Mansbach. It blends Ashkenazi Jewish legend with the chaotic American political climate of 2017 as a stoned art teacher makes a golem out of stolen clay. For those who don't know, a golem is a humanoid creature made of mud or clay, nine or ten feet tall, animated through secret rituals and prayers by a rabbi or other learned man to engage in the martial defense of the Jews at a time of crisis. Through a wacky story involving white nationalists, a gay ex-Hasid, lots of sex and drugs, a witch, and a Bigfoot (besides our golem), THE GOLEM OF BROOKLYN explores themes of faith, humor, healing, and vengeance. Or at least it starts to.
I thought I would love this book, but I ended up feeling disappointed.
I would give it a rating of three stars.
Len is a disaffected art teacher. He's Jewish but grew up "observant only in the sense that he noticed things." Miri is a bodega clerk who has left behind her Sassov Hasidic upbringing to live her truth as a lesbian a few blocks and a world away. After Len (who was very high at the time) makes a golem, he recruits Miri to translate from Yiddish so he can understand (and hopefully control) his creation.
There were lots of interesting, disparate ideas that did not quite come together in this book. For example, epigenetics and trauma. Len has the concept of a sci-fi novel using these ideas. But it isn't developed; nor is it tied in any meaningful way into the notion, explored in this novel, that the golem is the same one creature animated and reanimated over and over again throughout the ages. There has only ever been one golem, and it has an ancestral memory of all the traumatic crisis moments for which it has been called into action throughout the centuries.
Even though the many side stories offer funny, enjoyable diversions from the main plot, these disjointed scenes are barely held together by the overall narrative of the golem's intended mayhem.
Ah, yes, the mayhem. The golem learns English (albeit a guttural, broken, Yiddish-infused English) by watching TV. Curb Your Enthusiasm, to be exact. As soon as he is able, he asks, "Where is the threat?" Miri shows him a video of the 2017 "Unite the Right" march in Charlottesville. They learn that a similar rally called the "Save Our History's Past" rally will be held in the coming days in the fictional Wagner, Kentucky. The golem demands to be taken there. Miri and Len would like to give the white nationalists a fright, but they learn that what the golem has planned is to kill as many as he can.
Comically, they think that if they can't talk the golem out of his murderous plans, perhaps Larry David can. They miraculously get David on the phone, and he tells the golem to "kill as many as possible," much to their shock and horror.
So, our heroes are left with a moral conundrum. Kill all the Jew-haters and be safe, but maybe not Jewish anymore, or erase the aleph (deactivating the golem) and keep making their way through an unsafe and antisemitic world.
I am admittedly not the target audience for a novel by the author of GO THE F**K TO SLEEP, so I overlooked the fact that the humor was too cynical for my taste. The story was a wild ride. The golem is animated and cursing early on, which lends a strong sense of momentum. Besides the momentum, there were inside jokes and a deep knowledge of Jewish folklore. There was an interesting weaving together of the past and the present. There were hints at prayer, even. (A character converts to Judaism, and what she says and who she says it to may be the biggest inside joke of the whole book.) These are the book’s strengths. However, the excessive use of profanity and cynicism became tiresome after a while, as did the “Me The Golem, you Dickhead” dialogue. What kept me hanging on was the promise of a big finish. I figured I had come this far; I wanted to see what happened at that rally.
But what happened was a huge, distracting point-of-view shift and . . . no big finish! No satisfying ending at all. Instead, I got an unresolved whimper. Maybe that's as it should be. Perhaps it’s a metaphor for how unresolved and complex tikkun olam is in real life. But as I turned the final page, the disappointment settled in—a feeling of being cheated out of closure. The emotional impact of this incomplete ending was heightened by the events of 10/7, leaving me longing for a more satisfying conclusion. The ending dialogue being at odds with the ending actions only deepened my disappointment.
Ultimately, I felt like Mansbach was Len, and the book was the golem, created out of stolen clay. The anticipation built throughout the story—the anticipation of a grand climax, a resolution that would tie up all loose ends—was utterly wasted. It came to naught but mud, leaving me feeling unsatisfied and let down. I guess we have to solve our own problems in this modern world; we can’t rely on a golem or a book to do it for us. But where’s the fun in that?
Thank you #NetGalley and #RandomHousePublishingGroup - #RandomHouseOneWorld for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own. #TheGolemofBrooklyn @NetGalley @RandomHouse
I thought I would love this book, but I ended up feeling disappointed.
I would give it a rating of three stars.
Len is a disaffected art teacher. He's Jewish but grew up "observant only in the sense that he noticed things." Miri is a bodega clerk who has left behind her Sassov Hasidic upbringing to live her truth as a lesbian a few blocks and a world away. After Len (who was very high at the time) makes a golem, he recruits Miri to translate from Yiddish so he can understand (and hopefully control) his creation.
There were lots of interesting, disparate ideas that did not quite come together in this book. For example, epigenetics and trauma. Len has the concept of a sci-fi novel using these ideas. But it isn't developed; nor is it tied in any meaningful way into the notion, explored in this novel, that the golem is the same one creature animated and reanimated over and over again throughout the ages. There has only ever been one golem, and it has an ancestral memory of all the traumatic crisis moments for which it has been called into action throughout the centuries.
Even though the many side stories offer funny, enjoyable diversions from the main plot, these disjointed scenes are barely held together by the overall narrative of the golem's intended mayhem.
Ah, yes, the mayhem. The golem learns English (albeit a guttural, broken, Yiddish-infused English) by watching TV. Curb Your Enthusiasm, to be exact. As soon as he is able, he asks, "Where is the threat?" Miri shows him a video of the 2017 "Unite the Right" march in Charlottesville. They learn that a similar rally called the "Save Our History's Past" rally will be held in the coming days in the fictional Wagner, Kentucky. The golem demands to be taken there. Miri and Len would like to give the white nationalists a fright, but they learn that what the golem has planned is to kill as many as he can.
Comically, they think that if they can't talk the golem out of his murderous plans, perhaps Larry David can. They miraculously get David on the phone, and he tells the golem to "kill as many as possible," much to their shock and horror.
So, our heroes are left with a moral conundrum. Kill all the Jew-haters and be safe, but maybe not Jewish anymore, or erase the aleph (deactivating the golem) and keep making their way through an unsafe and antisemitic world.
I am admittedly not the target audience for a novel by the author of GO THE F**K TO SLEEP, so I overlooked the fact that the humor was too cynical for my taste. The story was a wild ride. The golem is animated and cursing early on, which lends a strong sense of momentum. Besides the momentum, there were inside jokes and a deep knowledge of Jewish folklore. There was an interesting weaving together of the past and the present. There were hints at prayer, even. (A character converts to Judaism, and what she says and who she says it to may be the biggest inside joke of the whole book.) These are the book’s strengths. However, the excessive use of profanity and cynicism became tiresome after a while, as did the “Me The Golem, you Dickhead” dialogue. What kept me hanging on was the promise of a big finish. I figured I had come this far; I wanted to see what happened at that rally.
But what happened was a huge, distracting point-of-view shift and . . . no big finish! No satisfying ending at all. Instead, I got an unresolved whimper. Maybe that's as it should be. Perhaps it’s a metaphor for how unresolved and complex tikkun olam is in real life. But as I turned the final page, the disappointment settled in—a feeling of being cheated out of closure. The emotional impact of this incomplete ending was heightened by the events of 10/7, leaving me longing for a more satisfying conclusion. The ending dialogue being at odds with the ending actions only deepened my disappointment.
Ultimately, I felt like Mansbach was Len, and the book was the golem, created out of stolen clay. The anticipation built throughout the story—the anticipation of a grand climax, a resolution that would tie up all loose ends—was utterly wasted. It came to naught but mud, leaving me feeling unsatisfied and let down. I guess we have to solve our own problems in this modern world; we can’t rely on a golem or a book to do it for us. But where’s the fun in that?
Thank you #NetGalley and #RandomHousePublishingGroup - #RandomHouseOneWorld for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own. #TheGolemofBrooklyn @NetGalley @RandomHouse
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