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Judenstaat
Simone Zelitch has created an amazing alternate history in Judenstaat. On April 4th, 1948 the sovereign state of Judenstaat was created in the territory of Saxony, bordering Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.
Forty years later, Jewish historian Judit Klemmer is making a documentary portraying Judenstaat's history from the time of its founding to the present. She is haunted by the ghost of her dead husband, Hans, a Saxon, shot by a sniper as he conducted the National Symphony. With the grief always fresh, Judit lives a half-life, until confronted by a mysterious, flesh-and-blood ghost from her past who leaves her controversial footage on one of Judenstaat's founding fathers--and a note:
"They lied about the murder."
Judit's research into the footage, and what really happened to Hans, embroils her in controversy and conspiracy, collective memory and national amnesia, and answers far more horrific than she imagined.
Forty years later, Jewish historian Judit Klemmer is making a documentary portraying Judenstaat's history from the time of its founding to the present. She is haunted by the ghost of her dead husband, Hans, a Saxon, shot by a sniper as he conducted the National Symphony. With the grief always fresh, Judit lives a half-life, until confronted by a mysterious, flesh-and-blood ghost from her past who leaves her controversial footage on one of Judenstaat's founding fathers--and a note:
"They lied about the murder."
Judit's research into the footage, and what really happened to Hans, embroils her in controversy and conspiracy, collective memory and national amnesia, and answers far more horrific than she imagined.
317 pages, Hardcover
First published June 21, 2016
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756 people want to read
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February 8, 2017
In this alternative history, the Jewish state is 40 years old. But it's not in Palestine; that, along with Uganda, were failed British experiments (along with various other experiments in Ukraine and Birobidjan). Judenstaat is the Jewish state. It consists of a chunk out of the center of eastern Germany, actually the southern-most part of what was East Germany--nestled up against the Soviet bloc. And, yes, it has its wall--to keep out the fascists. There was a population exchange at the time of its creation in '48, with surviving Jews moving in and ethnic "Saxons," moving out--except for the minority who remained.
And there was the charismatic politician who successfully advocated for its creation.
The young archivist tasked with producing a film for the upcoming fortieth year celebration of the country's creation is chronically cast down on account of the death of her husband. He's a Saxon, but she fell in love with and married him, only to lose him to assassination four years prior, for he was the first Saxon conductor of the national orchestra--a situation some didn't appreciate.
In this version of reality it's the Soviets who liberated the camps and in whose sphere of influence the socialist state of Judenstaat found itself.
Beyond that, the politics gets murky. I've heard an author criticized for not giving her readers' intelligence enough credit, but in this book the author did the opposite. It's hard to remember who all the politicians are, much less the significance of a word or two uttered half a book before. More than once, to get a semblance of understanding, I had to search the book via Amazon to review what had been said about a particular character.
Maybe if I knew more about the history of East Germany or had already read the Communist Manifesto, I would understand the goings-on better. I pulled out the latter tonight since there's a section of the book that parallels its opening lines.
What the author's own political views were, I couldn't tell
I connected with the main character but was looking for her to emerge from her slough of despond and moral confusion; I looked in vain.
This book could be useful to the extent people have mentally experimented with their own alternative histories of the state of Israel, placing it in Europe, and have then applied an affect heuristic to the outcome, assuming their versions would be mostly beneficial and with little cost. Affect heuristic is the term cognitive scientists use for an instance of allowing one's emotions to determine one's beliefs about the world. The book might enable some readers to reexamine their assumptions in that regard.
I met the author at the Decatur Book Festival I attended Labor Day weekend. Her presentation was somewhat under the radar since someone had billed the talk only as "Imaginary States," so I was lucky to have noticed it in the program. She was personable, and I was sold.
And there was the charismatic politician who successfully advocated for its creation.
The young archivist tasked with producing a film for the upcoming fortieth year celebration of the country's creation is chronically cast down on account of the death of her husband. He's a Saxon, but she fell in love with and married him, only to lose him to assassination four years prior, for he was the first Saxon conductor of the national orchestra--a situation some didn't appreciate.
In this version of reality it's the Soviets who liberated the camps and in whose sphere of influence the socialist state of Judenstaat found itself.
Beyond that, the politics gets murky. I've heard an author criticized for not giving her readers' intelligence enough credit, but in this book the author did the opposite. It's hard to remember who all the politicians are, much less the significance of a word or two uttered half a book before. More than once, to get a semblance of understanding, I had to search the book via Amazon to review what had been said about a particular character.
Maybe if I knew more about the history of East Germany or had already read the Communist Manifesto, I would understand the goings-on better. I pulled out the latter tonight since there's a section of the book that parallels its opening lines.
What the author's own political views were, I couldn't tell
I connected with the main character but was looking for her to emerge from her slough of despond and moral confusion; I looked in vain.
This book could be useful to the extent people have mentally experimented with their own alternative histories of the state of Israel, placing it in Europe, and have then applied an affect heuristic to the outcome, assuming their versions would be mostly beneficial and with little cost. Affect heuristic is the term cognitive scientists use for an instance of allowing one's emotions to determine one's beliefs about the world. The book might enable some readers to reexamine their assumptions in that regard.
I met the author at the Decatur Book Festival I attended Labor Day weekend. Her presentation was somewhat under the radar since someone had billed the talk only as "Imaginary States," so I was lucky to have noticed it in the program. She was personable, and I was sold.
December 30, 2016
A Tale of Loose Ends
To say this book is pointless is of course only to admit that I can't see the point. There is a geo-political narrative, inter-laced with a personal narrative, overlaid with a narrative of Jewish sectarianism. None, however, is either developed or resolved. Important events in all three are described and then left without explanation or consequence. The Soviet Union and the United States conspire to make a neutral buffer state in Saxony as a Jewish homeland. An interesting premise; but it leads nowhere. The protagonist loses a week of her life in an apparent abduction, an event which doesn't trouble her further, nor does it have any relevance to the development of her story. A key piece of historical evidence, introduced in unlikely circumstances, is made even more unlikely when the heroine re-discovers it in plain sight after extensive secret service searching. Hasidim, 'black hats', operate an independent country within a country which is suddenly and without explanation ex-populated. A small child enters the narrative, plays an unessential role, and disappears; as does a Stasi agent, several co-workers of the protagonist; other characters from her past appear and vanish without contributing to the plot or character. Is this a new form of post-modernist story-telling using quasi-Murdochian metaphor or a very badly constructed piece of incipient but cramped imagination?
To say this book is pointless is of course only to admit that I can't see the point. There is a geo-political narrative, inter-laced with a personal narrative, overlaid with a narrative of Jewish sectarianism. None, however, is either developed or resolved. Important events in all three are described and then left without explanation or consequence. The Soviet Union and the United States conspire to make a neutral buffer state in Saxony as a Jewish homeland. An interesting premise; but it leads nowhere. The protagonist loses a week of her life in an apparent abduction, an event which doesn't trouble her further, nor does it have any relevance to the development of her story. A key piece of historical evidence, introduced in unlikely circumstances, is made even more unlikely when the heroine re-discovers it in plain sight after extensive secret service searching. Hasidim, 'black hats', operate an independent country within a country which is suddenly and without explanation ex-populated. A small child enters the narrative, plays an unessential role, and disappears; as does a Stasi agent, several co-workers of the protagonist; other characters from her past appear and vanish without contributing to the plot or character. Is this a new form of post-modernist story-telling using quasi-Murdochian metaphor or a very badly constructed piece of incipient but cramped imagination?
May 24, 2022
This book was set in an alternative reality where the Jewish people claim Germany as their home land. It speaks of many of the difficulties and the racesm they incounter.
July 13, 2016
Great idea – slightly confusing delivery.
On April 4th, 1948 the sovereign state of Judenstaat was created in the territory of Saxony, bordering Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Forty years later, Jewish historian Judit Klemmer is making a documentary portraying Judenstaat's history from the time of its founding to the present. What she finds in the archives doesn’t fit the state’s interpretation of its beginnings.
I really wanted to like this book, however Simone Zelitch delivery was somewhat opaque and difficult to follow.
Her imagining of Judenstaat is strong with it’s echoes of East Germany and eastern European history alongside orthodox Jewish factions vs more liberal groups. Judit is a strong female character who decides to stick with the facts rather than bend to the state’s official story.
Zelitch presents a fascinating alternate world that felt very realistic, but is let down by a narrative that at times is difficult to clearly understand exactly what is going on.
On April 4th, 1948 the sovereign state of Judenstaat was created in the territory of Saxony, bordering Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Forty years later, Jewish historian Judit Klemmer is making a documentary portraying Judenstaat's history from the time of its founding to the present. What she finds in the archives doesn’t fit the state’s interpretation of its beginnings.
I really wanted to like this book, however Simone Zelitch delivery was somewhat opaque and difficult to follow.
Her imagining of Judenstaat is strong with it’s echoes of East Germany and eastern European history alongside orthodox Jewish factions vs more liberal groups. Judit is a strong female character who decides to stick with the facts rather than bend to the state’s official story.
Zelitch presents a fascinating alternate world that felt very realistic, but is let down by a narrative that at times is difficult to clearly understand exactly what is going on.
July 28, 2016
I'm a huge fan of alternative history, and so seeing a book that posits a post-WWII Jewish state in Germany rather than Palestine was too tempting to pass up.
Fascinating premise but the execution left much to be desired. Judit, the protagonist, works as a video historian. She's haunted by the assassination of her German husband several years before. She's asked to compile footage for the 40th anniversary celebration of Judenstaat, and she soon falls down a rabbit hole filled with people from her present and past pulling her in all directions.
The author tries to create a mystery regarding the creation of the country and the national myth surrounding it, and casts Judit as the haunted but dogged investigator that will stop at nothing to get to the truth. But the clues and the details are so muddled by the author that the plot becomes somewhat difficult to comprehend.
And that's a shame; because with some tighter editing and writing, this could have been a truly thought provoking work about nationalist myth and memory. Instead it falls quite short of that lofty goal.
Fascinating premise but the execution left much to be desired. Judit, the protagonist, works as a video historian. She's haunted by the assassination of her German husband several years before. She's asked to compile footage for the 40th anniversary celebration of Judenstaat, and she soon falls down a rabbit hole filled with people from her present and past pulling her in all directions.
The author tries to create a mystery regarding the creation of the country and the national myth surrounding it, and casts Judit as the haunted but dogged investigator that will stop at nothing to get to the truth. But the clues and the details are so muddled by the author that the plot becomes somewhat difficult to comprehend.
And that's a shame; because with some tighter editing and writing, this could have been a truly thought provoking work about nationalist myth and memory. Instead it falls quite short of that lofty goal.
Read
February 11, 2017This is the second alternate Jewish state novel that I've read. The first , The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, came totally out of left field. The Jewish State is where? Alaska? Are you kidding me? It was certainly imaginative, but it didn't seem at all likely. Judenstaat at least sounds like it could really have happened in the universe next door, not very far from our own. So I took this book and its implications more seriously.
I found Judenstaat thought provoking, disturbing and saddening. It was a difficult read and I can't say that I was glad that I read it. I'm not sure that I actually needed to read this book, but there may be much more idealistic readers who still believe that utopia is possible, and that solutions to social problems are easy. They are the ones who should read Judenstaat.
For my complete review see http://shomeretmasked.blogspot.com/20...
I found Judenstaat thought provoking, disturbing and saddening. It was a difficult read and I can't say that I was glad that I read it. I'm not sure that I actually needed to read this book, but there may be much more idealistic readers who still believe that utopia is possible, and that solutions to social problems are easy. They are the ones who should read Judenstaat.
For my complete review see http://shomeretmasked.blogspot.com/20...
September 21, 2017
Took me awhile to try and wrap my head around this one, so here goes!
Judenstaat is the name of the book and the name of its central, fictitious country--Zelitch imagines that post-World War II, the Soviet liberators help Jewish camp survivors establish a state in what is essentially east Germany. Therefore, as the author states in her own prologue of an explanatory note, her country draws parallels with both the real East Germany and Israel, neither of which exist here. (The Palestinian Aliyot are referred to as "another failed experiment," just like the Uganda hypothesis. It's inferred that after Britain pulled out, Jerusalem et al remained in Jordanian hands).
I found some other parallels myself, to recent comics movie adaptations like "Watchmen" and the first class X-Men generation. All of these movies also take place during a re-imagined Cold War, with new cards on the table. Judenstaat isn't necessarily as flashy as introducing folks with supernatural powers to the political arena, but it's another chess piece on the board. Like Israel leant during its founding and East Germany (man, this book made me want to study East Germany, and probably Israel in more depth, too,) it's a socialist state. It very much exists under the thumb of the Soviets, both historically and geographically.
We open in 1987, 40 years after the state was founded, and Jewish historian Judit Klemmer is charged with making a documentary to mark the occasion. There's a very Big Brother is Watching vibe to the government of the country, which is unsurprising given its Soviet associations. Judit is constantly being watched--and played, as it turns out. There is a little bit of a "gotcha!" moment as she uncovers some hidden footage from one of Judenstaat's founders, but it doesn't make everything implode, either. Well, at least not more than Central Europe was already imploding during the Cold War (the state-doctored documentary possibly steals the thunder from Reagan's famous "tear down that wall!" speech).
For four years Judit has been mourning the death of her husband, Hans, who, controversially was a Saxon (aka Gentile German. Judit's parents, of course, like all the Jews of the land, were Holocaust survivors. Referred to by its Yiddish translation, the Churban). Other than her grief and guilt, she doesn't really have much of a personality. The plot, tinged with a fair bit of the mystery and thriller genres, moves at a decently fast clip, and many of the characters got lost in the shuffle. I didn't necessarily feel much for them, or see them as real people in their own rights, but they represented interesting factions. We had the "black hat" Ullra-Orthodox who live in the land, but somewhat like they are in Israel and elsewhere, are antithetical to the secular government and idea of Jewish statehood without divine intervention. And then there are the Cosmopolitans (a common slur used against Jews in Russia), people who put a sense of individualism over nationalism. Here they are personified by a close friend of the founder, the American Stephen Weiss, who wrote a secret manifesto about Jews and Otherness. Or antisemitism, to be more precise, and how Gentiles will always use Jews as a scapegoat. Also, perhaps, as a puppet. Near the end of the novel, Judit's teacher suggests something telling: "Perhaps if we'd been in Palestine, we'd be the agents of our own salvation." I guess I'm saying that I prefer real history to this alternative version, where Jews are both corruptible (like all humans) but are also somewhat powerless. Also, of course, a Jewish state solely for the Ashkenazim isn't a Jewish state for all.
(It's also perhaps open-ended whether Judenstaat, like East Germany, won't end up re-joining Germany proper, and then it's distinctly Jewish nature would be blotted out. I always find it disconcerting that all Ashkenazim are referred to as German--though that is the technical definition of the word. Still, the word encompasses Jews all the way from Germany to Russia. Judit's mother is Polish. And our protagonist comes across Russian immigrants. Yet Zelitch's Judenstaat is defined by a sense of Germanness--even the official language is German, much to the consternation of Yiddishists. Jews were, of course, a prominent minority in Germany before the Holocaust, so perhaps this serves as a reminder about our complicated history).
But it always comes back to the Holocaust, to the Churban. The most pervasive questions that thread through this book involve ideas of Justice--whether it exists or not--and collective memory. Judit has tons of access to grappling with both questions, thanks to her work as an archivist and document filmmaker, plus, again, due to the mystery/thriller aspects of the plot. A final interesting subplot, speaking again of parallels, this time to Hamlet, is the idea of the vengeful dead. Of course the six million and the traumatized survivors loom large over this novel, but in the specific we have Judit occasionally conversing with the ghost of her dead husband. Tellingly, a little Hasidic girl sees him as well, identifying him in Jewish mythological terms as a dybbuk, and warning that if he's not avenged, he will possess her. Judit's mentor takes another tack, claiming that the dead will always demand to be avenged, but "what do the living say?" Therefore, I don't think we ever get a conclusive answer about who really killed Hans, which can be baffling to readers. So, too, is the murky, political ending of this book, with no clear indication of what comes next. I think all of this bothered me more right after completing the novel, but now that I've had time to think, I'm more cool with it. As Zelitch said in her opening, life, history, the Jewish Question, all of these are pretty unanswerable.
Judenstaat is the name of the book and the name of its central, fictitious country--Zelitch imagines that post-World War II, the Soviet liberators help Jewish camp survivors establish a state in what is essentially east Germany. Therefore, as the author states in her own prologue of an explanatory note, her country draws parallels with both the real East Germany and Israel, neither of which exist here. (The Palestinian Aliyot are referred to as "another failed experiment," just like the Uganda hypothesis. It's inferred that after Britain pulled out, Jerusalem et al remained in Jordanian hands).
I found some other parallels myself, to recent comics movie adaptations like "Watchmen" and the first class X-Men generation. All of these movies also take place during a re-imagined Cold War, with new cards on the table. Judenstaat isn't necessarily as flashy as introducing folks with supernatural powers to the political arena, but it's another chess piece on the board. Like Israel leant during its founding and East Germany (man, this book made me want to study East Germany, and probably Israel in more depth, too,) it's a socialist state. It very much exists under the thumb of the Soviets, both historically and geographically.
We open in 1987, 40 years after the state was founded, and Jewish historian Judit Klemmer is charged with making a documentary to mark the occasion. There's a very Big Brother is Watching vibe to the government of the country, which is unsurprising given its Soviet associations. Judit is constantly being watched--and played, as it turns out. There is a little bit of a "gotcha!" moment as she uncovers some hidden footage from one of Judenstaat's founders, but it doesn't make everything implode, either. Well, at least not more than Central Europe was already imploding during the Cold War (the state-doctored documentary possibly steals the thunder from Reagan's famous "tear down that wall!" speech).
For four years Judit has been mourning the death of her husband, Hans, who, controversially was a Saxon (aka Gentile German. Judit's parents, of course, like all the Jews of the land, were Holocaust survivors. Referred to by its Yiddish translation, the Churban). Other than her grief and guilt, she doesn't really have much of a personality. The plot, tinged with a fair bit of the mystery and thriller genres, moves at a decently fast clip, and many of the characters got lost in the shuffle. I didn't necessarily feel much for them, or see them as real people in their own rights, but they represented interesting factions. We had the "black hat" Ullra-Orthodox who live in the land, but somewhat like they are in Israel and elsewhere, are antithetical to the secular government and idea of Jewish statehood without divine intervention. And then there are the Cosmopolitans (a common slur used against Jews in Russia), people who put a sense of individualism over nationalism. Here they are personified by a close friend of the founder, the American Stephen Weiss, who wrote a secret manifesto about Jews and Otherness. Or antisemitism, to be more precise, and how Gentiles will always use Jews as a scapegoat. Also, perhaps, as a puppet. Near the end of the novel, Judit's teacher suggests something telling: "Perhaps if we'd been in Palestine, we'd be the agents of our own salvation." I guess I'm saying that I prefer real history to this alternative version, where Jews are both corruptible (like all humans) but are also somewhat powerless. Also, of course, a Jewish state solely for the Ashkenazim isn't a Jewish state for all.
(It's also perhaps open-ended whether Judenstaat, like East Germany, won't end up re-joining Germany proper, and then it's distinctly Jewish nature would be blotted out. I always find it disconcerting that all Ashkenazim are referred to as German--though that is the technical definition of the word. Still, the word encompasses Jews all the way from Germany to Russia. Judit's mother is Polish. And our protagonist comes across Russian immigrants. Yet Zelitch's Judenstaat is defined by a sense of Germanness--even the official language is German, much to the consternation of Yiddishists. Jews were, of course, a prominent minority in Germany before the Holocaust, so perhaps this serves as a reminder about our complicated history).
But it always comes back to the Holocaust, to the Churban. The most pervasive questions that thread through this book involve ideas of Justice--whether it exists or not--and collective memory. Judit has tons of access to grappling with both questions, thanks to her work as an archivist and document filmmaker, plus, again, due to the mystery/thriller aspects of the plot. A final interesting subplot, speaking again of parallels, this time to Hamlet, is the idea of the vengeful dead. Of course the six million and the traumatized survivors loom large over this novel, but in the specific we have Judit occasionally conversing with the ghost of her dead husband. Tellingly, a little Hasidic girl sees him as well, identifying him in Jewish mythological terms as a dybbuk, and warning that if he's not avenged, he will possess her. Judit's mentor takes another tack, claiming that the dead will always demand to be avenged, but "what do the living say?" Therefore, I don't think we ever get a conclusive answer about who really killed Hans, which can be baffling to readers. So, too, is the murky, political ending of this book, with no clear indication of what comes next. I think all of this bothered me more right after completing the novel, but now that I've had time to think, I'm more cool with it. As Zelitch said in her opening, life, history, the Jewish Question, all of these are pretty unanswerable.
January 4, 2017
Really disappointed. I was excited about the premise, and there was a lot of promise going on. (A Jewish state in Germany! Possible ghosts! A video archive and hidden secrets!)
However, Ms. Zelitch makes such a serious effort to show us how confused Judit is that she doesn't bother letting us as readers know what's actually happening. And we're not in some kind of enjoyable haze with Judit. We're frustrated, because we as readers aren't sufficiently filled in on the imaginary history of Judenstaat to be caught up to where Judit is. I guess this is the problem: you can have world-building and you can have ambiguity, but you can't really have both at the same time, or you wind up putting your readers at a major disadvantage as compared to your characters.
However, Ms. Zelitch makes such a serious effort to show us how confused Judit is that she doesn't bother letting us as readers know what's actually happening. And we're not in some kind of enjoyable haze with Judit. We're frustrated, because we as readers aren't sufficiently filled in on the imaginary history of Judenstaat to be caught up to where Judit is. I guess this is the problem: you can have world-building and you can have ambiguity, but you can't really have both at the same time, or you wind up putting your readers at a major disadvantage as compared to your characters.
February 29, 2020
I just did not enjoy this book. Maybe I'll read it again just to be fair. It has an interesting premise. Maybe the Jewish state was placed in Germany. Is this some kind of political polemic against the current Jewish state? Of course, I think the Jewish people have a more profound ancestral connection to their current situation in the Middle East, given the Biblical history there. But, Terry Bisson on the back cover snarkily says that the Jewish state should be in Europe.
Anyway, the book begins in a promising manner with Judit receiving a mysterious note telling her that she was lied to about who murdered her husband. Judit is putting together a documentary on the founding of the Jewish state.
I wish the plot though had followed a definite and clear trajectory. Instead, we get seemingly random observations and opaque sentences that tell, instead of showing, and use a lot of pronouns with unclear antecedents. We get too many atmospheric details about clothing, smells, and food, and there is not enough coherent action.
Judit gets pregnant, we learn about her past miscarriages, she falls in love with a man named Bondi. She pursues the note that tells her that she does not really know who killed her husband Hans.
The background of this are sketches of the history of Judenstaat, which apparently involves atrocities committed by the Soviet Union. There are internal political clashes over the degree of openness Judenstaat should have to the world, and there are battles over religious versus secularism.
But it is all very fragmentary, there seems to be a lot of disconnected detail, and the writing is frustratingly bland. We get a lot of "she felt disarmed," or "there was something childish about the way", "Bondi hadn't been there when Judit sewed the same pattern". There are no concrete images in the sentences, just a lot of abstractions and pronouns!
Anyway, the book begins in a promising manner with Judit receiving a mysterious note telling her that she was lied to about who murdered her husband. Judit is putting together a documentary on the founding of the Jewish state.
I wish the plot though had followed a definite and clear trajectory. Instead, we get seemingly random observations and opaque sentences that tell, instead of showing, and use a lot of pronouns with unclear antecedents. We get too many atmospheric details about clothing, smells, and food, and there is not enough coherent action.
Judit gets pregnant, we learn about her past miscarriages, she falls in love with a man named Bondi. She pursues the note that tells her that she does not really know who killed her husband Hans.
The background of this are sketches of the history of Judenstaat, which apparently involves atrocities committed by the Soviet Union. There are internal political clashes over the degree of openness Judenstaat should have to the world, and there are battles over religious versus secularism.
But it is all very fragmentary, there seems to be a lot of disconnected detail, and the writing is frustratingly bland. We get a lot of "she felt disarmed," or "there was something childish about the way", "Bondi hadn't been there when Judit sewed the same pattern". There are no concrete images in the sentences, just a lot of abstractions and pronouns!
June 25, 2016
Thanks to Goodreads and Tor books for a free copy of Judenstaat.
I found the premise of this book intriguing, an alternate history where a Jewish state is created in part of Germany after WW2.
The novel is well written and I really enjoyed the parts about music in Hans and Judit's back story. The political and historical parts became a bit confusing for me, perhaps because I'm not very knowledgeable in that area.
All in all, the author did a good job of presenting characters and an alternate world that felt very realistic, even though you know that it isn't.
I found the premise of this book intriguing, an alternate history where a Jewish state is created in part of Germany after WW2.
The novel is well written and I really enjoyed the parts about music in Hans and Judit's back story. The political and historical parts became a bit confusing for me, perhaps because I'm not very knowledgeable in that area.
All in all, the author did a good job of presenting characters and an alternate world that felt very realistic, even though you know that it isn't.
January 14, 2017
Frustrating, very frustrating. I like what she was trying to do, but there was way too much exposition - show, not tell please - and it only really became clear what was going on in the final third of the book. A lot of the book was just confusing, but I get can be a deliberate choice but it was not well executed. Could have been a truly great book addressing important themes (memory, history, the ethics of statecraft, etc.) but ultimately just a disappointment.
August 6, 2019
Not sure what the point of writing this book was. Don't know why or how it got published either. Did the author pay to have it published?
No plot.
No real conclusion just ended. Not satisfying at all.
Setting is fake history locale so mostly your imagination with little real description.
Characters weak and uninteresting. And not acting realistically.
Low level SPaG was good. Some continuity errors, and hard to follow at times.
Needs better editing to avoid confusion.
Interest level very low for most people. Just a big slice of life with no point to it.
Context: If you are Jewish, and if you know history, and if you know geography, then it might mean more to you than most people. But still, there is not plot. Just words about an alternate history that did not happen.
Author seemed to be anti-USA as well as anti 'black hats'.
No plot.
No real conclusion just ended. Not satisfying at all.
Setting is fake history locale so mostly your imagination with little real description.
Characters weak and uninteresting. And not acting realistically.
Low level SPaG was good. Some continuity errors, and hard to follow at times.
Needs better editing to avoid confusion.
Interest level very low for most people. Just a big slice of life with no point to it.
Context: If you are Jewish, and if you know history, and if you know geography, then it might mean more to you than most people. But still, there is not plot. Just words about an alternate history that did not happen.
Author seemed to be anti-USA as well as anti 'black hats'.
December 20, 2022
This book is a very well formed idea brought to life, it was incredibly written.
I felt just as much excitement reading this as I had with PKDs Man in the High Castle.
Though not a particularly enjoyable read, as nothing touching the subject matter of either the holocaust or WWII can be enjoyable really... I still felt like this was a very worthwhile read.
The characters were real enough to be believed, the plot was solid, the historical aspects brought to bear were well chosen. A state like Judenstaat felt quite palpable and believable.
I felt just as much excitement reading this as I had with PKDs Man in the High Castle.
Though not a particularly enjoyable read, as nothing touching the subject matter of either the holocaust or WWII can be enjoyable really... I still felt like this was a very worthwhile read.
The characters were real enough to be believed, the plot was solid, the historical aspects brought to bear were well chosen. A state like Judenstaat felt quite palpable and believable.
January 10, 2024
A novel with an intriguing counter-historical basis--the post-war Jewish state being carved out of Germany rather than being located in Palestine--is undermined by convoluted plotlines that never quite jibe with each other. I'm glad I read it, and I enjoyed the world-building but it never came together extremely well for me.
June 7, 2017
DNF.
- I knew from the premise that the book would necessarily be Ashkenazi-focused, but seriously, no mention or consideration of how the existence of MENA Jews or non-German or Eastern European Jews contribute to the identity-making/erasure of Judenstaat?
- The writing style was way too detached and generally unpleasant to read.
- The discussion of history and memory read like an English or creative-writing professor trying to have ~deep thoughts~ on the nature of history and documentation and memory, but which didn't translate into practicalities.
- Judit's weird sickness and Han's ghost did not help the plot and actively made it feel worse.
- Too little actual worldbuilding of Judenstaat's forty-year history and too much reliance on the setting of East Germany.
- (CW rape): Actual scene where Judit falls asleep in an apartment whose address the Stasi agent tailing her had her memorize and wakes up to find him undressing her and slipping his hand into her underwear. Two paragraphs later this is characterized as "making love".
- I knew from the premise that the book would necessarily be Ashkenazi-focused, but seriously, no mention or consideration of how the existence of MENA Jews or non-German or Eastern European Jews contribute to the identity-making/erasure of Judenstaat?
- The writing style was way too detached and generally unpleasant to read.
- The discussion of history and memory read like an English or creative-writing professor trying to have ~deep thoughts~ on the nature of history and documentation and memory, but which didn't translate into practicalities.
- Judit's weird sickness and Han's ghost did not help the plot and actively made it feel worse.
- Too little actual worldbuilding of Judenstaat's forty-year history and too much reliance on the setting of East Germany.
- (CW rape): Actual scene where Judit falls asleep in an apartment whose address the Stasi agent tailing her had her memorize and wakes up to find him undressing her and slipping his hand into her underwear. Two paragraphs later this is characterized as "making love".
June 5, 2016
http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2016/06...
The premise of this book is: what if, after the Holocaust, instead of founding a Jewish state in Palestine, they founded a Jewish state in part of Germany (and it turned into a weird mish-mash of Israel and divided Berlin)? And now the fortieth anniversary of said state is approaching, and a film editor/archivist is working on a documentary to celebrate the occasion--at least until she is derailed by news that her husband's political murder three years earlier may have been something else entirely. So it's sort of a mystery, sort of an alternate history, sort of a political thriller, and certainly a political statement. It kind of left me with a lot of questions. It's an interesting book, and certainly the subject matter interested me, but I'm still not sure what sort of story it was trying to tell. B/B+.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on June 21st.
The premise of this book is: what if, after the Holocaust, instead of founding a Jewish state in Palestine, they founded a Jewish state in part of Germany (and it turned into a weird mish-mash of Israel and divided Berlin)? And now the fortieth anniversary of said state is approaching, and a film editor/archivist is working on a documentary to celebrate the occasion--at least until she is derailed by news that her husband's political murder three years earlier may have been something else entirely. So it's sort of a mystery, sort of an alternate history, sort of a political thriller, and certainly a political statement. It kind of left me with a lot of questions. It's an interesting book, and certainly the subject matter interested me, but I'm still not sure what sort of story it was trying to tell. B/B+.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on June 21st.
March 20, 2016
This book had a great, indeed a really great premise - that a Jewish state was set up in Saxony (East Germany) after WW2, partly as a punishment for the Nazis. Then it gradually revealed the history of the state through the eyes of a librarian who was cataloging old film for a 40th anniversary documentary. So far so great. The new state has a secret police called the Stasi - more shades of East Germany - and its own "black hat" region for orthodox Jews. But the execution fell down (in my opinion). I think maybe you needed to know more history or something... I recognized the referenced to the 1968 "Prague Spring", where the Judenstaat soldiers now fought for the Soviets (ironic), but I missed much of the rest. So when the story kept jumping around eras, it lost me. So sorry, it just didn't work.
November 28, 2016
This sharply imagined novel spools out from the alternate-history premise that Jewish survivors of the Holocaust established a state, not in Israel, but in East Germany. Both the title and the country’s name offer a nod to Theodore Herzl’s 1896 text proposing a Zionist state in Palestine—but in the world of this Judenstaat, the Palestinian project has failed.
The heroine, Judit Klemmer, is a historian and filmmaker who finds herself pulled deeper into the hidden history of her country. Set in the 1980s during Judenstaat’s 40th anniversary, the story is thick with the atmosphere of East Germany, with overlaps in both physical and mental geography: bleak, paranoid, haunted, oppressed by powerful neighbors and in thrall to moral ambiguities. As a set piece for contemplating the state of Israel, it is stark and fresh.
The heroine, Judit Klemmer, is a historian and filmmaker who finds herself pulled deeper into the hidden history of her country. Set in the 1980s during Judenstaat’s 40th anniversary, the story is thick with the atmosphere of East Germany, with overlaps in both physical and mental geography: bleak, paranoid, haunted, oppressed by powerful neighbors and in thrall to moral ambiguities. As a set piece for contemplating the state of Israel, it is stark and fresh.
July 12, 2016
A murder mystery mixed with so much political intrigue that the main character, Judit, doesn't really know what's going on: Is the new lover who works for the state trustworthy? Is the mysterious intruder trying to reveal or conceal the truth? Is the entire received history of the Jewish state based on a lie? Is the name of that government agency a deliberate echo of George Orwell? Is there any point, after all, in unearthing ugly and disturbing facts?
For the reader, like Judit, the mysteries aren't easy to figure out, but they are well worth the investment because, in the end, this is a deeply meaningful "alternative history" that is probably not as alternative as we think.
For the reader, like Judit, the mysteries aren't easy to figure out, but they are well worth the investment because, in the end, this is a deeply meaningful "alternative history" that is probably not as alternative as we think.
October 28, 2019
Started 10-22-19. Finished 10-28-19. I had to force myself to finish this book. I couldn't figure out the point of it. Characters made loaded statements that then caused no response from others. There were questions that needed to be asked but no one asked them. Characters often spoke in sentences that were cryptic but no one paid attention to them. The premise could have been really intriguing but was so convoluted that it was difficult to follow it.
July 16, 2016
Normally love alt-history. But I just could not follow the storyline here. Or I am missing something. Or I am just dumb. But I don't really understand what exactly happened in this book.
Read
November 30, 2016I'll be reviewing this one for the Cascadia Subduction Zone, so it'll be a while before I can post a link to the online review.
May 7, 2017
DNF - The book just wasn't going anywhere.
January 23, 2018
Once upon the 1980’s, in a fictional European socialist country, there lived a film archivist named Judit with few living relatives, no close friends, and distant co-workers at the national museum. There, she skulks around her basement studio, wearing her dead husband’s sweaters and talking to his ghost. The kicker – Judit is in her 30’s. And her ethnic-minority husband was murdered; shot in front of a crowd.
On top of her depression, Judit is getting pressured at work. The country’s fortieth anniversary is coming, and they want a “fresh view” documentary made for it. Except, they, who? The new prime minister? The country’s remaining founders? A neighboring country or a meddling superpower? The ever-present state police? The religious conservatives popping up everywhere? The “they” whose courier crashes into Judit’s studio, bearing a mysterious film clip? Or “they” who the courier says “lied about the murder”?
Judit goes in pursuit of the courier, falling seriously ill while visiting an off-the-grid acquaintance. Returning a couple weeks later, Judit discovers she’s been written off as dead; her studio closed. Fine, then. She’ll use the new equipment they bought and the newly declassified materials they’re providing and the script they wrote – and she’ll take the makeover and the lover they’re offering, too – but it’ll be HER masterpiece. Along the way, she figures out the mysterious film clip, only to be told by people she trusts, “Yes, dear, the grownups already knew that.”
Judenstaat is a wonky, third-rail of a thought experiment about what justice might’ve looked like for post-WWII Jews, if it’d taken its normal veer toward vengeance. Despite the mystery/thriller aspects, it’s plotted like a sci-fi/fantasy quest. Our passive protagonist is sent on a journey she wouldn’t have chosen, is sidetracked, is pushed onward by more powerful or more interesting minor characters, and finally arrives at the remote castle of the reclusive king. But there the quest ends, as Judit gives up and returns to her passive life, albeit at a higher pay grade.
The author shows how very few have the power, presence, and intestinal fortitude to shape facts into a vision and lead. Also, how the rest of us are swept along, or go along to get along, even when we think we’re hidden. It’s the most salient point of the book, and would’ve been better served by a less wonky setting.
On top of her depression, Judit is getting pressured at work. The country’s fortieth anniversary is coming, and they want a “fresh view” documentary made for it. Except, they, who? The new prime minister? The country’s remaining founders? A neighboring country or a meddling superpower? The ever-present state police? The religious conservatives popping up everywhere? The “they” whose courier crashes into Judit’s studio, bearing a mysterious film clip? Or “they” who the courier says “lied about the murder”?
Judit goes in pursuit of the courier, falling seriously ill while visiting an off-the-grid acquaintance. Returning a couple weeks later, Judit discovers she’s been written off as dead; her studio closed. Fine, then. She’ll use the new equipment they bought and the newly declassified materials they’re providing and the script they wrote – and she’ll take the makeover and the lover they’re offering, too – but it’ll be HER masterpiece. Along the way, she figures out the mysterious film clip, only to be told by people she trusts, “Yes, dear, the grownups already knew that.”
Judenstaat is a wonky, third-rail of a thought experiment about what justice might’ve looked like for post-WWII Jews, if it’d taken its normal veer toward vengeance. Despite the mystery/thriller aspects, it’s plotted like a sci-fi/fantasy quest. Our passive protagonist is sent on a journey she wouldn’t have chosen, is sidetracked, is pushed onward by more powerful or more interesting minor characters, and finally arrives at the remote castle of the reclusive king. But there the quest ends, as Judit gives up and returns to her passive life, albeit at a higher pay grade.
The author shows how very few have the power, presence, and intestinal fortitude to shape facts into a vision and lead. Also, how the rest of us are swept along, or go along to get along, even when we think we’re hidden. It’s the most salient point of the book, and would’ve been better served by a less wonky setting.
May 25, 2023
تُصنّف رواية الدولة اليهودية في خانة “التاريخ البديل”، وهو جنسٌ أدبي تدور أحداث أعماله في عالمٍ اتخذت فيه واقعةٌ تاريخيةٌ ما مسارًا مختلفًا عما آلت إليه على أرض الواقع. الواقعة التاريخية البديلة في رواية الكاتبة الأمريكية سيمون زيليتش هي إقامة وطن قومي لليهود في شرق ألمانيا بعيد هزيمة الأخيرة في الحرب العالمية الثانية. فقد نجح المفكّر والناشط السياسي اليهودي-الألماني ليوبولد شتاين في انتزاع موافقة زعماء دول الحلفاء الثلاثة الكبار (جوزيف ستالين، فرانكلين روزفلت، وونستون تشرشل) المجتمعين في مؤتمر يالطة الشهير في فبراير/شباط عام 1945 على مشروع “الدولة اليهودية”. وتم الإعلان بالفعل عن قيامها في 14 مايو/أيار عام 1948، على أراضي ولاية ساكسونيا الألمانية.
يمثّل هذا التاريخ البديل خلفية لحبكة الرواية الرئيسية، وهي قصة إثارة تتمحور حول موظفة في المتحف الوطني في مدينة دريسدن (عاصمة "الدولة اليهودية") تُدعى يوديت كليمر، أوكل إليها مهمة إخراج فيلم وثائقي بمناسبة احتفالية “الدولة اليهودية” بالذكرى الأربعين لتأسيسها في مايو/أيار عام 1988. ولكن أثناء عملها في غرفة الأرشيف، تتلقى يوديت رسالةً مجهولة المصدر تخبرها بأن السلطات قد كذبت عليها بشأن جريمة مقتل زوجها هانز كليم قبل أربع سنوات أثناء قيادته لعرضٍ موسيقي للأوركسترا الوطنية في الدولة اليهودية. بحسب الرواية الرسمية، فقد قتل كليم الذي ينتمي للأقلية الألمانية في الدولة اليهودية، برصاص قنّاصٍ نازي بسبب زواجه من امرأة من الأغلبية اليهودية. تقود هذه الرسالة كليمر في رحلة بحث عن حقيقة مقتل زوجها تكتشف من خلالها أسراراً مثيرة ليس فقط عن جريمة قتل هانز، بل عن تاريخ “الدولة اليهودية” ذاتها وهويتها القومية.
يمثل السؤال الافتراضي الذي تطرحه زيليتش في مقدّمة روايتها “ماذا لو أقيمت دولة يهودية في ألمانيا بعد الحرب العالمية الثانية؟” تجربة ذهنية مثيرة على المستوى السياسي والفكري والثقافي. في المراجعة التالية (أنظر الرابط أدناه) المنشورة على موقع مركز دراسات الوحدة العربية، أناقش المسار التاريخي للدولة اليهودية وإسقاطاته على أرض الواقع، كما أطرح سؤالًا افتراضيًا آخر: كيف كان سيكون النقاش في الإعلام الألماني حول معاداة السامية وعلاقتها بالمهاجرين العرب لو كانت هناك دولة يهودية على الأراضي الألمانية؟ أخيرًا أعرض باختصار أهمية التاريخ البديل كوسيلة أدبية تساعد على الوصول إلى فهمٍ أعمق لواقعنا الحالي.
https://caus.org.lb/%D9%86%D8%A8%D8%B...
يمثّل هذا التاريخ البديل خلفية لحبكة الرواية الرئيسية، وهي قصة إثارة تتمحور حول موظفة في المتحف الوطني في مدينة دريسدن (عاصمة "الدولة اليهودية") تُدعى يوديت كليمر، أوكل إليها مهمة إخراج فيلم وثائقي بمناسبة احتفالية “الدولة اليهودية” بالذكرى الأربعين لتأسيسها في مايو/أيار عام 1988. ولكن أثناء عملها في غرفة الأرشيف، تتلقى يوديت رسالةً مجهولة المصدر تخبرها بأن السلطات قد كذبت عليها بشأن جريمة مقتل زوجها هانز كليم قبل أربع سنوات أثناء قيادته لعرضٍ موسيقي للأوركسترا الوطنية في الدولة اليهودية. بحسب الرواية الرسمية، فقد قتل كليم الذي ينتمي للأقلية الألمانية في الدولة اليهودية، برصاص قنّاصٍ نازي بسبب زواجه من امرأة من الأغلبية اليهودية. تقود هذه الرسالة كليمر في رحلة بحث عن حقيقة مقتل زوجها تكتشف من خلالها أسراراً مثيرة ليس فقط عن جريمة قتل هانز، بل عن تاريخ “الدولة اليهودية” ذاتها وهويتها القومية.
يمثل السؤال الافتراضي الذي تطرحه زيليتش في مقدّمة روايتها “ماذا لو أقيمت دولة يهودية في ألمانيا بعد الحرب العالمية الثانية؟” تجربة ذهنية مثيرة على المستوى السياسي والفكري والثقافي. في المراجعة التالية (أنظر الرابط أدناه) المنشورة على موقع مركز دراسات الوحدة العربية، أناقش المسار التاريخي للدولة اليهودية وإسقاطاته على أرض الواقع، كما أطرح سؤالًا افتراضيًا آخر: كيف كان سيكون النقاش في الإعلام الألماني حول معاداة السامية وعلاقتها بالمهاجرين العرب لو كانت هناك دولة يهودية على الأراضي الألمانية؟ أخيرًا أعرض باختصار أهمية التاريخ البديل كوسيلة أدبية تساعد على الوصول إلى فهمٍ أعمق لواقعنا الحالي.
https://caus.org.lb/%D9%86%D8%A8%D8%B...
June 29, 2017
What if Israel and East Germany had been the same country? (That's my paraphrase of the author's note.) It isn't a question that ever occurred to me, but I'm glad it occurred to Simone Zelitch! In this alternate history, the state of Saxony in the southeast corner of Germany was made into an independent state, Judenstaat, founded by survivors of the Holocaust. The plot of the story takes place in 1987, with the main character, Judit Klemmer, an archivist who makes video exhibits at the National Museum of Judenstaat. However, the really interesting part, and also a big part by page count, is the flashbacks telling Judit's past life against the history of the country. The main subgroups in Judenstaat are: 1) Bundists - Wikipedia tells me this was a real secular socialist Jewish movement, but in the alternate history they gave Judenstaat one of its founding leaders and were co-opted by the Soviet Union to be its political orthodoxy. After the first few years, they all speak German. 2) "Black-hats," religiously conservative and apolitical or maybe anti-political, and Yiddish-speaking. 3) Saxons, the minority of non-Jewish Germans who stayed after the war. Then there are the Cosmopolitans, the political name attached to Judenstaat's other founding leader. Since it isn't safe to call yourself one now, most of what you read about them is indirect, but in a sense they're who the book is about. Judit herself is a committed Bundist, but married a Saxon (now assassinated), and she's more committed to historical truth than to anything else - but just like in real life, how to know whether you know the truth, and what to do with the truth you think you have, are complicated questions. Of my complaints, the only one worth mentioning is an unnecessary ghost that could be a hallucination but isn't ever clearly declared one.
September 5, 2019
The premise is that Jews persuaded Stalin to allow them Saxony after World War II; as a result, Israel never developed. It’s an idea that I’ve pondered over the years: Why shouldn’t the Germans, after murdering six million Jews, be made to give up part of their homeland as partial recompense? But unlike me, Simone Zelitch thought through the consequences.
Judenstaat – the name is borrowed from a pre-war tract by Herzl – would have been carved from East Germany, including the cities of Leipzig and Dresden. Most of the indigenous German population would be forced to flee, as actually happened in Poland and other eastern European countries. The remaining Saxons, carefully vetted, would become a minority, and their churches would either be left in postwar ruins or destroyed (Zelitch isn’t clear about this). A wall is built along the German border to keep out invaders and terrorists. Judenstaat might have had a few years of flourishing intellectual discourse before Stalin’s heavy hand was felt, as it was throughout eastern Europe. The Yiddish language would be banned for use in the media, to the intense displeasure of Hassidic Jews from Russia. And Western influence would be cut off for decades. In 1968, the Russians force the Jews to participate in the invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Doesn’t sound very attractive, does it?
Zelitch’s story, set forty years after the foundation of Judenstaat, focuses on a depressed film and photo archivist whose husband, a Saxon, was assassinated as he was about to conduct a concert celebrating the Jewish state. His ghost haunts her as she works on a film about the state’s formation: What does he want? What should she do? Her activities illuminate the conflicts within the state, and between individuals, but the illumination is tense and fragmentary. Altogether, an interesting novel, though a challenging one for those whose knowledge of postwar European history is scant.
Judenstaat – the name is borrowed from a pre-war tract by Herzl – would have been carved from East Germany, including the cities of Leipzig and Dresden. Most of the indigenous German population would be forced to flee, as actually happened in Poland and other eastern European countries. The remaining Saxons, carefully vetted, would become a minority, and their churches would either be left in postwar ruins or destroyed (Zelitch isn’t clear about this). A wall is built along the German border to keep out invaders and terrorists. Judenstaat might have had a few years of flourishing intellectual discourse before Stalin’s heavy hand was felt, as it was throughout eastern Europe. The Yiddish language would be banned for use in the media, to the intense displeasure of Hassidic Jews from Russia. And Western influence would be cut off for decades. In 1968, the Russians force the Jews to participate in the invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Doesn’t sound very attractive, does it?
Zelitch’s story, set forty years after the foundation of Judenstaat, focuses on a depressed film and photo archivist whose husband, a Saxon, was assassinated as he was about to conduct a concert celebrating the Jewish state. His ghost haunts her as she works on a film about the state’s formation: What does he want? What should she do? Her activities illuminate the conflicts within the state, and between individuals, but the illumination is tense and fragmentary. Altogether, an interesting novel, though a challenging one for those whose knowledge of postwar European history is scant.
January 14, 2019
Librarian: Alternate history is a hard area of fiction to quantify. It's a part of Science Fiction, but a lot of the people who most enjoy it are primarily readers of historical fiction. This makes sense when you think about it, but it does make it slightly harder to make sure that it ends up in the hands of readers. This one may be even harder than some others, given that, well a fascinating concept, the book itself is slightly odd. Not unenjoyable, just oddly written. Honestly the writing style feels more like Literary Fiction than Historical Fiction or Science Fiction. That makes it even harder to make sure it gets into the hands of the right readers. It's still worth considering for inclusion on your shelves, as it undoubtedly has a fascinating premise, just know that the circ stats on it might not be as high as you'd like.
Reader: I have a deep love for all things alternate history. Many of the books in my personal library fit in that genre, and it's one that I generally read in at least once a month, if not more frequently. So I was excited to read Judenstaat. The What if? question that drives this book's plot is one that I find highly intriguing.
As for the book itself, I found it interesting, but definitely a bit strange. The plot is good, but the writing occasionally feels a bit stilted,
Reading Challenge: 52 Week - Week #2: A Book By an Author You've Never Read Before
Reader: I have a deep love for all things alternate history. Many of the books in my personal library fit in that genre, and it's one that I generally read in at least once a month, if not more frequently. So I was excited to read Judenstaat. The What if? question that drives this book's plot is one that I find highly intriguing.
As for the book itself, I found it interesting, but definitely a bit strange. The plot is good, but the writing occasionally feels a bit stilted,
Reading Challenge: 52 Week - Week #2: A Book By an Author You've Never Read Before
January 2, 2022
This is actually not historical fiction, rather "alternative history." After World War II, the Allies set up a Jewish state not in Palestine, but in what was formerly Saxony – that part of eastern Germany that bordered on then-Czechoslovakia and Poland. The "Saxons" (German residents) mostly migrated westward into Germany, & Jews from all over Europe migrated to the new Judenstaat. The new state built on the strong historical connection between Jewish & German culture; in fact, the official language of Judenstaat is German. It's a fascinating & daring concept, which is why I finished reading this novel, even though I thought the book was deeply flawed. For one thing, the author writes very "allusively," in that she alludes to much of the politics & sociology of the new nation without really making those aspects clear. And there are other flaws. In places the writing is simply obscure. And the connection between the protagonist (Judit, a historian who, 40 years later, is making documentaries about Judenstaat) & the ghost of her murdered husband – what's that all about? As I said, I did finish the book, but I would recommend it to someone else only if they had lot of patience & perhaps a particular interest in Germany culture & history.
March 15, 2021
"...if you let go of ideology, then what is history but a lot of random information, informed by nothing."
I wanted to really like this book, and to a degree I did but I was left unsatisfied. In this alternate history a post war Jewish State has been founded in Saxony. Onto this state the author has pasted some familiar and some unfamiliar history. There are walls, borders and conflicts but not quite as we knew them. In a historically different "Israel" familiar and unfamiliar forces are at play. This is played out through the eyes of Judit, a historian and archivist trying to create a film documentary about the state's foundation and development. Her own life is intimately wound up in the conflicts and struggles for a history which unfolds, for me not that clearly, across the pages. There is a lot which seems to be left unsaid or unexplained, or at least not explained clearly or in a way the reader could feel they aren't missing something.
This is perhaps a book worth making notes and maps as I read again at some point and hopefully I won't feel quite as lost and confused by the end of it. Worth reading, but worth reading carefully.
I wanted to really like this book, and to a degree I did but I was left unsatisfied. In this alternate history a post war Jewish State has been founded in Saxony. Onto this state the author has pasted some familiar and some unfamiliar history. There are walls, borders and conflicts but not quite as we knew them. In a historically different "Israel" familiar and unfamiliar forces are at play. This is played out through the eyes of Judit, a historian and archivist trying to create a film documentary about the state's foundation and development. Her own life is intimately wound up in the conflicts and struggles for a history which unfolds, for me not that clearly, across the pages. There is a lot which seems to be left unsaid or unexplained, or at least not explained clearly or in a way the reader could feel they aren't missing something.
This is perhaps a book worth making notes and maps as I read again at some point and hopefully I won't feel quite as lost and confused by the end of it. Worth reading, but worth reading carefully.
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