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The Gospel According to Wanda B. Lazarus
What if … the Wandering Jew … was a woman? And not just any woman; a sexually charged, foul-mouthed, free-wheeling muso, who strides through the ages at the behest of the muses of antiquity, in her quest to become the tenth muse.
Accidentally cursed with immortality, Wanda has no choice but to keep moving. Each new locale of her serial reincarnations is wittily and vividly rendered. And Wanda gets around – from Jerusalem in the time of Jesus (who is actually Wanda’s buddy Yossi) to Palmyra, Langue D’Oc to Londinium, New York to Norway – and many places in between. In each she manages to insinuate herself into events that may or may not change the course of history.
During her many journeys around the globe Wanda takes time out to return several times to an in-between world called the Pleroma, where she chills with the diffident Nine Muses of Antiquity, hoping against hope that they will allow her to become the Tenth Muse if she fulfills the increasingly impossible tasks they set her to prove her musical worth.
Wanda speaks to us in a voice spiced with Yiddishisms, mostly about sex, adventure and music, and it is the force of her character that holds the novel together across the dizzying array of historical settings she traverses. Despite the emphasis on laughter and satire of a particularly impudent variety, the inspiration behind this novel is a serious one: to re-imagine the ancient mythological figure of the Wandering Jew as a female, or Picara, and in exploring her life as an eternal wanderer, also revision Jewish history and mythology from her perspective.
Accidentally cursed with immortality, Wanda has no choice but to keep moving. Each new locale of her serial reincarnations is wittily and vividly rendered. And Wanda gets around – from Jerusalem in the time of Jesus (who is actually Wanda’s buddy Yossi) to Palmyra, Langue D’Oc to Londinium, New York to Norway – and many places in between. In each she manages to insinuate herself into events that may or may not change the course of history.
During her many journeys around the globe Wanda takes time out to return several times to an in-between world called the Pleroma, where she chills with the diffident Nine Muses of Antiquity, hoping against hope that they will allow her to become the Tenth Muse if she fulfills the increasingly impossible tasks they set her to prove her musical worth.
Wanda speaks to us in a voice spiced with Yiddishisms, mostly about sex, adventure and music, and it is the force of her character that holds the novel together across the dizzying array of historical settings she traverses. Despite the emphasis on laughter and satire of a particularly impudent variety, the inspiration behind this novel is a serious one: to re-imagine the ancient mythological figure of the Wandering Jew as a female, or Picara, and in exploring her life as an eternal wanderer, also revision Jewish history and mythology from her perspective.
420 pages, Paperback
Published October 1, 2020
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63 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 19, 2021
I'm going to abbreviate the title as Gospel within this review.
Reaction: Loved it. I've read many books lately that I've really enjoyed but none have provided the sheer exuberant fun of Wanda. It isn't available outside of South Africa (as of my most recent search) and that is a crime against readers. I hope an international publisher picks it up soon.
Synopsis: Gospel begins in 33 CE where a series of misadventures finds our titular protagonist's passion for music fired by a Roman lover and inadvertently offending Jesus who tells her she will remain on earth until he returns. To be fair to Wanda, her actions toward Jesus were well intentioned.
Wanda overdoses herself on nard (spikenard/muskroot) but instead of eternal death she finds herself in the realm of the nine muses which she learned about from her lover. She declares that she wants to join them as the tenth muse. Wanda is pretty insistent and the muses decided to get rid of her by giving her a task, delivered in the form of a cryptic poem, that she has to accomplish to be considered for acceptance as a muse.
This launches Wanda into the first of her reincarnations that will take her around the world from Palmyra in 272 CE to Norway in 2020 CE. Each time she dies and returns to the muses, she is told that she fell short in the successful completion of her task and is sent off again with another 'what does this even mean' poem to figure out.
What I Liked: Lynn is a master story teller with a wonderful way of imagining events. I am astonished at what she was able to pack into this book. Nothing is forced, padded, or an infodump. Wanda is the perfect character to react to historical events throughout history. She's funny, resilient, randy, bawdy (also vulgar and raunchy), sexy, and an assertive feminist. On the first page Wanda says about the events in 33 CE, 'The disciples remember it differently, but they were always going to write their own version anyway. I was there. I saw it all.' This is pretty much what happens through all Wanda's incarnations and you can see from the beginning that she doesn't care for the status of women.
Let's mention something about the muses first. They are a hoot and not what you would imagine from Greek mythology. They are squabbling — and a little flaky —sisters with a somewhat dysfunctional family dynamic. Their big brother Apollo calls the hots and isn't above forbidding them to exercise their talents. This is a situations that offends Wanda who has no patience for the patriarchy. I think she'd lead a Lucifer style revolt against Apollo if she could. It's fun the way Lynn gives personalities to each muse based on the areas over which each has influence.
Wanda is telling the story of her past lives and she does so with a liberal use of Yiddish, word play, puns, and putting modern vernacular in the mouths of historical figures. I mentioned above that Wanda is a bit vulgar and the way she uses apricots, peaches, and pomegranates for body parts will forever color the way I see those fruits.
This isn't a criticism, but I found I needed to look up a lot of words and historical events. Ok, I looked up some things but rolled with the context for most of the book otherwise I'd have had to stop every few minutes for a web search. This was in no way an impediment to the fun I had reading this book. I learned the word to describe the hairs standing on your body — horripilate — and a lot about stringed instruments such as the phorminx. There is a lot of music theory that mostly went over my head but was a necessary part of the story but I rather appreciated since I've been trying to learn more about notes and chord and musical forms. Gospel calls out for a reread and I'll spend more time looking stuff up the next time.
Speaking of events, Lynn deftly inserts Wanda into historical events where she steers the outcome but, naturally, without any credit. I think my favorite incarnation was when Wanda found herself in Petrograd in 1916 with Rasputin. Perhaps that was because I knew more about that part of history or the really neat twist the author puts on it.
The Gospel According to Wanda B. Lazarus is an expansive and epic journey—and romp— through history with one of the most enjoyable characters I've encountered in a while. Highly recommended and Lynn is firmly on my 'can't wait for her next book' list.
Reaction: Loved it. I've read many books lately that I've really enjoyed but none have provided the sheer exuberant fun of Wanda. It isn't available outside of South Africa (as of my most recent search) and that is a crime against readers. I hope an international publisher picks it up soon.
Synopsis: Gospel begins in 33 CE where a series of misadventures finds our titular protagonist's passion for music fired by a Roman lover and inadvertently offending Jesus who tells her she will remain on earth until he returns. To be fair to Wanda, her actions toward Jesus were well intentioned.
Wanda overdoses herself on nard (spikenard/muskroot) but instead of eternal death she finds herself in the realm of the nine muses which she learned about from her lover. She declares that she wants to join them as the tenth muse. Wanda is pretty insistent and the muses decided to get rid of her by giving her a task, delivered in the form of a cryptic poem, that she has to accomplish to be considered for acceptance as a muse.
This launches Wanda into the first of her reincarnations that will take her around the world from Palmyra in 272 CE to Norway in 2020 CE. Each time she dies and returns to the muses, she is told that she fell short in the successful completion of her task and is sent off again with another 'what does this even mean' poem to figure out.
What I Liked: Lynn is a master story teller with a wonderful way of imagining events. I am astonished at what she was able to pack into this book. Nothing is forced, padded, or an infodump. Wanda is the perfect character to react to historical events throughout history. She's funny, resilient, randy, bawdy (also vulgar and raunchy), sexy, and an assertive feminist. On the first page Wanda says about the events in 33 CE, 'The disciples remember it differently, but they were always going to write their own version anyway. I was there. I saw it all.' This is pretty much what happens through all Wanda's incarnations and you can see from the beginning that she doesn't care for the status of women.
Let's mention something about the muses first. They are a hoot and not what you would imagine from Greek mythology. They are squabbling — and a little flaky —sisters with a somewhat dysfunctional family dynamic. Their big brother Apollo calls the hots and isn't above forbidding them to exercise their talents. This is a situations that offends Wanda who has no patience for the patriarchy. I think she'd lead a Lucifer style revolt against Apollo if she could. It's fun the way Lynn gives personalities to each muse based on the areas over which each has influence.
Wanda is telling the story of her past lives and she does so with a liberal use of Yiddish, word play, puns, and putting modern vernacular in the mouths of historical figures. I mentioned above that Wanda is a bit vulgar and the way she uses apricots, peaches, and pomegranates for body parts will forever color the way I see those fruits.
This isn't a criticism, but I found I needed to look up a lot of words and historical events. Ok, I looked up some things but rolled with the context for most of the book otherwise I'd have had to stop every few minutes for a web search. This was in no way an impediment to the fun I had reading this book. I learned the word to describe the hairs standing on your body — horripilate — and a lot about stringed instruments such as the phorminx. There is a lot of music theory that mostly went over my head but was a necessary part of the story but I rather appreciated since I've been trying to learn more about notes and chord and musical forms. Gospel calls out for a reread and I'll spend more time looking stuff up the next time.
Speaking of events, Lynn deftly inserts Wanda into historical events where she steers the outcome but, naturally, without any credit. I think my favorite incarnation was when Wanda found herself in Petrograd in 1916 with Rasputin. Perhaps that was because I knew more about that part of history or the really neat twist the author puts on it.
The Gospel According to Wanda B. Lazarus is an expansive and epic journey—and romp— through history with one of the most enjoyable characters I've encountered in a while. Highly recommended and Lynn is firmly on my 'can't wait for her next book' list.
December 20, 2020
This is a unique tale that spans different lifetimes across eras. It’s got a lot of feminist, Yiddish and musical references. Definitely not the usual and highly humorous.
December 12, 2020
From Woman Zone Book Club review: Hold on to you britches b*tches, Wanda is about to take you on a wild ride! Wanda - an accidentally immortal being - is a heroine for our times (and in fact, all times). She is wicked, foul-mouthed, funny, kind hearted and occasionally criminal. In other words, flawed but irresistible.
On the surface of it author Lynn Joffe has created an energetic and entertaining tale that spans centuries and even other dimensions as we follow in Wanda’s footsteps. But make no mistake, this is also a serious business. Joffe has experimented with the form of the picaresque novel, turned the anti-Semitic trope of the Wandering Jew inside out and upside down and offered a tart-tongued feminist retort to the ways that history has curtailed womens’ choices. More than anything else though, Wanda is great fun and I dare you to be anything other than riveted as she shimmies, sashays and blasphemes her way through history, all while auditioning for the role of her many lifetimes.
On the surface of it author Lynn Joffe has created an energetic and entertaining tale that spans centuries and even other dimensions as we follow in Wanda’s footsteps. But make no mistake, this is also a serious business. Joffe has experimented with the form of the picaresque novel, turned the anti-Semitic trope of the Wandering Jew inside out and upside down and offered a tart-tongued feminist retort to the ways that history has curtailed womens’ choices. More than anything else though, Wanda is great fun and I dare you to be anything other than riveted as she shimmies, sashays and blasphemes her way through history, all while auditioning for the role of her many lifetimes.
July 16, 2021
One of the most original books I’ve read, Joffe has an incredibly unique voice, which makes for a hilarious, engrossing, page turner. Lots of different, well-developed characters, who I would love to spend more time with. I look forward to reading more by Lynn Joffe. Thumbs up.
August 11, 2021
Unique and hugely entertaining, bursting with energy. What an adventure, accompanying Wanda B. through her many lives in her quest to become the tenth muse. Quick-thinking and passionate, she’s enterprising, she’s sexy, she’s a feminist, and she’s witty and warm.
And the music, oh the music!
I’m missing you already, Wanda B.
And the music, oh the music!
I’m missing you already, Wanda B.
July 8, 2021
The Gospel According to Wanda B Lazarus.
Debut novel by Lynn Joffe.
My first thought when tackling this novel was that readers needed a sort of Tribe-of-Hebrew survival kit, containing (but not limited to) a glossary of Yiddish terminology; an understanding of the natural sense of guilt that Jews allegedly possess (I don't ... I'm ashamed to say); and a knowledge of Judaica – all of which Joffe has in abundance.
My second thought was, don't be ridiculous ... just enjoy the wildly funny, extraordinarily literate journey that the meshuggeneh, Joffele, has in plentiful supply. And you need to "get" the concept of the Wandering Jew – who is, for your edification, a not-very-nice Yiddische boy who taunted Jesus as he made his way up the hill to be crucified. The myth of this man who was doomed to immortality and having to schlepp around the planet ad infinitum until the second coming, assumed (in the 13th century) that the taunter was automatically a man.
Nonsense, Joffe proposes: Girlchicks are clearly historically bitchier than men, so why shouldn’t the Wandering Jew be a woman?
In short, under the blanket of yiddishkeit of the novel, lies a powerful feminist message.
To provide a blow-by-blow of this extremely clever work would ultimately defuse many of the book’s fireworks. Suffice it to say, Wanda’s wandering take our dauntless hero(ine) through the ages, with multiple deaths – including my own personal favourite: “Even Mel would have had difficulty with those. The fact that I was escaping his clutches seemed to incense the boychick further. He caught the hem of my cape with a knobbly boot, and with the skill of a butcher, stabbed me in the kishkes with a carving knife.”
Wanda touches elbows (so to speak) with some of history’s great characters, to most of whom she appends fun abbreviated nicknames. Razzie? Find him if you dare.
The author has one foot in London and the other in Sarfefrica: in Chapter VIII, Londinium Calling, Wanda finds herself in the UK in 1842 … and therein lies much of what I perceive as a mirror of Joffe’s own life journey. Indeed, there are so many aspects of this book (including, ahem, getting groped in pre-Jesus Palestine by a seriously dirty old man while her camel watches on) that smacks of an autobiographical catharsis. The giveaway is of course Lynn Joffe’s very strong ties to another community – people who make music, which Joffe does extraordinarily well.
She does extraordinarily well in the words department too: The Gospel According to Wanda B. Lazarus is something anyone who loves good reading should hope like hell finds its way into a Christmas stocking, or hiding alongside the matzos next Pesach. Or Eid. Or Diwali.
Hell, we’re all mentsches of one sort or another, aren’t we?
Debut novel by Lynn Joffe.
My first thought when tackling this novel was that readers needed a sort of Tribe-of-Hebrew survival kit, containing (but not limited to) a glossary of Yiddish terminology; an understanding of the natural sense of guilt that Jews allegedly possess (I don't ... I'm ashamed to say); and a knowledge of Judaica – all of which Joffe has in abundance.
My second thought was, don't be ridiculous ... just enjoy the wildly funny, extraordinarily literate journey that the meshuggeneh, Joffele, has in plentiful supply. And you need to "get" the concept of the Wandering Jew – who is, for your edification, a not-very-nice Yiddische boy who taunted Jesus as he made his way up the hill to be crucified. The myth of this man who was doomed to immortality and having to schlepp around the planet ad infinitum until the second coming, assumed (in the 13th century) that the taunter was automatically a man.
Nonsense, Joffe proposes: Girlchicks are clearly historically bitchier than men, so why shouldn’t the Wandering Jew be a woman?
In short, under the blanket of yiddishkeit of the novel, lies a powerful feminist message.
To provide a blow-by-blow of this extremely clever work would ultimately defuse many of the book’s fireworks. Suffice it to say, Wanda’s wandering take our dauntless hero(ine) through the ages, with multiple deaths – including my own personal favourite: “Even Mel would have had difficulty with those. The fact that I was escaping his clutches seemed to incense the boychick further. He caught the hem of my cape with a knobbly boot, and with the skill of a butcher, stabbed me in the kishkes with a carving knife.”
Wanda touches elbows (so to speak) with some of history’s great characters, to most of whom she appends fun abbreviated nicknames. Razzie? Find him if you dare.
The author has one foot in London and the other in Sarfefrica: in Chapter VIII, Londinium Calling, Wanda finds herself in the UK in 1842 … and therein lies much of what I perceive as a mirror of Joffe’s own life journey. Indeed, there are so many aspects of this book (including, ahem, getting groped in pre-Jesus Palestine by a seriously dirty old man while her camel watches on) that smacks of an autobiographical catharsis. The giveaway is of course Lynn Joffe’s very strong ties to another community – people who make music, which Joffe does extraordinarily well.
She does extraordinarily well in the words department too: The Gospel According to Wanda B. Lazarus is something anyone who loves good reading should hope like hell finds its way into a Christmas stocking, or hiding alongside the matzos next Pesach. Or Eid. Or Diwali.
Hell, we’re all mentsches of one sort or another, aren’t we?
Read
December 2, 2020~'But Rov, it is said that you are the Messiah," said the shepherd.
'I've never claimed that,' Yossi said.
'You've ridden a donkey. You were born in Bethlehem.'
'That's all pretty circumstantial.'~
~There are many who might recommend it, but a water birth isn't for everyone.~
~'I actually missed out on this Bat Mitzvah thing. They only gave them to boychiks in my home town.'
'Are you a virgin?' she asked.
'Say what? That's a bit of a personal question.'~
~I surfed the singing sands to the shore of a Clearwater lake shaped like a new moon, slap-bang in the middle of nowhere.~
~Did you know that haemorrhoids were the third greatest cause of death to Yiddles from the Middle Ages right up to the Enlightenment?~
~Poor Solly, he really was besotted with Roxy. He started dreaming in iambic pentameter, a trying task at the best of times.~
~Apart from her unfortunate looks, her introverted temperament, and a tendency to birth babies who died in infancy, Antonia had everything going for her.~
~The reason the Victorians didn't know the difference between art and pornography was that they were not exposed to much of either.~
'I've never claimed that,' Yossi said.
'You've ridden a donkey. You were born in Bethlehem.'
'That's all pretty circumstantial.'~
~There are many who might recommend it, but a water birth isn't for everyone.~
~'I actually missed out on this Bat Mitzvah thing. They only gave them to boychiks in my home town.'
'Are you a virgin?' she asked.
'Say what? That's a bit of a personal question.'~
~I surfed the singing sands to the shore of a Clearwater lake shaped like a new moon, slap-bang in the middle of nowhere.~
~Did you know that haemorrhoids were the third greatest cause of death to Yiddles from the Middle Ages right up to the Enlightenment?~
~Poor Solly, he really was besotted with Roxy. He started dreaming in iambic pentameter, a trying task at the best of times.~
~Apart from her unfortunate looks, her introverted temperament, and a tendency to birth babies who died in infancy, Antonia had everything going for her.~
~The reason the Victorians didn't know the difference between art and pornography was that they were not exposed to much of either.~
February 22, 2021
"'Wait a secunda,' I say. 'Afterlife? Are you telling me I snuffed it? Am I dead?'
'Not dead,' says Thalis, adjusting her hat. 'Think of it more like an everlasting dream.'
'Where the fig am I?'
'We call it Pleroma,' says Calliope, 'although there are many more terms you can use. Limbo. Sheol. Dreamtime. Your own wishful thinking.'"
'Not dead,' says Thalis, adjusting her hat. 'Think of it more like an everlasting dream.'
'Where the fig am I?'
'We call it Pleroma,' says Calliope, 'although there are many more terms you can use. Limbo. Sheol. Dreamtime. Your own wishful thinking.'"
Wanda B Lazarus is a bit wild, a freethinker with a penchant for string instruments and a sense of humour to boot, something that isn't widely appreciated in Iudaea in 33CE, round about the time of Jesus' crucifixion. The story is a feminist take on the Myth of the Wandering Jew, which condemns the man who refused to give Jesus water. In this book, it's Wanda who inadvertently doesn't give Jesus water, and so, is accidentally cursed with wandering the earth through the ages.
When Wanda 'dies' the first time, she lands up in the place where the nine muses of Greek mythology live. She desperately wants to become one and so the others, whom the author describes as a bunch of 'mean girls', give her a series of near-impossible tasks she needs to complete. Surprisingly, Wanda proves quite adept at taking care of herself and of almost unintentionally finishing her missions.
Wanda is fun and fiercely funny and completely lovable. This book takes mythology and turns it on its head. This book is a witty satire full of adventure. A real romp of a read. For example, Wanda strums Swing low, Sweet Camel Cart while she and her mistress, Zenobia queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria 273 CE, are on "the same papyrus".
Don't believe me about how good it is? Ask Stephen Fry who called it "Just what the world needs now - a novel charged with music, energy, bounce, juice and joy."
January 24, 2021
I read an early version of this hilarious novel and am so pleased to see that it has found its wings. Wonderful, crazy, off the wall, totally irreverent, Joffe skewers more sacred cows than a kufta kabob stand. This book has gotten love from none other than Stephen Fry, who says you can "draw a line through The Odyssey, The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, Don Quixote, Gargantua, the Flying Dutchman and The Confederacy of Dunces, sprinkle all over with good kosher salt and you only scratch the surface of this big, bountiful novel". If it's good enough for Fry, it's good enough for me.
April 18, 2021
One of the best novels that I have ever read. A masterpiece!
December 31, 2020
Oh boy! Wait, that should read: "Oh boychik"! I have just finished The Gospel According to Wanda B Lazarus, by South African author Lynn Joffe. What a wild, wild ride! A picaresque romp really: ribald, risqué, irreverent, riveting, ROTHFLMAO even: what you would call a rollicking good read(alliteration intended!). We meet Wanda B slap bang in the biblical story of the crucifixion of Jesus, or Rov Yossi, whom she adores but cannot change the fate that awaits him. Her brother Lazzie(yes, THAT Lazarus) had just succumbed to a nasty epileptic fit and Wanda had ridden off on a camel to find means to save him, but she lands up dead from the very meds she had come to find. I had to look it up: ‘nard,(spikenard) which is referred to throughout the story: a wonder drug she carries a little of throughout her 9 incarnations into present day 2020. Her first death brings her into the realms of the gods, the Pleroma, where she meets the 9 muses and convinces them to let her have a shot at becoming the tenth muse. They send her back to earth 9 times, with a mission in the shape of an incantation by each of them in turn: to find and bring back an object with musical significance. Yes, she dies at the end of each chapter, which covers a different historical era each, and returns to the Pleroma each time, dead from an array of highly imaginative and hilarious happenings, but completes her muse-made mission with flair and panache. If ever there was a book to read with a highlighter in hand, it is this one. Each page offers rich pickings of lines, sayings, even song references which had me laugh out loud and shake my head at the brilliance of the mind that created them. There is a lot of well researched history packed into this novel. There’s a lot of sex. There’s a lot of music. There’s a lot of heart. There’s a lot of Yiddish. Wanda wanders and weaves her way through major historical events and bumps up and into (and sometimes takes the place of) people whom you will recognise, amongst whom Shéhérazade, Stradivarius, Mendelsohn, Rasputin, Bird aka Charlie Parker, and many others. Her name takes on the inflections of the place she finds herself in: Wandarova Lazarovska when she's in Russia, for instance. She swaggers and seduces her way through history with a quirky combination of beitzim and braggadocio, and yet her story is, at the core, that of the Feminine principle: of connection, creativity, truth, beauty, love, birth, death, intuition, authenticity; unbound by convention and gender roles, uninhibited by the mores of time and place. This book is not for the faint-hearted and delicate of disposition. It’s an in-your face challenge of many a holy cow. And yet, in the end, a triumphant song of songs: finding within herself her own divine truth, mortal yet timeless. Wanda B will stay with me forever. In fact, I “tumbled cranium over calcaneus” with her. Read this, for edification. For education(I looked up many historical places). For fun. For utter delight, in these dark and troubled times. A clever clever book. Henceforth I will call a guitar a Kithara. I will never look at a pomegranate in the same way again, and neither will you. Brava Lynn
July 7, 2021
The Gospel according to Wanda B Lazarus
by Lynn Joffe
Unforgettable Wanda B Lazarus, the immortal female wandering Jew, takes us on a mind bogglingly hilarious romp through history, which I for one will never forget!
In Wanda, Lynn Joffe has created an irreverent, satirical character, who seduced me into all her incredible lives. The forceful, sexually charged muso not only drives the story, she is the story. She is a serial re-incarnator and immerses the readers in her fantastical births, spectacular deaths and her time outs in the realm of Pleroma, where the nine muses reside.
So what exactly is Wanda’s mission? If she can fulfil the impossible tasks set by the muses, she’ll be granted the status of 10th muse…
As much as this novel is about a wild, ‘nard using heroine, it is also about re-imagining Jewish history from a female’s perspective. Joffe takes on the treatment of women over the ages and challenges every holy cow imaginable.
I cringed at times and laughed out loud at others. The author’s imagination is outrageous and her use of language is nothing short of magnificent. She makes her incredible research flow seamlessly into the narrative and almost fooled me that it was easy to do.
Lynn Joffe has burst onto the literary scene and I have no doubt in my mind that she’ll be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come.
Encore!
P S a note of warning… if you have a prudish streak, prepare to suspend it while you tuck into this delightful tale.
Review - Gail Gilbride
by Lynn Joffe
Unforgettable Wanda B Lazarus, the immortal female wandering Jew, takes us on a mind bogglingly hilarious romp through history, which I for one will never forget!
In Wanda, Lynn Joffe has created an irreverent, satirical character, who seduced me into all her incredible lives. The forceful, sexually charged muso not only drives the story, she is the story. She is a serial re-incarnator and immerses the readers in her fantastical births, spectacular deaths and her time outs in the realm of Pleroma, where the nine muses reside.
So what exactly is Wanda’s mission? If she can fulfil the impossible tasks set by the muses, she’ll be granted the status of 10th muse…
As much as this novel is about a wild, ‘nard using heroine, it is also about re-imagining Jewish history from a female’s perspective. Joffe takes on the treatment of women over the ages and challenges every holy cow imaginable.
I cringed at times and laughed out loud at others. The author’s imagination is outrageous and her use of language is nothing short of magnificent. She makes her incredible research flow seamlessly into the narrative and almost fooled me that it was easy to do.
Lynn Joffe has burst onto the literary scene and I have no doubt in my mind that she’ll be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come.
Encore!
P S a note of warning… if you have a prudish streak, prepare to suspend it while you tuck into this delightful tale.
Review - Gail Gilbride
August 19, 2021
The artwork on the cover of the book shows Wanda with her mouth covered, depicting a silent woman. Wanda is never silent throughout this tantalising tale. She has much to say as she explores worlds, dying as she leaves one, reborn in the next, as she travels through time - 20 centuries to be exact - and space. She is set impossible tasks by nine capricious Muses of Greek mythology and lands herself in great difficulties all the time. She confronts the same sorts of trials and tribulations that women to this day do too and with wit, ingenuity, imagination, cunning and sheer grit overcoming all. A feminist to her core. Though the times and places are different, there is a universality of the dynamic which is contemporary. I’m reminded of Ariadne’s Thread, and the story of Psyche and Amor facing impossible tasks set by apparent adversaries.
I loved this book so much. Every page and chapter was this reader’s delight. I am in awe of the author’s seemingly effortless prose as this tale was spun while Wanda goes in search of her beloved instrument. When a book evokes images of landscape and feeling in me, I am more than satisfied. It was very funny, the turn of phrases so clever and telling, the adventures thrilling, the relationships challenging.
The author is a Master story teller (make that Mistress of Story Telling), and this reader is left wanting more from her pen. Hopefully it will be picked up by an international publisher.
The book would make a great gift for a lover of writing. I’ve ordered several for that very purpose.
I loved this book so much. Every page and chapter was this reader’s delight. I am in awe of the author’s seemingly effortless prose as this tale was spun while Wanda goes in search of her beloved instrument. When a book evokes images of landscape and feeling in me, I am more than satisfied. It was very funny, the turn of phrases so clever and telling, the adventures thrilling, the relationships challenging.
The author is a Master story teller (make that Mistress of Story Telling), and this reader is left wanting more from her pen. Hopefully it will be picked up by an international publisher.
The book would make a great gift for a lover of writing. I’ve ordered several for that very purpose.
June 26, 2021
Wanda B Lazarus is the irrepressible heroine of the ages through which she travels in this marvellous series of stories. The book starts in Jerusalem in the year 33 CE, but we come to realise as we read that Wanda was around long before this, as we are drawn into her exploits from then up until the present day. As I finished the book, I thought ‘a luta continua, Wanda’ or even more so ‘la vita continua, you go girl!’. Because it’s hopeful and despite pain and tragedy, I very much wanted, as Wanda did, the music of life to go on.
Wanda’s love of life and all its sensual delights mean that she experiences the full extent of life’s pleasures and pain repeatedly, to the point of death in every age. She is a singular feminist, and her desires draw sexist entitlement responses from men in every country and age that she visits, from rabbis to yogis, musicians to sultans. Her journey throughout is to find her own place in this misogynist world, and she does so in an uplifting ending to the book, leaving us wanting to follow her on her next adventure.
Joffe’s play with language is clever and funny throughout, mixing huge dollops of Yiddish with words and phrases from the places that Wanda visits. Clichés are adroitly turned into something new with a resonance of the familiar. At first I wanted to look up every word, but soon stopped and let the language flow, making meaning from the story. I’m sure it would be an even richer experience if I understood not only the words, but the nuances of the words and how they are used in common speech.
Wanda, like Joffe, is an accomplished musician. I loved the descriptions of making jazz music even though I don’t know enough to understand it – it’s wonderful to read such descriptions from someone who is enthusiastic and loves what they’re doing. There are lines from well known songs that are subtly adapted and stir some recognition, and then I’d get an earworm and realise what I had just read.
The cover illustration is perfect, sending me to Google again to learn about the Zeugma mosaics. I’m sure the artist had Wanda in mind. Reading Wanda at a time when travel was so restricted due to the coronavirus was a treat, as I vicariously experienced places and sights I’d never been to like Turkey or heard of like the Mogao caves in China, and experienced so much more of places I have been.
The story and writing are underpinned with rich history of the world for the last 2000 years and mythology that is even older. The depth of Joffe’s research is staggering, and is drawn together so beautifully by the story of Wanda’s wanderings that we have only the vigour of the writing to tell us what effort must have gone into it. I know that I missed many of the allusions and references – I know I’ll understand more on the second reading. This is a book which I will enjoy again. Even on the first reading, I took it in chapters with breaks, like a many course dinner delivered by a starred chef. And yet it can be read as Wanda might, as a gambolling adventure with a light touch.
So many adjectives come to mind as I reflect on my reading – the quirky, whimsical spirit of Wanda remains. It has been deservedly longlisted for the Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards 2021, South Africa’s top literary prize.
Wanda’s love of life and all its sensual delights mean that she experiences the full extent of life’s pleasures and pain repeatedly, to the point of death in every age. She is a singular feminist, and her desires draw sexist entitlement responses from men in every country and age that she visits, from rabbis to yogis, musicians to sultans. Her journey throughout is to find her own place in this misogynist world, and she does so in an uplifting ending to the book, leaving us wanting to follow her on her next adventure.
Joffe’s play with language is clever and funny throughout, mixing huge dollops of Yiddish with words and phrases from the places that Wanda visits. Clichés are adroitly turned into something new with a resonance of the familiar. At first I wanted to look up every word, but soon stopped and let the language flow, making meaning from the story. I’m sure it would be an even richer experience if I understood not only the words, but the nuances of the words and how they are used in common speech.
Wanda, like Joffe, is an accomplished musician. I loved the descriptions of making jazz music even though I don’t know enough to understand it – it’s wonderful to read such descriptions from someone who is enthusiastic and loves what they’re doing. There are lines from well known songs that are subtly adapted and stir some recognition, and then I’d get an earworm and realise what I had just read.
The cover illustration is perfect, sending me to Google again to learn about the Zeugma mosaics. I’m sure the artist had Wanda in mind. Reading Wanda at a time when travel was so restricted due to the coronavirus was a treat, as I vicariously experienced places and sights I’d never been to like Turkey or heard of like the Mogao caves in China, and experienced so much more of places I have been.
The story and writing are underpinned with rich history of the world for the last 2000 years and mythology that is even older. The depth of Joffe’s research is staggering, and is drawn together so beautifully by the story of Wanda’s wanderings that we have only the vigour of the writing to tell us what effort must have gone into it. I know that I missed many of the allusions and references – I know I’ll understand more on the second reading. This is a book which I will enjoy again. Even on the first reading, I took it in chapters with breaks, like a many course dinner delivered by a starred chef. And yet it can be read as Wanda might, as a gambolling adventure with a light touch.
So many adjectives come to mind as I reflect on my reading – the quirky, whimsical spirit of Wanda remains. It has been deservedly longlisted for the Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards 2021, South Africa’s top literary prize.
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