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The Golems of Gotham
Many years have passed since Oliver Levin -- a bestselling mystery writer and a lifetime sufferer from blocked emotions -- has given any thought to his parents, Holocaust survivors who committed suicide. But now, after years of uninterrupted literary output, Oliver Levin finds himself blocked as a writer, too. Oliver's fourteen-year-old daughter, Ariel, sets out to free her father from his demons by summoning the ghosts of his parents, but, along the way, the ghosts of Primo Levi, Jerzy Kosinski, and Paul Celan, among others, also materialize in this novel of moral philosophy and unforgettable enchantment.
384 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
January 13, 2011
This book, by far, is the best Holocaust fiction that I have read. It's very beautifully written, and often times I found myself lost in the intricate and stunning way in which the author describes humanity. It delves into so many different themes- abandonment, loss, love, family relationships, suicide, life beyond death, mysticism, genocide, and politics. I've read it three times now, and I am quite certain I'll find myself picking it up again one day.
One of my favorite quotes-
"When the people you love leave you, when they just disappear and you never hear from them again, something inside you goes away as well. It's a form of violence, as bad as any bruise. It's not right to call it a broken heart. The heart works just fine; it just doesn't want to. You become less of what you were. Not because of the pain, but because of what you have to do to protect yourself from it. You learn to cover up. You have to decide whether you should love anymore, whether it makes sense to feel all over again- the love, and the loss. Because maybe feelings of loss are stronger than feelings of love, eve at their best. I suppose some people are better off without love because they wouldn't survive if they had it and then suddenly it was taken away."
One of my favorite quotes-
"When the people you love leave you, when they just disappear and you never hear from them again, something inside you goes away as well. It's a form of violence, as bad as any bruise. It's not right to call it a broken heart. The heart works just fine; it just doesn't want to. You become less of what you were. Not because of the pain, but because of what you have to do to protect yourself from it. You learn to cover up. You have to decide whether you should love anymore, whether it makes sense to feel all over again- the love, and the loss. Because maybe feelings of loss are stronger than feelings of love, eve at their best. I suppose some people are better off without love because they wouldn't survive if they had it and then suddenly it was taken away."
April 29, 2012
This book is one of the most amazing books I have ever read. I believe it is the only novel that I have read for pleasure (in other words, not for a college course) that I wrote notes all over the margins and highlighted sentences and paragraphs. The words, the history, the humanity, and so much more male it a must read!
December 5, 2008
It seems weirdly sacreligious to call a book about kabbalah and the legacy of the Holocaust a page turner, but this one is. Problem is (maybe because Thane Rosenbaum's day job is a law professor), this book wants to explore lots of interesting questions about our post-Holocaust existence through the lens of Holocaust survivor writers who later committed suicide within the context of their fictional conversations...and it just comes off as forced/stilted. Kinda like Rosenbaum wanted to write a philosophical paper on the subject but then converted it into a novel instead. Which is too bad, because the whole thing is an intriguing enough concept that it's still hard to put down.
September 13, 2012
Outstanding. Way out of the ordinary.
An excellent insight into how tragedy affects generations despite human tenacity.
An excellent insight into how tragedy affects generations despite human tenacity.
June 3, 2020
Un excelente inicio, pero se vuelve un poco lento y difícil de leer por tantas cosas que la autora reflexiona a lo largo de la trama. Es admirable lo que quería hacer con este libro. Es un libro importante sólo por eso, pero debo admitir que me fue difícil terminarlo.
January 16, 2016
What can I say? I don’t know that I’ve ever read a more badly executed novel. The truth is, I have a difficult time even thinking of it as a novel. It strikes me as more of an amalgam of disjointed sketches, told from various points of view, and all in the service of Holocaust survivors and children of Holocaust survivors.
At the same time—and given the conceit of the novel—I found the author’s attempts at humor to be, at best, lame.
Furthermore, I found the super-abundance of “insider” details about NYC to be both show-offy and absurd. Very few of these details enhanced the story by one iota. Although I live in Brooklyn, I went to college on the Upper West Side—coincidentally, at the same school at which Thane Rosenbaum took his Master’s degree—and so, I believe I can speak with some authority on the matter.
Did I get the identity of the ghosts (golems) in this novel, in spite of the fact that they were identified only by their first names? Yes. They were all writers or scholars; all survivors of one concentration camp or another; and all victims of suicide years after the end of WWII. In no special order, they were: Piotr Paziński; Jerzy Kosinski; Primo Levi; Jean Améry; Paul (Antschel) Cesan; Tadeusz Barowski—and indirectly, Bruno Bettelheim (who did not commit suicide, but who wrote extensively about Holocaust survivors and “survivor guilt”).
I know nothing about Thane Rosenbaum’s professorship at NYC, nothing about his legal expertise, nothing about his role in several anti-defamation organizations. I do know, however, that he once suggested the murder of Palestinian children whose parents where supporters of Hamas.
Had I been a Creative Writing professor of Thane Rosenbaum early in his career, and had I seen this work at the time, I would’ve counseled him to pursue a different path. There are fundamental errors in judgment in The Golems of Gotham that suggest to me that Mr. Rosenbaum had no business pursuing this career in any shape or form—even if only as a side show to the rest of his pursuits.
By the way, I abandoned the novel on p. 147—which is roughly one hundred pages more than I give other novels whose intent, form or substance simply eludes me.
RRB
01/15/16
Brooklyn, NY
At the same time—and given the conceit of the novel—I found the author’s attempts at humor to be, at best, lame.
Furthermore, I found the super-abundance of “insider” details about NYC to be both show-offy and absurd. Very few of these details enhanced the story by one iota. Although I live in Brooklyn, I went to college on the Upper West Side—coincidentally, at the same school at which Thane Rosenbaum took his Master’s degree—and so, I believe I can speak with some authority on the matter.
Did I get the identity of the ghosts (golems) in this novel, in spite of the fact that they were identified only by their first names? Yes. They were all writers or scholars; all survivors of one concentration camp or another; and all victims of suicide years after the end of WWII. In no special order, they were: Piotr Paziński; Jerzy Kosinski; Primo Levi; Jean Améry; Paul (Antschel) Cesan; Tadeusz Barowski—and indirectly, Bruno Bettelheim (who did not commit suicide, but who wrote extensively about Holocaust survivors and “survivor guilt”).
I know nothing about Thane Rosenbaum’s professorship at NYC, nothing about his legal expertise, nothing about his role in several anti-defamation organizations. I do know, however, that he once suggested the murder of Palestinian children whose parents where supporters of Hamas.
Had I been a Creative Writing professor of Thane Rosenbaum early in his career, and had I seen this work at the time, I would’ve counseled him to pursue a different path. There are fundamental errors in judgment in The Golems of Gotham that suggest to me that Mr. Rosenbaum had no business pursuing this career in any shape or form—even if only as a side show to the rest of his pursuits.
By the way, I abandoned the novel on p. 147—which is roughly one hundred pages more than I give other novels whose intent, form or substance simply eludes me.
RRB
01/15/16
Brooklyn, NY
April 24, 2012
I seem to be on a "depressing mutlti-generational Jewish family affected by the Holocaust" spree. I loved the parts of this book that were about the protagonists: the depressed man who had been abandoned by his wife, and his young daughter, the klezmer violin prodigy. Their story was charming.
The part of the book I actually liked less was the story of the golems, the ghosts of Holocaust survivors who killed themselves. There was something like eight of them, and only three really had distinguishable personalities. They also had a lot of long, philosophical conversations about the deep meaning of the Holocaust and whether it is, in fact, possible to learn anything from it, to recover from it, to remember it properly, to be able to live after it. It's charming enough, and some of the points are very interesting, but parts of it also felt preachy.
Overall, though, I did like this book.
The part of the book I actually liked less was the story of the golems, the ghosts of Holocaust survivors who killed themselves. There was something like eight of them, and only three really had distinguishable personalities. They also had a lot of long, philosophical conversations about the deep meaning of the Holocaust and whether it is, in fact, possible to learn anything from it, to recover from it, to remember it properly, to be able to live after it. It's charming enough, and some of the points are very interesting, but parts of it also felt preachy.
Overall, though, I did like this book.
August 27, 2013
I can't....I'm giving up at about 75% of this book. It feels like a screed disguised as a novel. I don't mind depressing books, but the whole plot is wrapped around some kind of political, social and racial sermon. To the author's credit, he's a marvelous writer, and I love his descriptions. He overuses metaphors though...it gets annoying after a while.
March 25, 2016
A son of Holocaust survivors who have committed suicide manages to go through life without being haunted by the Shoah until his daughter conjures up some ghosts to confront his deep reality and knowledge. Beautifully written, images that shimmer, and then the deep question: how do we all live in the knowledge of the horror that humans have inflicted on others, particularly this horror?
October 6, 2007
I love this book. I read a few years ago. Just found it on the shelf and am now reading it again.
July 22, 2011
Don't fuck with the Jews. Don't.
July 19, 2013
The Golems of Gotham is about Oliver Levin, a mystery writer suffering from writer's block and his daughter, Ariel, an apparent musical prodigy of the klezmer violin although she has never played a day in her life. In an effort to help her father's block and to rescue him emotionally from his past baggage, Ariel uses Kabbalah magic to create golems. However, things go awry and instead she conjures the spirits of Jewish writers including Primo Levi, Jean Amery, Paul Celan, Piotr Rawicz, Jerzy Kosinski, and Tadeusz Borowski and also Oliver's parents, Lothar and Rose. The Golems are united by the fact that they all committed suicide after surviving the Holocaust.
Boy, was this book depressing! It took me forever to get through because of it. Every page I turned, I felt weighed down. When happiness did occur, it felt like a Pyrrhic Victory, it came at such a cost that I wonder was it worth it at the end? Thane Rosenbaum writes beautifully. I wanted to get lost in his prose.
He also expanded the scope because it was not all about the tragic history of the Levins; it discussed the Holocaust seriously even condemning Life is Beautiful as inappropriate. Rosenbaum showed how the Holocaust was the worst inhuman atrocity that can never be forgotten. It seeps into the blood and bones of all who were present. The Golems of Gotham is about humanity's need to forget and desensitizing of tragic events; of putting the past behind and trudging forward.
The only problem is that by ignoring the past, the present numbs causing the future to stifle. Rosenbaum argues the past, no matter how awful, has to be embraced but not all at once and not universally because that would be too much. I liked The Golems of Gotham but I felt it got a little too preachy at the end. This book cannot be dark and fantastical for 97% of it and try to throw genuine therapeutic happiness as its last 3%. Continue to ride that dark wave; drag me kicking and screaming into the shadows with no regrets!
Boy, was this book depressing! It took me forever to get through because of it. Every page I turned, I felt weighed down. When happiness did occur, it felt like a Pyrrhic Victory, it came at such a cost that I wonder was it worth it at the end? Thane Rosenbaum writes beautifully. I wanted to get lost in his prose.
He also expanded the scope because it was not all about the tragic history of the Levins; it discussed the Holocaust seriously even condemning Life is Beautiful as inappropriate. Rosenbaum showed how the Holocaust was the worst inhuman atrocity that can never be forgotten. It seeps into the blood and bones of all who were present. The Golems of Gotham is about humanity's need to forget and desensitizing of tragic events; of putting the past behind and trudging forward.
The only problem is that by ignoring the past, the present numbs causing the future to stifle. Rosenbaum argues the past, no matter how awful, has to be embraced but not all at once and not universally because that would be too much. I liked The Golems of Gotham but I felt it got a little too preachy at the end. This book cannot be dark and fantastical for 97% of it and try to throw genuine therapeutic happiness as its last 3%. Continue to ride that dark wave; drag me kicking and screaming into the shadows with no regrets!
February 10, 2016
I think I can sum up everything that is wrong with this book with the following quotation: "Simply because a wife moves away emotionally doesn't mean that one day she'll pick up and actually move away. Feelings can return, find their way back, restart and revive. The baby was still young, after all. Just turned two. Families don't break up so soon. Such severe, radical and final solutions take time to evolve. Even the Nazis took years to eliminate what they had decided they no longer wanted around." really - ?! I get that the holocaust looms large in this book, but it can't be related back to EVERYTHING. But the author tries - oh boy does he try - it just comes off as unnatural and pretentious.
It's all too preachy, too self-aware, too contrived. Every sentence makes some reference to the holocaust, to a Jewish writer of yesteryear...it's like some hellish name-dropping game where the author has to prove how well versed he is in Judaica or lose his credibility to write.
This author just seems to be seething with anger - at everything: that people are forgetting the holocaust, that people remember the holocaust, that people romanticize the ways of the shtetl, that we have lost them, that there are chimneys, that people get tattoos, that there is a tree lighting ceremony in Rockefeller Center. It got to the point that i am not sure what he's trying to say anymore. Whatever thesis he has just got lost in the miasma of anger. And then, after spewing all that confusion onto the page, he tries to rein it all in and give us some sort of heart-warming "and now you have learned your lesson and can be free" ending that comes out of nowhere and totally failed to warm my heart. I give this book a big MEH.
It's all too preachy, too self-aware, too contrived. Every sentence makes some reference to the holocaust, to a Jewish writer of yesteryear...it's like some hellish name-dropping game where the author has to prove how well versed he is in Judaica or lose his credibility to write.
This author just seems to be seething with anger - at everything: that people are forgetting the holocaust, that people remember the holocaust, that people romanticize the ways of the shtetl, that we have lost them, that there are chimneys, that people get tattoos, that there is a tree lighting ceremony in Rockefeller Center. It got to the point that i am not sure what he's trying to say anymore. Whatever thesis he has just got lost in the miasma of anger. And then, after spewing all that confusion onto the page, he tries to rein it all in and give us some sort of heart-warming "and now you have learned your lesson and can be free" ending that comes out of nowhere and totally failed to warm my heart. I give this book a big MEH.
January 24, 2014
Like many of the other reviews, I really enjoyed the premise of this book (10 Holocaust survivors who committed suicide return as golems) and couldn't wait to see what happened to the protagonists (modern day thriller writer Oliver and his 14 yr daughter who summoned the golems). 8 of the golems were real life authors who really were Holocaust survivors who committed suicide! At first, I was fascinated by the conversations the golems had about their life and their reasons for suicide but then I got tired of their endless psycho babble and musings on the meaning of the Holocaust and whether or not this generation is remembering/honoring it effectively/appropriately. It was just a little too depressing and too repetitive. Overall though, this is a welcome change to other Holocaust literature and made me think.
August 21, 2013
The writing held my attention, but the book felt almost aimless at times, like a fisherman casting here, there, and everywhere without knowing exactly what he wanted to catch. Several times, I thought the author actually hooked something, but then he never reeled it in, and there were times it seemed he just gave up and let the fish go. There were, however, a number of memorable moments in the book--some that made me laugh out loud because of their arch absurdity. And this is one of those books that contains just enough food for thought that it's worth reading for that alone.
August 13, 2014
Great premise, but much too philosophical for its own good. What is the best way to remember the Holocaust? Apparently, there isn't one. I really wanted more from the characters, more of their personalities and journey. Instead, I got a lot of criticizing of the newest generation: "they don't know how to live!", "they don't know how to honor the dead!" (which is probably true), "they need to remember", "they shouldn't obsess", "no one has suffered as much as the Jews".
January 20, 2009
I liked this book although it was a little too intense. The story revolves around a family whose life is in turmoil with grandparents who were in the Holocaust who commited suicide,to a mother of a young girl who ran away and then committed suicide. The little girl wants to save her father so she tries to create a Golem. Instead of a Golem she gets a big surprise...
April 23, 2012
Starts out great with an interesting premise, and then degrades miserably. You cannot stop the trains in NYC! Given two stars: one for the nearly credible use of a golem, and one for the reanimation of Jerzy Kosinski.
July 2, 2008
I really tried to stick this one out, but I found it both empty and pretentious.
October 7, 2011
Excellent characters and writing - very provocative!
August 17, 2017
Interesting start/premise of a novel, but disappointing/lazy narrative. Really wanted to like...
March 26, 2008
Had potential to be really great, but fell just short of that.
April 23, 2021
This book wasn't successful, but it does make an interesting failure.
Oliver Levin, successful mystery writer, has hit writer's block hard. His daughter Ariel blames that on his accumulating suffering — his Holocaust-survivor parents killed themselves before she was born, Mom walked out a decade ago — and tries to create a golem animated by her grandparents' souls. Instead they come back as ghosts, along with Primo Levy, Jerzy Kozinsky and a couple of other writers (all Holocaust survivors and suicides).
What follows is an awkward mix of supernatural black comedy and frustrated rage. All tattoos vanishf from the neighborhood because it's against the Torah. Sources of smoke vanish because they trigger the ghosts' memories of the camps. The ghosts rage that Holocaust deniers exist (Rosenbaum ignores that people deny the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow too). Rosenbaum rages that Schindler's List exists (the ghosts destroy all Holocaust-related films) and tries to grapple with What It All Means, but he doesn't grapple well.
Oliver Levin, successful mystery writer, has hit writer's block hard. His daughter Ariel blames that on his accumulating suffering — his Holocaust-survivor parents killed themselves before she was born, Mom walked out a decade ago — and tries to create a golem animated by her grandparents' souls. Instead they come back as ghosts, along with Primo Levy, Jerzy Kozinsky and a couple of other writers (all Holocaust survivors and suicides).
What follows is an awkward mix of supernatural black comedy and frustrated rage. All tattoos vanishf from the neighborhood because it's against the Torah. Sources of smoke vanish because they trigger the ghosts' memories of the camps. The ghosts rage that Holocaust deniers exist (Rosenbaum ignores that people deny the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow too). Rosenbaum rages that Schindler's List exists (the ghosts destroy all Holocaust-related films) and tries to grapple with What It All Means, but he doesn't grapple well.
December 26, 2019
When I picked up this book I entirely did it because of the cover. I really did end up enjoying it, though. The premise is heavy and while it's a quick read it's also very heavy. I don't mind that and there were some parts I truly disliked. The stuff with his wife was...dumb. She came off as selfish and nothing else. I also got the feeling with the woman giving his daughter violin lessons there might be something there, especially during her last mention, but then some stuff happens with the wife and the book rushes to it's end. I don't know. Maybe I just thought something was there that wasn't. Overall, it's a great read and really has you continuing to think about the holocaust. Not quite sure what I take away from it, though. Somehow it feels like people do too much but not enough.
December 11, 2023
This is one of the strangest books I've read. It reads like a YA book but with very adult subject matter. It features a minor, but also themes of generational trauma, suicide, and the Holocaust. It is full of philosophy and Jewish religious theory and folklore. It is equally reverent and irreverent.
Unfortunately, the story drags in so many places I found myself skimming as though I were reading it for class, hence the lower rating. I just felt like it needed another editorial pass. There's a good book in here, it's just padded with more than I wanted to read through.
Unfortunately, the story drags in so many places I found myself skimming as though I were reading it for class, hence the lower rating. I just felt like it needed another editorial pass. There's a good book in here, it's just padded with more than I wanted to read through.
June 27, 2024
I wanted to like this book more than I did. The questions it raises are important, but the way he gets there is sometimes meandering.
How do you live with the holocaust, more specifically how do you live with the holocaust when so much of the world is trying to deny, or even worse, trying to forget.
Given today's climate it is more confusing than ever.
How do you live with the holocaust, more specifically how do you live with the holocaust when so much of the world is trying to deny, or even worse, trying to forget.
Given today's climate it is more confusing than ever.
January 4, 2020
Our book group is reading this book but I gave up halfway through. Although it deals with an important topic (the impact of the Holocaust on subsequent generations), the writing is heavy-handed and pedantic.
Read
January 24, 2016What can I say? I don’t know that I’ve ever read a more badly executed novel. The truth is, I have a difficult time even thinking of it as a novel. It strikes me as more of an amalgam of disjointed sketches, told from various points of view, and all in the service of Holocaust survivors and children of Holocaust survivors.
At the same time—and given the conceit of the novel—I found the author’s attempts at humor to be, at best, lame.
Furthermore, I found the super-abundance of “insider” details about NYC to be both show-offy and absurd. Very few of these details enhanced the story by one iota. Although I live in Brooklyn, I went to college on the Upper West Side—coincidentally, at the same school at which Thane Rosenbaum took his Master’s degree—and so, I believe I can speak with some authority on the matter.
Did I get the identity of the ghosts (golems) in this novel, in spite of the fact that they were identified only by their first names? Yes. They were all writers or scholars; all survivors of one concentration camp or another; and all victims of suicide years after the end of WWII. In no special order, they were: Piotr Paziński; Jerzy Kosinski; Primo Levi; Jean Améry; Paul (Antschel) Celan; Tadeusz Barowski—and indirectly, Bruno Bettelheim (who did not commit suicide, but who wrote extensively about Holocaust survivors and “survivor guilt”).
I know nothing about Thane Rosenbaum’s professorship at NYC, nothing about his legal expertise, nothing about his role in several anti-defamation organizations. I do know, however, that he once suggested the murder of Palestinian children whose parents where supporters of Hamas.
Had I been a Creative Writing professor of Thane Rosenbaum early in his career, and had I seen this work at the time, I would’ve counseled him to pursue a different path. There are fundamental errors in judgment in The Golems of Gotham that suggest to me that Mr. Rosenbaum had no business pursuing this career in any shape or form—even if only as a side show to the rest of his pursuits.
By the way, I abandoned the novel on p. 147—which is roughly one hundred pages more than I give other novels whose intent, form or substance simply eludes me.
RRB
01/15/16
Brooklyn, NY
At the same time—and given the conceit of the novel—I found the author’s attempts at humor to be, at best, lame.
Furthermore, I found the super-abundance of “insider” details about NYC to be both show-offy and absurd. Very few of these details enhanced the story by one iota. Although I live in Brooklyn, I went to college on the Upper West Side—coincidentally, at the same school at which Thane Rosenbaum took his Master’s degree—and so, I believe I can speak with some authority on the matter.
Did I get the identity of the ghosts (golems) in this novel, in spite of the fact that they were identified only by their first names? Yes. They were all writers or scholars; all survivors of one concentration camp or another; and all victims of suicide years after the end of WWII. In no special order, they were: Piotr Paziński; Jerzy Kosinski; Primo Levi; Jean Améry; Paul (Antschel) Celan; Tadeusz Barowski—and indirectly, Bruno Bettelheim (who did not commit suicide, but who wrote extensively about Holocaust survivors and “survivor guilt”).
I know nothing about Thane Rosenbaum’s professorship at NYC, nothing about his legal expertise, nothing about his role in several anti-defamation organizations. I do know, however, that he once suggested the murder of Palestinian children whose parents where supporters of Hamas.
Had I been a Creative Writing professor of Thane Rosenbaum early in his career, and had I seen this work at the time, I would’ve counseled him to pursue a different path. There are fundamental errors in judgment in The Golems of Gotham that suggest to me that Mr. Rosenbaum had no business pursuing this career in any shape or form—even if only as a side show to the rest of his pursuits.
By the way, I abandoned the novel on p. 147—which is roughly one hundred pages more than I give other novels whose intent, form or substance simply eludes me.
RRB
01/15/16
Brooklyn, NY
August 11, 2012
I love this story of a NYC teenage Jewish girl, who realizes that to save her emotionally blocked father (the son of Holocaust survivors who committed suicide at their Miami Beach synagogue) from both his writer's block and his ever-growing despair, that she must build a golem. Successful, chaos ensues as the golem brings an increasingly ghostly population into their small condo and her violin playing turns into virtuoso klezmer music over night. Laugh-out-loud and sigh-out-loud moments are frequent in this wonderful tale.
January 30, 2009
A disappointing novel, and I am not sure why. The plot, about a young girl (granddaughter of Holocaust survivors) use Hudson River mud to build a Golem and raises more than just a few spiirits, is serious and comic, but somehow mostly falls flat. The imagination is too restrained even when wild. And the writing somehow seems like dot to dot connections rather than making one really care what happens next.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews