Soccer Dad

The golem

According the NY Times, the Golem is making a comeback in Prague.

The Golem, according to Czech legend, was fashioned from clay and brought to life by a rabbi to protect Prague's 16th-century ghetto from persecution, and is said to be called forth in times of crisis. True to form, he is once again experiencing a revival and, in this commercial age, has spawned a one-monster industry.

There are Golem hotels; Golem door-making companies; Golem clay figurines (made in China); a recent musical starring a dancing Golem; and a Czech strongman called the Golem who bends iron bars with his teeth. The Golem has also infiltrated Czech cuisine: the menu at the non-kosher restaurant called the Golem features a "rabbi's pocket of beef tenderloin" and a $7 "crisis special" of roast pork and potatoes that would surely have rattled the venerable Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the Golem's supposed maker.

Wny now?

Rabbi Manis Barash, who oversees an institute here devoted to Rabbi Loew's work, said that "because of the financial crisis, people were increasingly turning to spirituality for meaning."

Others, like Jakub Roth, a derivatives trader and a leader of the Jewish community, noted that the Golem had contemporary relevance because he protected sacred values from imminent dangers. "In the past this was anti-Semitism," Mr. Roth said. "Today it is global recession, Islamic fundamentalism and Russian aggression."

And why am I discussing the Golem? Because I just finished reading the Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud. The Golem's eye is the second book of the Bartimaeus trilogy.

In some sort of parallel universe, England is governed by magicians. Rather than the magical folk who inhabit Harry Potter's world in parallel to the Muggle world, Stroud's magicians rule over the non-magical people, called "commoners." Given their superiority to the commoners, the magicians treat commoners as their servants. And while the magicians in Stroud's London may not possess the malevolence of Voldemort, they are quite petty and bullying.

The hero, if you can call him that, of the trilogy is Nathaniel, a young magician who was taken from his parents at a young age to be brought up by an established magician. And there is the djinn, Bartimaeus, the wisecracking magical slave of Nathaniel.

Unlike J K Rowling's world where magicians have innate powers, in Stroud's world, magicians derive their power from being able to summon magical beings and have those beings - afrits, marids, imps, djinni - do their bidding. The more powerful the magician, the more powerful servant he can summon.

I read the first book of the trilogy, The Amulet of Samarkand a few years ago and thought it was all right. The Golem's Eye, though, is much better. The story telling remains the same. The story is told through the eyes of the major characters alternating the POV. A new major character is added for the Golem's Eye, Kitty, a girl in the resistance against the rule of the magicians.

The biggest weakness of the book are the parts told through Nathaniel's eyes. Nathaniel, is the least interesting of the major characters. That's probably because he has little insight. He is concerned mostly about his career and being in favor. He has no conscience or self-awareness to speak of. Kitty is a much better developed character. Nathaniel's and Kitty's narratives are told in the first person, but Baritimaeus speaks in the first person. His sections are the most fun.

The story centers around a new threat to the magical world. A powerful force has been attacking London and it's up to Nathaniel to figure out the nature of the threat and to stop it. In parallel Kitty and her fellows in the resistance seek to steal some major magical artifacts. In the end the two plot lines merge and the mystery is resolved. Along the way we get a glimpse into the dystopic world of Stroud's magicians that is both fun and exciting. I am looking forward to reading the final chapther, Ptolemy's Gate.

One last note. It was a bit disconcerting to read of "Loew the great magician." I rather think of him as a great Rabbi, known better as the Maharal. The Golem story is, of course, a legend. But the Maharal wrote some great works, which he ought to be remembered for.