"The Books of Jacob" Olga Tokarczuk - review by @papi.mati

The year 1752. The castellan Katarzyna Kossakowska and the accompanying poet Elżbieta Drużbacka come to Rohatyn in Podolia. One of the guests at the welcome dinner is the local parish priest, Benedykt Chmielowski, author of the first Polish encyclopedia. A priest and a poet, people who love books, quickly find a common language - they start a conversation, which they will later continue in their letters.

A little later, also in Podolia, a young, handsome and charismatic Jew appears - Jakub Lejbowicz Frank. A mysterious newcomer from distant Smyrna begins to spread ideas that quickly divide the Jewish community. For some he is a heretic, for others, the savior and the ferment he causes may change the course of history.

Almost a thousand pages, hundreds of characters - The Books of Jacob impress with their scale, a multitude of levels, and possible interpretations. Olga Tokarczuk wrote the historical novel, at the same time expanding its genre boundaries. It's not a surprise that an author won the Nobel Prize in Literature. With great attention to detail, she presents the realities of the epoch, architecture, clothes, and fragrances. We visit noble manors, Catholic presbyteries, and Jewish homes, praying and getting engaged in the reading of mysterious scripts. The writer creates the image of old Poland, where Christianity, Judaism, and Islam existed side by side.

The novel, on which Olga Tokarczuk has been working for six years, requires a lot of concentration and intense, careful reading. Firstly, due to the multi-level, complex narrative, secondly, the accumulation of numerous religious references in such an extensive text (especially complicated dogmatic issues within Judaism), philosophical and, in a sense, also mythological. The Books of Jacob should be read as a kind of summary of the work of Olga Tokarczuk, her magnum opus, because this novel contains thoughts started by the writer at the beginning of her career - in the previous books.

In her latest novel, Olga Tokarczuk recalled this little known and lost in the history archives story about a Jew who proclaimed himself a new messiah, gathered a large group of believers, and started building a new religiosity, reconciling selected elements of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Jakub Lejbowicz Frank started the foundations of a new religious movement. His followers lived in (for those times) a liberal community, formed as - we would say today - a hippie commune, in which relations between members were shaped by Frank himself, while ties in the group were regulated and tightened by sexual promiscuity. The sect of Jakub Frank adapted to the theories developed by another heretic who lived a century earlier, Sabbatai Tzvi, who rejected Talmud and conversed to other religions. By Tzvi's dogma, Frank first converted to Islam and then was baptized, which set an example of how the model for building a new spirituality should look like.

"We are helpless because there is no more compact theory that can explain everything anymore" - said the writer in one of the interviews promoting her latest novel. These words could successfully become the motto of the neophyte heresiarch from Podolia, who, with his science, was able to attract attention and influence not only of the little ones of that world but also the educated minds.

The Books of Jacob is a sophisticated novel that plays with its 19th-century model, which the writer exceeded. The meticulous description, focus on detail and epic momentum are of fundamental importance.

Tokarczuk conducts a rather unusual historical narrative, characteristic for postmodern talking about history, drawing a historical novel from a niche, adapting its language to our present day. As poststructuralists say, history must be told anew. Therefore, the writer generates a text that has a second meaning, a given sense - a universal story is created, on the one hand about the need for transcendence and freedom, but on the other hand also about manipulative mechanisms practiced by a deeply spiritual guru (because let's face it, Frank uses them to their followers) as well as oppression and religious violence.

The mood of the novel built by Tokarczuk reflects the belief among the characters about life in a turning point, followed by the imminent end of the world. Blind faith in the apocalyptic prophecies preached by Frank is "confirmed" by the tragic news of the earthquake in Lisbon, the death of King Augustus III, the political weakness of the Republic, and few other events.

It is worth mentioning that Olga Tokarczuk writes about a multicultural and multi-ethnic Republic. She doesn't mention a word that the Polish nation is the only good. She gives little attention to the Sarmatian ideology, which is disastrous in the socio-political and cultural context and keeps the peasantry in slavery. So she rewrites history.

It is impossible to ignore the female empowerment in Olga Tokarczuk's book. The author has been addressing this topic since her first book. It is commonly said that many female characters in Olga Tokarczuk's prose are strong, full of pride, determined, some of them subordinated to sexual desires. But there are also those soulful, devoted, warm and caring, and those who are hurt by men. Olga Tokarczuk matches the current trends in feminism, therefore I consider the feminist aspect in The Books of Jacobas to be very important and worthy. Undoubtedly, strong femininity is represented by Katarzyna Kossakowska - she is forceful in her efforts and often dictates conditions, also for men. The subtle and soulful poet, Elżbieta Drużbacka, suffers. Gitla and Ewa - Jakub Frank's daughter - know how to use their feminine charms to achieve their goals. For Olga Tokarczuk, religious power is synonymous with patriarchal enslavement, which highlights in the practice of having sexual relations with many women until old age by the charismatic Frankist leader. Particularly noteworthy is the figure of Jenta - Jakub's grandmother - an old woman suspended between life and death, looking down on the unfolding events and also seeing the author.

The book, although not the easiest in reading, is worth the recommendation. Olga Tokarczuk reminds us of the diversity and tolerance that we, as the Polish nation (but also we all on steemit as the post-modern society representants), somehow forget about. After all, Polish identity is built by post-Romantic and post-Mesianist ideas, but that is a completely different story ...

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MY SCORE: 5/5

Thank you for reading,
@papi.mati

PS: excuse the over-intellectualized language of the article. I try something new and sometimes write articles in Polish and then, with the help of google, translate them, naturally double-checking before publishing if there are any errors. The language of such articles will be naturally more advanced because my vocabulary in my native language is richer.