It took awhile, but I finally finished reading Ogla Tocarzchuk's giant The Books of Jacob. As the photo shows, I dogeared many pages and marked down notes on my observations throughout so I wouldn't forget where I read something pithy or insightful.
Coming to a new book by an author you respect and admire brings certain unacknowledged, perhaps, hopes. I don't like to read too much about a work, be it a novel or a play, in advance but rather come to it fresh, to see for myself what I think, and a novel this size sailed me through many peaks and troughs. The unfamiliar place and character names continued to frustrate me. I wish there had been one of those charts showing characters and their relationships like you can often find in other works of historical fiction. It's the same sort of frustration I experienced as a teenager when I first started reading Russian novels. In Jacob, namechanged often too as people moved from one place to another and switched religious affiliations. If I were to read the novel again, which I likely will not, I would keep a running list of main characters.
Continue reading at Finished..