12. The Weight of Ink

Rachel Kadish. 2017.

This was a really intellectual book.  It is so academic that it took me quite a while to adjust to reading it and for the first several hours, I kept thinking that I just wasn't smart enough anymore to appreciate real literature. The plot is complicated, with lots of characters set in two time periods, with scholars in the 2000s unfolding the story and mystery of a set of papers written in the 1660's.  The romance in both eras is as much with the pursuit of philosophic truths as between people.  

So, it took me a while to adjust to the language, to adjust my thinking to a philosophic space. The book assumes you know quite a bit about Spinoza, Hobbs, and other philosophers, so I had to dig deep in my memories of all those philosophy classes I took as an undergrad, but a lot of it came back to me as the story unfolded.  

The second part of the book takes place in England during the plague and it was horrifying to read about could be happening here if we weren't taking the kind of precautions that we are taking during this modern-day plague we are living through.  The antisemitism of the era is a constant backdrop of the historical story, as well as the misogyny and limited options for women in across life circumstances--whether a wealthy intellectual or a housekeeper/servant.  What I ultimately loved about the writing, though, was how these themes were woven into both storylines without fanfare.  Probably the thing I liked best was the themes of mentorship and friendship that form the backbone of the relationships in this story.  More than family, more than romantic partnerships, the platonic, symbiotic connection between someone teaching and someone learning was striking and, really, how often do we see those types of relationships explored in a novel, especially one of this complexity?  The unseen strength of the bond between the librarian, the document restorer, the grad student, and the grumpy old professor is both subtle and lovely and when written in conjunction with the friendships between the rabbi, the brilliant orphan scribe, the housekeeper, and the wealthy rebel,...well, it is something to behold.

There is also a lot to think about here in terms of surviving a plague and putting our pandemic experience in perspective.  It reminds us that one outing in a moment of weakness can be devastating and that wealth and privilege doesn't protect you and that how we treat each other during these hard times matters, regardless of whether we survive, but that what we are doing to survive is temporary and that we can emerge on the other side.

You'll need to pay attention and if, like me, you have put your philosophical thinking on hold, you might need to google some people and theories to keep up, but ultimately it felt good to dive deep into this complicated storyline.

​Recommend.

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