Following on from our reading of 'When I Lived in Modern Times', I have just read a very interesting book called 'The last Jews of Kerala' by Edna Fernandes. It is about the surviving members of India's oldest Jewish Diaspora (about 2000 years old) in Cochin. The thing that sets them apart from other Jewish communities is that they have never known persecution. They were welcomed by the local Indian rulers, to quote the blurb, into ' ... a land where Jew and Muslim, Hindu and Christian have lived and prayed in harmony for centuries'. This community is now dying, and many have moved to Israel. We wondered how Jewishness was defined, and this puts an interesting slant on that discussion.
Another good read is 'The Thirteenth Tribe' by Arthur Koestler, which traces the history of the ancient Khazar Empire, a major but almost forgotten power in Eastern Europe, which in the dark ages became converted to Judaism.
Claudia Hammond is terminally ill and the once beautiful historian and war correspondent lies dying alone in hospital.She knows who she is but those around her, the carers know only what they see; an confuse, at times difficult old woman slipping in and out of consciouness who is desperately hanging on to her memories, ones she has never shared even with those closest to her.
ReplyDeleteC shocks and beguiles in equal measures; her rivalrous and incestuous relationship with her older brother, her critical and cool relationship with Lisa her daughter and her on off arrair with Jasper,Lisa's father. But her secret brief and her passionate affair with Tom whom she has told no one about and her lost pregnancy.
The narrative structureof the novewl seems to make C swlfishness, and unsmypathetis features particularly vivid. but she is also charming, intriguing and charismatic.
We discussed whether or not she might have been more tender had Tom not died so tragically and C lost their child. What might have happened had she told people about this very central and intimate part of her life. Did anyone really know her?
Moon Tiger, is the mosquitp repllant that slowly burns through the wonderfully balmy night in Egypt that she shared with Tom and she describes so beautifully. there are some wonderful passages describing the awfulness of the war in the desert, the futility and brutality of it.
The book was enoyed by us all and was a thoroughly good read.