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The Golem (2009)

by Edward Lee(Favorite Author)

3.5 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0843958081 (ISBN13: 9780843958089)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Leisure Books

review 1: ***1/2Edward Lee's novel "The Golem" is a fun, and at times extremely gruesome, take on the titular character. This is the "golem" of Jewish folklore, a being created with mud and incantations, brought to life to carry out its master's revenge.A devil-worshiping offshoot of Kabbalism has taken root in a town in Maryland. Lee's book bounces back and forth between events from the year 1880 and the present day. This way of telling two parts of one story works remarkably well, and the pacing is nearly perfect.The leads, a video game designer and his wife, both recovering drug users, come to town and purchase a house they soon discover was the site of some pretty bizarre events over a hundred years back. The discovery of the nature of the townsfolk, and the inclusion of bit... mores of folklore along the way, makes this a fun read. However, the gore is very explicit in spots, including some rather nasty sexual violence. Definitely not for everyone, or even most horror fans. But if you like a well-told creepy story, and don't mind stomach-churning violence, by all means, check out "The Golem."
review 2: The premise behind this book was a really interesting one. I can't recall ever reading a book about golems of Jewish folklore in the past. Lee clearly had an adequate grasp on the subject, so certainly this book should have written itself, right?Eh. I don't go into these novels expecting timeless literature, as they're essentially the written equivalent of B-horror movies filmed with mom's video camera and a budget of whatever could be found under couch cushions and refrigerators. But I still believe that if you're going to publish something, you should give it all that you've got. THE GOLEM missed a few different marks in a few different aspects.Let's start with Judy, one of the two focal characters. Over the course of roughly 5 pages, she went from bonehead to egghead. Apparently she had been a tenured professor at a university, yet she came off as exorbitantly uncultivated. Then, just pages later, she became an expert on every topic anyone could bring up. I did begin to groan around the third time she mentioned that she dated a professor who'd studied such and such as a means to explain how she knew all the information she did.The ostensibly arbitrary jumps from the past to the present were a bit disenchanting. While some of the portions from the past could have complemented the portions of the present, as it was there were just too many jumps back and forth that resulted in overlapping information and alienation of the reader. Also, while being true to the strain of books to which it belongs, THE GOLEM's narrative contains an inordinate amount of lechery that seemed akin to how a lascivious pubescent boy might see the world. Overall this one started out a bit arduous, then crescendoed from there. It never hit anything above par for the course, but with these types of books, I've never been looking for anything extravagant. less

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