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The Book Of The Unknown: Tales Of The Thirty-six (2009)

by Jonathon Keats(Favorite Author)

3.94 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0812978978 (ISBN13: 9780812978971)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Random House Trade Paperbacks

review 1: The Book of the Unknown: Tales of the Thirty Six brings to life the concept of the Lamedh-Vov, the thirty-six pure souls who must exist at all times to justify humanity, as outlined in Jewish folklore. Coincidentally, I encountered this concept very recently in another novel, called The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss, which definitely influenced my expectation that these thirty-six pure souls would be the most righteous human beings. And yet. Here we are presented with stories of twelve lives, one third of the Lamedh-Vov who were supposed to have existed at one point in time, and these souls are quite a surprise.Keats's tales are introduced with a fictional foreward by a fictional professor and followed by a fictional editor's afterward, letting the public in on the eve... morents surrounding these very controversial stories and the possible fate of the author, who has disappeared.And this work would be controversial, indeed, since these pure souls are composed of an idiot, a liar, a gambler, a thief, a clown, a whore, a false messiah, a cheat, an idler, a golem, a murderer, and a rebel. But wait, wait--they are here for a reason. Every one of them encounters the worst hatred and cruelty that human nature has to offer, but they respond with kindness and wisdom, improving the lives of everyone around them. Some of these characters meet more fortunate endings than others, and these endings are not predictable.Of these twelve folkloric stories, my personal favorites are Alef the Idiot, Heyh the Clown, Tet the Idler, Yod the Inhuman, and Yod-Beit the Rebel. This book isn't out yet, but if you should come across it, I'd be most interested to know which tales caught your eye. They are all fascinating; as soon as I started one, I had to finish.
review 2: The Book of the Unknown reads very quickly and smoothly, though it is not light reading. Each story presented has a definite lesson- not in a quasi-Judaic morality tale way, but in a "You would enjoy your life more if you were more like this person" sort of way. I did not feel that the book was especially religious, so I hope its description of being based on Jewish folklore does not turn people away from it. I am neither Jewish nor religious, and I really enjoyed the book. My personal favorite story was about a golem who becomes a princess, and then watches as her husband loses interest and begins going after many other women in the palace. Instead of being vindictive or bitter, she spends her time doing other tasks that make her world better.And maybe that's why I really enjoyed the book- all the stories were uplifting and happy, not the dire moralistic tales that you might expect. Many of them are more fairy tale-like than anything else. Publishers Weekly may say above that the stories "lack bite," but for a bedtime treat before allowing your dreams to take over, they are excellent. And surprisingly not as straight-forward as one might think- some of them, I was still mulling over the next morning.The book begins with a preface from the "collector" of the stories and ends with a note from the editors that makes it clear that sequels could very much be in the picture (after all- we only heard tales from twelve of the thirty-six). I hope there is because the stories themselves are vastly entertaining, and the afterword makes me think that an over-arcing plot would be fascinating to read about as well. less

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