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Rashi's Daughters, Book III: Rachel: A Novel Of Love And The Talmud In Medieval France (2009)

by Maggie Anton(Favorite Author)

3.93 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0452295688 (ISBN13: 9780452295681)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Plume

series

Rashi’s Daughters

review 1: In "Rachel" we get a closer look at Rashii's entrepreneurial daughter. Granted, according to Anton's notes, little is known about Rachel historically so perhaps that led to some of the disconnect for me. There's always that childish glee when the main character of a book shares your name and a physical feature (we both have green eyes and curly hair). I thought that these pieces would help me connect with her in a way that I hadn't with Miriam in her book. While the book is ok, it's far from the strongest of the trilogy and contains a lot of filler. I'll start with what I enjoyed. I love the positive light in which Anton casts converts. In stories about people who are born Jewish, Jews-by-choice's voices are not always present or if they are, their stories are not positive... more. Samson and Anna, while not major characters, are treated as Jews and Samson is even said to be among the "noble converts" who will sit with the born Jews in Eden (problematic I know but still...) Anton doesn't hide the stigma around converts but she creates characters who are open enough that the audience can have positive associations with those characters who all have distinct paths to conversion. The chapters containing the massacres had a huge emotional impact as well. I almost wanted to go back to the earlier books where Europe seemed to be Jewish Happy Land, much like the main characters. I loved that this was tied in with Tisha B'av and that Rachel acknowledges that it had less meaning in previous years but now has major impact. In "Joheved" and "Miriam" I usually enjoyed the Talmud study discussions that the characters had, but they were less so here. They seemed to be plot interruptions or padding that often caused me to disengage with reading. Given when the books are set to begin, after the preceding book so that we can see where all our other favorite characters are now, it can be a struggle with the youngest daughter to fill a book in the same way one would for the oldest and middle. Still, I think I would have enjoyed the book more with less filler about astronomy and even a bit less extended Talmud arguments. At this point we have established how learned all the characters are, showing it again almost feels like beating a dead horse. I was also disappointed in the ending. I honestly felt more when Rivkah died than I did when Solomon died. Given my personal history, the latter should have sent me into tears. I was even preparing for it. However, I think I was so irritated about Elizear that my attention couldn't focus on the death of Rashii. I also wanted Rachel to get or stay divorced (some parts of this book felt really unclear) because I really disliked Eliezar. I know I had a complaint about Miriam and Judah but in this novel I came to really like them and see that they do make each other happy. It felt out of character for Rachel, who is very prideful and lives up to her namesake in terms of appearance. If I take the series as a whole, I enjoyed it and would recommend it. If I looked at this book, I'd say I'd be happy to end at "Miriam". "Rachel" didn't really deliver the kind of satisfying closure I wanted and I felt more annoyed having finished it than I did pleased. All in all, it's a fantastic trilogy, but "Joheved" is definitely the strongest of the three.
review 2: I love how much you can learn through these novels. This one had information about the crusades, the wool industry, merchant trading, the development of the field of astronomy, and more - in addition, of course, to the development of commentary to the Talmud, and Jewish life in Medieval France. Very engaging characters, a wide variety of issues dealt with (including the complexity of relationships) - and overall very well written series. less

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