The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk (tr. Jennifer Croft)- Review and Challenges 

Really interesting discussion! I'm the type of reader who reads a lot but retains very little 🙈 I also struggle with lots of characters so I can understand the frustration of wishing you knew who they are!

I just bought this book today, and I am feeling super scared and excited to read it!

I'm 300 pages in and i absolutely love it. The Sabateans and the subsequent Frankist movement, Eastern Europe's Jews, the Ottoman Balkans, Smyrna and Greece... I love it!

Totally understand your feelings Bob even though I enjoyed it much more. I read it over two months with a friend so I think that really helped, I wanted to keep reading and was thinking about the story when I wasn’t. If I was more familiar with Polish names I’d have got on better as I did get confused who was who and who they were related to and thank goodness I was reading the ebook so could easily look up a lot of the Jewish customs and forms! I found the character of Jacob fascinating- if pretty unlikable and some of the women and Father Chmielowski were far more appealing. I think you’re right that it slows down in the middle and the timeline dancing around also got a bit frustrating as I’d get lost but her writing is so good and the amount of research is phenomenal. I think that’s why I lot of people admire rather than love this book.

I’ve read Flights and Drive Your Plough & loved both. The only reason I haven’t read The Books of Jacob is the size. It’s very intimidating.

I love this review

I enjoyed hearing your reflections on yourself as a reader-that’s not pretentious. There’s a lot about reading and writing within the novel, which is one of the many aspects I enjoyed. Also, it makes sense that you kept imagining the setting as medieval, because the story portrayed the dark shadows cast by the Enlightenment.

All of the things you are describing I sometimes felt with this, but also felt with wolf hall. I think that is also a lot about a complex historical fiction of a place and a time we know little about. A lot more people effortlessly enjoyed Wolf Hall because the English history is much more well known in this corner of Booktube. That does not mean that we should research everything, that cuts the flow for me, but if we keep reading more Eastern European literature and then come back at this, it would make much more of an impact.

Thank you for this post. I recently started reading The Books Of Jacob. I loved Drive Your Plough and also enjoyed The Flights, but this one is a bit daunting. I don't think it is just the length. There is a lot to learn and absorb. I decided to take a break after Part I and I read The High House in a well-spent day. Thank you for that recommendation! Tomorrow, refreshed, I'll go back to Jacob: The Book of Sand. ONward!

Um, it’s not you, it’s the book! I love the kindness and generosity of your review, but it was so much more convoluted than it needed to be. Kudos to you for sticking with it! (I couldn’t.) That’s such a great accomplishment.

I'm so intrigued by this book. I don't usually read books that are so long, but this one might be worth it. I feel like I might have some of the same problems as you, but that wouldn't keep me from reading it.

I had a very similar experience to you. It is without a doubt beautifully written, but so dense and while I did have some favourite passages and characters it still felt like a slog and the overall experience was similar to getting through a university assignment. I'd like to say I plan to re read it now that I have a better context of everything, but let's face it I probably won't. I would like to try some other Tokarczuk books though.

Oh no, I have just bought it (finally), I've been intimidated by it since it came out here in Poland in 2014 LOL I hope I get to read it this year because I like that there is hype around it but man, it's just so big... I've only read Drive your plough which I really enjoyed :) She is having a new (much shorter) book coming out in Polish in June, which is really exciting and I want to read it when it comes out BUT... it looks like it's much inspired by Mann's The Magic Mountain and that is another intimidating read haha. So, I'm planning to read The Magic Mountain in May, we'll see how it goes :P

Pronouncing it right, at least according to the audiobook. It’s too bad it didn’t work too well. That was like me with Don Quixote. I didn’t like reading it particularly and some moments worked, but what it was mostly was a slog.

I preordered Books of Jakob on Audible. After three attempts and never making it past 20%, I sent it to the DNF pile. My problems with this book are threefold: (1) It is written at such a remove that I couldn’t engage with it; (2) I often don’t like books with an organized religion element; and (3) it read too much like a folktale. Agreeing with you Bob, there’s nothing wrong with the book, it’s just not for me. The only International Booker candidate I read was Heaven and it was fabulous!

The story of Jacob/Israel at Bethel is one of the great queer tales in the Bible

listening to you for sometime now i have to disagree with your analysis of yourself as a reader who takes in everything and lets it flow back out...you constantly extract and retain plenty which you share with us. i think it was pretty clever of tokarczuk to pass the job of clarity unto the reader and off her shoulders...i find those four categories simplistic.