People of the Book (A&R Classics)

by Geraldine Brooks

[pamela]

After reading the travesty of Dracula the Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker, Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book was a breath of fresh air. It was intelligent, visual and entertaining. It is a book that has found a place close to my heart as it ties in with my own chosen career path (curator), and my love of history.
The novel follows the story of a book conservator from Sydney who is called to stabilise a very rare Jewish Haggadah rescued from a bombed library in war-torn Sarajevo. As the book is studied, certain marks and objects are found within its pages, each telling a story which shows how the book came to be, and how it came to be in Sarajevo at that time.

The novel is perfectly paced, with just the right amount of technical detail. The reader is able to understand the work of a book conservator without being inundated with too much technical knowledge. The relationships as conveyed in the book are real, not romanticised, and the characters are well rounded although, especially toward the end of the book, their motivations are not always as clear as they could be.

This book is rife with wit, intelligence, tragedy, and hope. Each new story the book unfolds tells us something about our own history, and makes the reader think about their own objects, and how each of the events in our lives helps shape us.

My only gripe with this novel is the ending. It felt a little forced, almost as if Brooks had tried to put a plot twist in for the sake of one. It was completely unnecessary, and in my opinion cheapened a book that up until that point had such integrity. It was by no means a terrible ending, I just didn't feel it was in keeping with the tone of the rest of the novel.

While not part of the novel, the acknowledgements is where this book had it's one true down point. Geraldine Brooks thanks her advisers for helping her determine whether a book conservator was a realistic career choice for an Australian. Really Geraldine? Really? Brooks is from Australia and yet even she thinks that we are so backward and small that we couldn't possibly have conservators? My best friend is a conservator! Do we not have history worth conserving? Do we not have top notch universities who teach chemistry and accurate conservation practices? Do we not have world class museums who have both curators and conservators on staff? The answer to all this is of course, yes we do! We are not so backward that we are unable to protect our heritage, in fact we are one of the world leaders in heritage and conservation. There we are. Rant over.

All in all this book was fantastic. Without a doubt one of the best books I have read in a long time. It was intelligent without being pretentious, and fast paced without being formulaic. Perhaps it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but as a lover of history this novel really spoke to me.