| Title | : | The Golem of Brooklyn |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 059372982X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780593729823 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 |
| Publication | : | First published September 26, 2023 |
But Len Bronstein is no rabbi—he’s a Brooklyn art teacher who steals a large quantity of clay from his school, gets extremely stoned, and manages to bring his creation to life despite knowing little about Judaism and even less about golems. Unable to communicate with his nine-foot-six, four hundred–pound, Yiddish-speaking guest, Len enlists a bodega clerk and ex-Hasid named Miri Apfelbaum to translate.
Eventually, the golem learns English by binge-watching Curb Your Enthusiasm after ingesting a massive amount of LSD and reveals that he is a creature with an ancestral memory; he recalls every previous iteration of himself, proving to be a repository of Jewish history and trauma. He demands to know what crisis has prompted his re-creation and whom he must destroy. When Miri shows him a video of white nationalists marching and chanting “Jews will not replace us,” the answer becomes clear.
The Golem of Brooklyn is an epic romp through Jewish history and the American present that wrestles with the deepest questions of our humanity—the conflicts between faith and skepticism, tribalism and interdependence, and vengeance and healing.
The Golem of Brooklyn Reviews
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I can't wait to see the reaction to this highly original work, since there are those who will see themselves portrayed none too gently, but then, they probably won't read it. As with any delicious satire, The Golem of Brooklyn is equal parts hilarious and disturbing, and should be required reading by those who, for instance, are saying that January 6 was not an attempted coup but a nice visit to our capitol. But then again, they won't read it. Even the chapters dealing with the history of the Jews, the persecution throughout the ages are wickedly funny. So we learn of the creation of a crime stopper in the form of a 9 foot 400 pound creature fashioned out of clay, traditionally by a rabbi, but here by a stoned art teacher in Brooklyn Heights. And off they go to a Charlottesville-like rally in Kentucky with a former member of the Williamsburg Hassidic community originally enlisted as a translator. What could possibly go wrong. I won't go further into the plot since it should unspool for each reader. All I'll say is, it will probably be banned in Florida.
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Opening sentence: "Len Bronstein was not so much in need of a golem as he was in possession of a large quantity of clay, and very stoned." Two snorts of laughter: first for the sentence as a whole, second for the realization that "Len Bronstein" is one letter away from "Lev Bronstein," better known as Leon Trotsky, and that no way on this earth did Mansbach do that by accident, never mind by what series of preposterous accidents Len managed to create a golem.
Or rather, The Golem, which is his name. And now the ambiguities and questions start pouring in: Is The Golem alive? Is he a saving force or a destructive one? What makes a Jew? (Miri, the other central human character, is a lesbian ex-Hasid: her family doesn't consider her Jewish anymore. But The Golem converts a pork-eating 11-year-old to Judaism by having her stand on one leg, briefly, twice: once to approximate Hillel -- "What is hateful to you, don't do to your neighbor. That the Torah. The rest just commentary" -- and then to introduce the concept of tikkun olam.)
Also, as Len, Miri, and The Golem head for a planned white-supremacist demonstration in Kentucky: How should one respond to anti-Semitism (and to white supremacism in all its aspects)? The Golem thinks by extirpating anti-Semites, Len thinks by frightening them, and Miri ... well, you have to read the book to find out.
The Golem of Brooklyn starts and ends as one of the funniest books I've ever read; also, the further into it I got, the bleaker it became, until it hit what seemed to me a point of no return. Along the way it takes in the entire history of the Jewish people as well as the present threats to them and to all of us who overlap with or are properly allied with them -- queer people, Black people, Muslims ...
So I laughed all through, with breaks for grief and, as appropriate, fear, then finished stock-still in wonder and dismay. I can't recommend this book highly enough -- it's brilliant -- but brace yourself.
Many thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC. -
Of all the supernatural creatures in Jewish folklore, the golem is basically the only decent one: a giant humanoid built of mud or clay, always by a learned and holy man, and always in a time of crisis. The Hebrew word for “truth” is inscribed on its forehead, certain esoteric prayers and rituals are incanted and enacted, and the golem animates. Talmudic scholars, who agree on nothing, are unanimous in rejecting the notion that the golem is alive.
In an act of stoned whynotism, Williamsburg-based high school art teacher Len Bronstein decides to create a golem — the five-thousand-year-old “crisis monster” of Jewish mythology — and when he realises that he’s unable to communicate with the massive, Yiddish-speaking, rampage-machine he brought to life, Len runs to the local bodega to beg the clerk there for her help. Between Len (culturally Jewish but won’t say no to a BLT) and Miri (an ex-Hasid who loves her heritage but couldn’t live within the strict confines of her orthodox upbringing) and a night of binge-watching Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Golem is brought up to date on the current climate for Jewish people. And as the creature states that he can only be summoned in a time of great threat, and Len and Miri insist that their lives are not in any imminent danger, a news report about an upcoming White Pride rally in Virginia forces the trio to consider what use a crisis monster might be put to in our times. Adam Mansbach (probably best known for his
Go the F**k to Sleep series of tongue-in-cheek “children’s” books) treats this examination of antisemitism with a light and humorous touch (Len is a goofball and extremists — whether Hasidic or Supremacist — are satisfyingly lampooned); but through the memories of The Golem (who is always the same creature with an intact consciousness over time) the history of Jewish persecution is outlined. Ultimately, the question asked by
The Golem of Brooklyn is: If Jews are directed to both follow the Golden Rule (what is hateful to you, don’t do to your neighbour) and to engage in tikkun olam (to repair and improve the world), how does unleashing a killing machine against one’s enemies satisfy these directives? All delivered with dick and stoner jokes and a cameo by Larry David. It’s an odd balance, but thoughtful and entertaining. I’m glad I picked this up. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)Why there has not been a greater profusion of golems, given the number of extremely shitty situations in which the Jewish people have found themselves over the last fifty-seven hundred and eighty-three years, remains a mystery. But clues might be found in the literature of golems, which you can read about on the internet. In some tellings, the golem is a heroic savior. In others, he is an uncontrollable monster, a doltish brute, even a tragic lover. But perhaps we have not yet scratched the surface of what the golem means.
If I had a slight complaint it would be that the main narrative unspools alongside a series of unrelated stories — the first page begins to outline the long plot of a novel Len never got around to writing (which in the acknowledgements at the end, Mansbach explains is a novel he has never gotten around to writing), a character asks The Golem for a story and he tells of being summoned during the Babylonian Exile in order to defend against the baby-killing spirit of Lilith, Len asks Miri for a story and she recalls trying to find her way in New York as a runaway eighteen-year-old “baby lesbian” — and while these stories do add colour, there’s something unsophisticated about the way they are inserted. On the other hand, it’s probably the only way to share The Golem’s entire history — from his first appearance (after God had moulded Adam out of clay, but before filling him with the breath of life) to his last (standing amongst the thirty-three thousand seven hundred and seventy-one Jews who were shot to death by German soldiers in Kyiv in September of 1941, “the last time he appears in the folklore of the Jewish people”) — and it is The Golem’s history, his purpose and destiny, that are the interesting crux of the narrative.“So now we’re trying to invent a superhero?”
Miri laid her fork down. “If I’ve learned anything since I left the Sassovs and joined the real world, it’s that people love superheroes.”
“Yeah, in movies. Shit, Miri — people already believe that George Soros controls the world economy and Jews have secret space lasers. You really think —” Len broke off, snarled in his thoughts. He was down to his last bite of BLT, and he was severely tempted to order another one. “You really think that would be good for the Jews?” he finished weakly.
Over the course of the novel, we are shown that Len and Miri are both good people — people who live by the Golden Rule and tikkun olam — but Mansbach does such a good job of representing the White Pride rally as a credible threat to good people everywhere, that the question of what they should do with the power in their hands is an interesting one to explore. In its details, this is a really interesting and entertaining read; not really what you might call literary, and not exactly "light reading", but I'll round up to four stars. -
The author of The Golem of Brooklyn, Adam Mansbach, is probably best known for writing Go the Fuck to Sleep [GTFTS]. The Golem of Brooklyn has the irreverence of GTFTS—only expanded, more detailed, crazier, and with a bit more room for probing the choices made by its characters.
The central character, Len Bronstein, is an art teacher who has been stealing clay a few kilos at a time from his high school classroom and has decided that now is the time to create a Golem. (For those who don't know, a Golem is a creature from Jewish folklore. Made out of mud or clay and brought to life through ritual involving the mystical name of g-d, the Golem will fight to defend Jews in times of great danger.) Len isn't really thinking about the great danger part of things. He just wants to see if he can get enough information online to actually bring this giant clay being to light. The answer is, "yes." Chalk up another win for the internet.
Of course, there are complications. First, the Golem speaks Yiddish, Lem doesn't. Second—and Lem discovers this only after he meets Miri Apfelbaum, who can speak Yiddish—the Golem is not at all pleased to have been created without a penis. Third, the Golem wants to know who he should be killing. That is, after all, his job, the reason he's been called into being in the past.
The novel unrolls as a sort of fever dream of a road trip, during which Lem and Miri track down the leader of the conservative Jewish community she left years ago when she came out as a lesbian, then make the mistake of showing the Golem video of a white nationalist protest, and find themselves driving south because the golem now knows who he wants to kill. Lem and Miri try to discourage the whole killing thing, but in the short term, it's easier to just do what the Golem wants while they try to figure out how you say "no" to a nine-foot tall being of superhuman strength.
It's the kind of plot that can only be dreamed up by someone possessing an unlikely combination of imagination, humor, and anarchism. It's funny. In fact, it's hilarious. It's also serious because Lem and Miri have moments when they're forced to question what they're doing as they allow themselves to be moved along the path of least resistance. Lem and Miri make an interesting, and surprisingly effective team. Miri not only knows Yiddish, she has deep knowledge of Judaism, but that knowledge is strangely unworldly because so much of her life has been spent at one remove from what we call the real world. Lem knows less than Miri does—he also worries less and thinks quickly on his feet when the choices he makes pull them into increasing layers of difficulty. And, because Miri is a lesbian, readers' time isn't wasted on the all-too-often-obligatory romance between characters who work just fine as friends. (Being, like Miri, a lesbian, I love a book where a man and woman can work together without becoming overwrought with carnal tension.)
Those who enjoy humor that combines the slapstick with the metaphysical (and shouldn't we all find that combination delightful?) will find The Golem of Brooklyn a rare treat, sparking both laughter and rumination.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own. -
Hilarious! Len Bronstein, a Jewish high school art teacher, has systematically stolen 400 pounds of sculpting clay from the school's art supplies. With it, he creates a golem using instructions from the internet but is not prepared when the body he created becomes animated, starts smashing things and is yelling in Yiddish! Len plunks the golem in front of the TV set, tuned in to 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' and takes off for the local bodega where he knows the clerk working there, Miri, speaks Yiddish, and convinces her to come help translate.
By the time they get back though, the golem is already pretty fluent in English and wants to know why he's been summoned. Usually a rabbi or prophet brings him forth in times of crisis and Len is neither one of those. And BTW, he's THE Golem, the one who has been called upon for over 5000 years. And now The Golem has decided his mission is to go to Kentucky to kill a bunch of Jew-hating white supremacists who are holding a rally there. Oy vey!
Really original and quite cleverly done with a very good moral message at the end. Mansbach fleshes out (pun intended) the story with some interesting bits of Jewish history and religion. I received an arc from the author and publisher via NetGalley. Many thanks! My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own. -
TRIGGER WARNING!!! If any of the following describes you, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! IT IS NOT FOR YOU.
There is no question that the history revisionists, Trumpites, Holocaust deniers Proud Boys, Right Wing Republicans, and even Satmar sect Hasidic Jews will find themselves on these pages in a most unflattering light. (Hence the trigger warning - it's not too late NOT to start reading.)
Okay, now that that's out of the way, let me tell you how much I loved this book. I'll begin by saying that the first book I ever reviewed for Goodreads was titled The Golem and the Jini and it was a romance. So as soon as I saw that NetGalley had The Golem of Brooklyn available as an ARC, I downloaded it with great glee and anticipation and it did not disappoint.
Len is a high school Art teacher and over time, has brought home 400 pounds of art supply clay from his school. What to do with it? What else but build a Golem. For those of you who are not familiar with Golems, it is said that throughout Jewish history, renowned Rabbis have saved the Jews by creating a creature from clay, using other materials like blood and cemetery dirt mixed in to create it. Using the proper words, the Rabbi would animate the creature by writing EMET (meaning "truth") on its forehead. Once turned loose, the Golem would rampage and kill the offending oppressors of his people.
Len does all the proper things to accomplish this, but unfortunately the creature only speaks Yiddish, which Len does not understand. So he parks the enormous thing in front of the TV and goes off to bring Miri, a young woman who works in the nearby bodega, to translate. Miri is a Gay dropout from a strict Hasidic sect.
The early part of this novel is so hysterically funny that I was in pain by page 20 from laughing so hard. The fact that I speak Yiddish may have helped, although there are translations for non-speakers. But don't get too used to it. The laughter becomes mixed with discomfort and disbelief as the novel progresses. (My mother would have called it laughing with Yasherkes", which means with tears and pain.)
Mansbach's book even mentions Professor Lilly's dolphin experiments in the 1960s. (You should really read Dolphin House by AudreySchulman)
If you want to read a mind-blowingly funny book about a very serious subject, this is the one. My thanks to the author (You go Guy), to NetGalley and to One World publishers for a most unusual book. It's going to be a smash., I predict. -
I knew immediately after reading the synopsis that this was going to be an outstanding, deeply original work. I'm happy to have been proven right (and then some!) It moves so quickly that you don't have time to stop and ask yourself what the hell just happened. The Golem, Len, and Miri make the sweetest, funniest team I've encountered in a while - I laughed out loud at least twice every chapter. It's a no-brainer - The Golem of Brooklyn gets 5 stars and a permanent spot on my recommendation list. Excellent!
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This book was absolutely hilarious. My in-laws are Jewish and I’m grateful to have learned so much about the culture that these jokes land HARD.
It was recommended as similar in tone to a Dave Barry novel (he and the author are frequent collaborators) so this recommendation was absolutely true. It’s serious when it needs to be and lighthearted when those serious moments are a little too serious.
The characters were authentic, real people reacting like real people do when something absolutely wild and horrifying happens in front of them. Only unrealistic thing in the whole book (include the titular Golem learning English by watching Curb Your Enthusiasm and also getting the blessing of Larry David himself to rough up some anti-Semites) is that the characters always have the perfect quip at the right time. That’s the real magic right there.
I enjoyed everything about this book: the tone, characters, worldbuilding, all of it.
Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and Adam Mansbach for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. -
The Golem of Brooklyn is a hilarious story about an art teacher who creates a golem when he is stoned and the mayhem that follows. The story is also full of Jewish history which I knew very little of and found fascinating. The characters are great, I loved Len, Miri, and the Golem. The dialogue is witty with biting sarcasm and all-around hilarity. I loved this one and highly recommend it.
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This is one of the weirdest books I’ve ever read. It involves a secular Jewish art teacher and ex-orthodox lesbian who accidentally bring to life a golem (a mythical Jewish monster/protector). This book engages with serious questions about modern American Jewish identity, antisemitism and white supremacy, Jewish history, and a golem who learns English from Larry David. It’s offensively hilarious and deeply moving. It's truly remarkable and like nothing else.
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I don’t know what compelled me to select this book as typically I would run away from a story about a Golem. After reading it I can adamantly state that this book is a ridiculous, irreverent story that made me laugh and that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Thank you you to NetGalley for providing this early release in exchange for a fair and honest review. -
Admittedly, this novel is my introduction to the genius of Adam Mansbach. The setting is obviously Brooklyn where a stoned art teacher haphazardly creates a Golem and loops in Miri, a neighborhood bodega clerk, to deal with anti-semitics at a race rally…let’s just say a lot of twist, turns, and absurd shenanigans are in play – but the author makes his points clear amid the madness.
This is an easy read steeped in Jewish history involving the Golem mythology (which I thoroughly enjoyed), dark humor (I’m sure some went over my head), and quirky (but likable) characters (aside from the Golom, there’s a feline narrator). There are overt themes that hone in on the need to remain diligent, to heed the lessons of the past, and to preserve the culture and traditions amid the challenges of modernity. Smartly written and relevant to modern issues, it provides great fodder for discussion and thought because of the myriad of topics, recent (real world) events, and inclusion of so many “groups” within the communities: Hasidic Jews, Jews in the LBGTQAi+, secular Jews, etc. There’s a lot to unpack within the pages and I think book clubs would have a great time with it!
Thanks to the publisher, One World, and NetGalley for an opportunity to review. -
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - One World and NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
The Golem of Brooklyn tells the story of Brooklyn art teacher, Len Bronstein, who manages to create a Golem out of clay and then embarks on an ill advised road trip with Miri, a local ex-Chasid bodega employee and the Golem.
Parts of this story are extremely clever and hilarious (like the first third) and parts are just plain weird and underdeveloped. This book is very short and almost reads like an early draft of a novel. It has something to say but it truly doesn’t know what it is trying to say. The depiction of rabid anti-semitism was a buffoonish caricature and seems pretty naive to the real threat in 2023.
Overall this book is fascinating and such a great kernel of a story but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. -
Adam Mansbach's novels deserve every bit as much acclaim as his "for parents" satire books. Rage Is Back and Angry Black White Boy are personal favorites. He's able to capture the heaviest of topics and still infuse it with "I can't believe they let him publish this" humor.
The Golem of Brooklyn is every bit as good as his best work. Bringing Jewish folklore to modern times, with unlikely (and unwilling!) protagonists who are all too-familiar to this reader, I will be pushing this book upon everyone in my earshot for the rest of the year. Excellent work. -
From the author of Go the Fuck to Sleep comes this Jewish story about a Golem who is brought to life by a cultural Jew, instead of a religious one. Suddenly, he finds himself pulled deeply into the Jewish world and manages to end up at a hate rally..
This book was entertaining because of how funny it was. Also, I hope you love reading the word ‘dickhead,’ you dickhead, lol. The chapters told from the hateful’s POV were disturbing, though, and made me feel dirty.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion. -
I'm sure I would have enjoyed this more if I understood the Jewish references but regardless I thought it was brilliant!!
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I absolutely loved this hilarious and darkly realistic story- that's right, even with a golem involved, it feels like something very close to reality.
When Len, an art teacher, gets high and creates a golem, he doesn't expect it to work, and he definitely doesn't expect the Golem to teach itself English with the help of Larry David and need the help of Miri, a lesbian and former Hasid who works at his neighborhood bodega. As The Golem slowly remembers its past, it also searches for current battles it needs to fight for the Jews, leading Len and Miri to a far right rally in Kentucky as the Golem tries to destroy Proud Boys and other violent antisemites.
I was excited about a Golem going after modern antisemites, but I didn't expect this book to be so hilarious. This is a wry look at so many groups, including Hasidic communities, far right cops protecting their own, queer religious Jews, secular Jews, and more. It is sometimes dark, almost always hilarious, and surprisingly heartfelt. While some of the nuance is more in your face than I would usually prefer, I hope that means this book is able to reach a wider audience than just Jews.
Highly recommend this one! -
Adam Mansbach’s #The Golem Of Brooklyn is either the funniest serious or most serious funny book I’ve had the pleasure to read in years. Whichever way you take it it’s a brilliant achievement. All I know is if my Jewish Education had been this entertaining and thought provoking I might actually have learned something. # The Golem Of Brooklyn is not to be missed !
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Lynn is a 30 something-year-old Pott smoking private school teacher who has been taking Clay home for as long as he’s worked at the Academy and one night after getting really smoked out he made himself a golem. After learning he couldn’t communicate with the golem he recruited the local bodega Cashier Murray. After Murray‘s recruitment and English education from curb your enthusiasm Lynn and Murray will both get an education in Jewish history even though they’re both Jewish but are also both non-practicing when the Gollum ask who he is to kill Lynn is speechless he doesn’t know what to tell the golem Lynn thinks he has found inspiration when he shows the 9 foot golem protesters who hate Jews and anyone else who’s not white and Christian so now the golem thinks they have a mission to get to Kentucky to be at the next rally they have a few stars and stops and they even stop at Lynn’s uncle‘s house who he hasn’t seen since college who makes the golem a Bigfoot costume so it’s not the freak people out… Because the 9 foot Sasquatch is normal. When they have a disagreement between all three of them as to what their plan of attack should be in Kentucky the golem throws Lynn open to a tree and then takes off on foot by his self. Will the trio ever make it to Kentucky and if they do will the golem commit a massacre? This book was good for two reasons the story of the golem with Lynn and Maury and then again with Lana and Evan who is an awesome story I absolutely love that little road trip but I also loved the Jewish history that I didn’t know and found it all so entertaining I laughed out loud more than once because this book is so so funny and educational and entertaining and it’s a book I definitely recommend if you love great books about road trips and or mythical creatures existing in the modern day world then you’re definitely love the golem of Brooklyn I certainly did! I can’t think of one negative thing to say about this awesome book! I want to think the author and Net Galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.
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https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2023/0...
So this author has written plenty of novels and co-written humorous non-fiction with Dave Barry, etc, but is probably most famous for writing “Go the Fuck to Sleep,” and I wasn’t sure what to expect here, but I love golems so I figured I’d give it a try. I did almost put it down at one point when The Golem (who has learned English from watching Larry David) is like “why am I here, what crisis is facing the Jews” and his stoner creator is like “I dunno, intermarriage? The Israel/Palestinian conflict?” and I was boiling with rage because like, this book wasn’t written five years ago, and even if it WAS written five years ago, the Tree of Life shooting had already happened! In MY hometown! Antisemitism is on the rise in a scary way, so go fuck YOURSELF, stoner guy!
But like otherwise I was enjoying this mildly ridiculous Jewish-themed dad-fic kind of book, and one of the other main characters is a formerly Hasidic lesbian, and I hardly ever get Jewish lesbian characters, so I stuck with it. Jewish lesbian and golems, in one book? Ok, you get another chance. And she does bring up Charlottesville, and The Golem is ready to stomp some antisemites at another planned rally. But things do not go according to plan.
This book was kind of weird? Some good character development, some cardboard cutouts (I could have done with way less of the POV of the white supremacist cop). I liked when the author/The Golem brought in bits of Jewish history. The Golem was GREAT all around and the end of this was legitimately interesting. But I have no idea who the audience is for this! Besides, like, me. Lol. A-/B+.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 26th. -
A brilliant combination of a zany adventure with a more sobering look at antisemitism and Jewish thinking throughout the millennia.
When Len, an art teacher, makes a 400-pound, 9 ½ -foot-tall Golem out of stolen modeling clay, he's as surprised as anyone that he was able to animate the being. Unfortunately, the Golem initially speaks only Yiddish, so Len turns to Miri, an exiled Hassidic woman who manages his local bodega, to do the translation. The unlikely trio eventually take a road trip from New York City to Kentucky, where the Golem can fulfill his mandate to protect the Jewish community from those who will do them harm.
Interwoven throughout this adventure, we get glimpses into the Golem's centuries-old collective memory and learn what happened other times he was created as a protector. Here, of course, is the heart of the novel. And here is where Len and Miri must come to terms with the ethical dilemma of letting the Golem kill those who would do harm to them and their people.
We also learn something of the Hassidic community, why Miri lives away from her family, and a little of Len's background too.
So good, so important, so funny, so gut-wrenching . . . one of the best books I've read.
The audiobook was performed by Danny Hock. His Yiddish and Hebrew and accented English sounded excellent to my ear. His timing was perfect, and his rendering of the characters' emotions and moods was spot-on. He seamlessly switched from the humor to the serious, taking us along for the ride.
Thanks to PRH Audio for the review copy. -
Adam Mansbach has written an incredibly smart book filled with humor but also conveying the darker realities of Jewish society. I started this book knowing very little about what a Golem was or its history and place in the Jewish culture. Throughout the story, the author provided an impressive amount of history and explanation for the Golem's place and appearances in past records. I believe this story highlights some important questions such as, what does it mean to be Jewish and what does antisemitism exist.
The story starts with Len who has almost impossibly created a Golem. We later learn that it isn't just any Golem. It is The Golem. The Golem who has hundreds of years ago protected the Jewish people and now is here to do it again. Len immediately needs help and turns to Miri. Miri is a lesbian ex-Hasidic Jew, whose parents no longer consider her Jewish. As the story progresses and Len and Miri turn to the Rebbe for guidance but ultimately strike out on their own to try to make a difference and fulfill The Golem's mission of saving the Jewish people.
The Golem of Brooklyn was at once educational and entertaining. The author clearly conveyed his message without being preachy or presumptive. I am quite impressed with the balance he struck and the complexity and scope of the story.
Thank you to the publisher for the advanced reader copy. This is my honest review. -
An art teacher gets high and makes a Golem. The Golem learns English from watching "Curb Your Enthusiasm." When someone shows him a video of tiki-torch wielding white supremacists chanting "Jews will not replace us" he and his human friends head down to a tiny town in Kentucky to disrupt a Unite the Right-style rally. What's a protector of the Jews to do in a situation like that?
Adam Mansbach wrote one of my all-time favorite novel
Rage Is Back, and one of my all-time favorite short stories "Variations on a Fifty-Pound Bale." So naturally, this book sounded like another winner. And I mostly loved it. Some meandering lessons on Jewish folklore and history and a rather abrupt ending dock a star. But for the most part, it's a fun ride. It's got Yiddish profanity, Larry David, gratuitous violence, and a chapter narrated from the POV of a bodega cat. Plus it kind of reminded me of Iron Giant/Big Hero Six. What more could you ask for? If the description sounds like something you would like, then it probably is.
I read an ARC, which may differ from the final version that hits shelves in September. -
4 stars
This book had me learning, laughing, and contemplating our world today. Mansbach can take a rather serious subject and make it humorous.
Len Bronstein is a private school art teacher living in a flat in Brooklyn. After getting high one day, he decides that he’s going to create a golem from the clay he’s been pilfering from his school. What is a golem? The Golem appears throughout Jewish history as a protector of the Jews.
I didn’t know that either.
But Mansbach teaches us throughout this novel about history, most specifically Jewish history, in a really interesting way.
So he creates this Golem, says the required prayers, and passes out, thinking it didn’t work. Only it does work and the 9 foot tall beast of clay animates and begins speaking in Yiddish. While Bronstein is a Jew, he’s not a scholarly Jew. So he runs to his bodega where he knows the woman who works there speaks Yiddish.
This begins not only an interesting partnership, but also a tale about trying to save the world from the racists and bigots and anti-semites. While this novel will make you laugh (and also wonder where you can get some of what Mansbach is smoking) it is also extremely thought-provoking.
I read it in one day. That should be praise enough. -
This is Goodreads, so I wouldn't be taking up mine or anyone's time to recommend a bad read. I'm not gonna summarize the plot. That's too complicated, above my pay grade, and I don't want to spoil anything. I'll tell you how I felt.
I was floored by The Golem of Brooklyn and can't wait to read it again. Mansbach is an adept storyteller who weaves wild arcs and tangents into the book, devoting chapters to explorations about historical instances of the Golem from medieval times to 1940s Ukraine to Jewish gangsters of the early 20th century, or a poem by Joseph Brodsky. I found myself setting down the book multiple times to disappear down some Internet rabbit hole and nerd out, prompted by some character or chapter and I want to allow myself to enjoy it the book properly away from all of my inquisitiveness.
The book is relevant and meaningful to our historical moment. It deals with themes of Diaspora, belonging, otherness, identity in relationship to whiteness and the current white supremacist movements in the US from a modern Jewish perspective in a critical and nuanced way that prompted me to look deeper into my own non-Jewish sense of belonging, otherness and historical memory.
Despite the weight of the subject matter, like in all Mansbach's work, the book is consistently funny as hell and full of hilarious and absurd twists and turns as well as the rich dialogue.
I'll leave it at that. I highly recommend this book. -
[This book was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review]
3.5 stars
“There has only ever been one golem. He is not made, but remade.”
This is a very funny, tongue-in-cheek, surprisingly biting novel of contemporary American Jewish identity. The actual plot—a nonreligious Jewish man accidentally animates a golem, which struggles to find a purpose in the modern world and eventually lumbers menacingly toward the white supremacists from 2017’s Unite the Right Charlottesville rally—is engaging enough, but the real heart of the story lies in its half-jokingly philosophical musings on what Judaism is all about. Tucked in at the sides is a very readable account of Jewish history and lore, at least as pertains to the legends of the golem.
My favorite chapter concerns the conversion of a little girl to Judaism, which is presented as a legalistic work-around for the golem’s purposes but is in practice strikingly earnest and wholesome. Some of the chapters seem superfluous and the text stops rather abruptly, but looking at the story as a postmodern text, I rather like the effect it produces. -
I was very lucky to receive an ARC of this book through a publisher’s giveaway! I will also disclose that this book contains pretty graphic antisemitism, so read with caution!
This book started off very funny and ended VERY differently, in a way that really gave this book substance and character. Through a mad science experiment of a stoned artist turning a sculpture into a mythical being, and then inadvertently teaching the being English while watching Curb Your Enthusiasm, Len and Miri find themselves in a battle between ethics of humane treatment through turbulent political atmospheres like those currently in the US (2023). I thought that this book did a great job explaining the role of mythology in Jewish culture and also in the basis of antisemitism, expertly toeing the line between unnecessarily brutal and eye-opening. As a non-Jewish reader, I found the glossary in the back helpful and hilarious, and the historical explanations to be entertaining! -
I think you have to have a certain sense of humor to catch all the minutia in this book. It was a little too slapstick and potty mouth to my liking. There were a few moments that I actually understood the pun intended by I really think this one should be done on the big screen so the goofy looking Golem and these 3 high on drugs characters can be seen. Not particularly my cup of tea. I had read others reviews and was looking forward to a good fun book , even as a satire, but this just wasn't it. I was provided an advanced reader copy and was under no obligation to provide a review. The opinions expressed are my own. Thanks to the author,publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.
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Frankenstein meets Encino Man, a sprinkle of The Hulk, on top of Jewish history, lore, and intersections of Jewish culture.
I really liked this.
And the Larry David bit? Pretty, pretty good.
The “witch” character was charming.
If there’s a sequel, I’ll be reading it.
And I’ll have to check out more of Adam Mansbach’s work in the meantime.
(Also, unexpectedly: a theme song at the end of the audiobook? Admittedly, I eyerolled as soon as the narrator mentioned a song, thinking it was a cheesy concept and expecting to hate it, but it caught me by surprise. The song had an Aesop Rock vibe. Cool. A whole album to go with the book?! Interesting. You don’t see that often.)
