Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but a little shallow
Review: One caveat -- I'm only half-way through the book. The back cover of this book promised me "a glimpse of history, an authentic tale of high adventure, and a tender and unforgettable love story," about a fugitive learning to fight like a knight, and "hurling snatches of almost forgotten Hebrew at the stars." I expected an exploration of what being Jewish meant to the main character, and why he would accept a life as a fugitive to hold on to it. I got a so-so historical adventure story. I felt as if the author wanted to remind his readers every so often that Yonah was attempting to remain Jewish, and did so by mentioning every so often that he said a prayer, or thought about his father. There was none of the poignancy or the psychological and emotional exploration that I had hoped for, nothing of how being Jewish shaped his responses to situations, his ethics, etc. There wasn't a great deal of excitement, either. Things just happen, almost perfunctorily, to Yonah, and he seems almost to fall into lucky situations. One small element that was a big distraction for me was the author's treatment of women. Perhaps he was trying to reflect the mindset of a young man who grew up without a mother or sisters, but the female characters almost exclusively serve as objects of sexual desire. If Yonah isn't interested in them, they're lucky to get more than a sentence. For example, the only actions the mother of Ines, a young women in whom (of course!) Yonah is interested, is allowed to take is to act suspicious when Yonah spends too much time with Ines. About Ines herself, all we are allowed to learn is that she's pretty, she works with her father, and that she's rather shy but probably interested in Yonah. Even more galling, both the narrator and the characters repeatedly refer to women as "females." ("Nine men and six females attended." "A more -- eligible -- suitor might think the female is weak and unable to perform the strenuous duties of a wife.") What gives?
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Summary: I LOVED this book!
Review: One of my favorite books of all time! I didn't want it to end!
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Summary: The Last Jew by Alex
Review: The historical novel entitled The Last Jew, was written by Noah Gordon and copyrighted in August 2000. The Last Jew is written in the form of forty-six chapters structured as essays, and organized into seven parts than enclose different themes. The plot takes place in the cities of Toledo, Ciudad Real, Salamanca, Cadiz, Gibraltar, and Saragossa, in the provinces of Castille and Aragon, in Spain. The book covers a time period from 1489 to 1509, during the time of the Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. This essay will describe the setting, theme, plot, and characters of the book The Last Jew in greater detail and it will provide a personal comment on the book, to demonstrate my aunt's and my understanding of the book and the analytic process. The protagonist of the book entitled The Last Jew is called Yonah Toledano. He is a Jewish boy from the city of Toledo who grows from thirteen to over forty years of age. Yonah Toledano is composed of a tall and strong body with a large head and dark hair. Throughout the book Yonah grows a beard and then shaves it off. He wears simple clothes appropriate to the professions he adopts as he travels through Spain, always keeping a low profile to avoid being identified as a Jew. Yonah is the second of three sons of Helkias Toledano, a Jewish metal craftsman who is murdered at the beginning of the book. The murder of his father and older brother inflicts an emotional wound that torments Yonah until the end of the book. Yonah, who adopts the Christian name Ramon Callicó to avoid being discovered by the Inquisitors, learns trades like farming, sailing, and sword making as he travels through Spain, fleeing the Inquisition and looking for people who share his identity as a Jew. He is a calm person who knows how to fight and defend himself, but he seldom uses his skills. After his father and older brother, Meir, are murdered and all of Spain's Jews either flee or convert themselves to Christianity, Yonah is faced with the predicament of being the last Jew in Spain fighting for the survival of himself and his religion. When Yonah Toledano was thirteen years old, he lived in Toledo with his father and two brothers, Meir and Eleazar. Yonah's family, together with all the Jewish families from Toledo, were preparing to flee from Spain to avoid the unjustified executions of Jews by the Inquisition. A small and poor Hyeronmite priory in Toledo had been granted a relic, a bone of Saint Ana, and they needed a reliquary to contain the sacred bone. Helkias Toledano was hired to make the reliquary, but when Meir was sent to deliver it, he was raped and murdered, and the reliquary was stolen. A month after Meir's death, Helkias was murdered by a count and his friends who were frightened by his questioning of the religious authorities regarding his son's murder. During the murder, Yonah hid inside a cave for three days while all the Jews from the city, including his younger brother and his family, fled from Spain. Yonah found himself alone in Toledo, with no friends or family and with the Inquisition feverishly searching the country for Jews. He stole a donkey and fled the city, starting his journey through Spain. Yonah became a sailor and a metal craftsman, but he eventually apprenticed to a physician in Saragossa. In 1501 he became a physician, while still conserving his Jewishness, not as language and traditions, but as a pure sense of continuity. Yonah prospered as a physician and got married, but the sense of a task unfinished accompanied him throughout his life, until he got a letter asking him to be the doctor of a dying count of Toledo, who had theoretically been involved in the smuggling of relics in the area and had been one of the murderers of Yonah's father. He traveled to Toledo and treated the dying count until the count died, but he found the stolen reliquary together with ten Kiddush cups his father had made for the count, and he helped the local church to recover the relic. Yonah returned to Saragossa and continued to pray and perform the Jewish traditions he remembered while he formed a family of his own with his wife, Adriana. The theme of the book, The Last Jew, is the preservation of Yonah Toledano's religion in a country where there were no Jews and practicing Judaism was prohibited. After his life presented him with a harsh world in which he was alone, he grew up physically and emotionally, learning many trades and living amongst people, while maintaining his religion deep inside himself. Throughout his life, Yonah was forced to violate many of his religion's rules and traditions, like eating pork and not celebrating the Sabbath and even pretending that he was a true Christian; nevertheless, he remains a Jew even though his environment encourages the opposite. Yonah demonstrates that being Jewish does not mean following the traditions or speaking Hebrew, but a feeling and a sense of continuity very deep into oneself. After having discovered and avenged the deaths of his father and brother, and being a respected physician in Saragossa, Yonah Toledano only wishes to keep being Jewish, and to pass his Jewishness on to his children, so that they will know where they come from. This essay described the setting, theme, plot, and characters of the book The Last Jew in detail and it demonstrated my understanding of the book as well as of the analytic process. I would recommend The Last Jew to anyone who is able to read it, because it expresses an argument, which is not only true, but also the lack of its comprehension is the source of many of today's problems between people. The main idea of the book is worth studying because it presents us with a different and a true perspective of what belonging to a religion means. The main idea of the book is convincingly explained by presenting us through the protagonist, Yonah Toledano, and how he refused to convert to Christianity even though he was unable to practice Judaism; however, remaining a Jew all through his life.
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Summary: Accurate portrait of the spanish 15 and 16th Century
Review: The Last Jew is an amazing book, that portraits vividly the End of the spanish Middle Age and the start of the Modern Aera. The spanish Inquisition in the eyes of a young jew, that loses his family and his religion, condemned to leave the country. A trip in history. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Praise for The Last Jew
Review: The Last Jew is an outstanding novel about the practical effects that the Spanish Inquisition had on the lives of the unfortunate Jews who were subjected to it. Gordon does an excellent job weaving a tale of the harsh realities of the time, yet he manages to include a glimmer of hope in the end. It really made my wheels turn and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A good reason to support historical fiction
Review: THE LAST JEW was my first contact with Gordon's writing. It likely will not be my last. Initially, I was put off by the several worlds of 15th century Toledo. I found it confusing when Gordon seemed to leap willy nilly from one world to another. As the journey continued, his reasons for the almost strict separation of those two (if not three) worlds became more apparent. Another reviewer noted that too many coincidences weakened Gordon's book. I disagree -- the coincidences do not come off as contrived, and properly reflect the smaller world of that time. Additionally, THE LAST JEW maintains a medieval "feel" by emulating European literary techniques of 18th and 19th century writings. I was reminded of the great didactic novels of that era. Gordon managed not to fall into the abyss of their heavy-handed treatment of ethical and moral themes, while preserving the quality and voice of the period. I agree with the reviewer who noted that the novel shines a spotlight on the goodness of people of true faith, regardless of creed. Despite the other strengths of THE LAST JEW, this one is most notable -- and laudable.
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Summary: (3.5)Religious Fanaticism and the Inquisition...
Review: The Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, guided by the machinations of the infamous monk, Torquemada, order the immediate expulsion of all Jews in Spain in 1489. Thus begins the tortured drama of the Spanish Inquisition, when the all-powerful Catholic Church recognizes the necessity for the removal of alternative belief systems as a source of temptation for Christians, particularly Judaism. Through the sacrament of Baptism, Jews are given the opportunity to become Christians, thus creating a class of "conversos", or New Christians. This is the only means by which former Jews are allowed to remain in Spain. The conversos are never entirely safe from persecution, however, and continue to be targets of the auto-da-fe (act of the faith), a public burning of heretics for the moral edification of Christians. Those denounced as heretics are also subject to indiscriminate acts of revenge, jealousy and avarice, as an accusation is as good as a confession. Fear is endemic to these troubled and dangerous times.
Yonah Toledano is a young Jew, son of a silversmith, orphaned by the powerful priest, Fra Bonestruca, during a raid on the elder Toledano's house. A polar opposite, Bonestruca is doubtless Yonah's nemesis, as the friar appears throughout the following years while Yonah continues his wandering. Like most people at their first meeting, Yonah is struck by the friar's unusually attractive face, a countenance that belies a violent and avaricious nature. For self-preservation, Yonah assumes the name Ramon Callico. His travels lead him throughout Spain, while he poses as an Old Christian, but secretly considers himself the embodiment of "the last Jew". In each new place he selects someone to trust with his true identity. Unbelievably, Yonah is never betrayed by any of these mentors. Over and over, Yonah/Ramon reinvents himself, until he apprentices as a physician. Finally, as a licensed physician of some reputation, Yonah finds a sense of direction for the rest of his life. In his capacity as healer, Yonah ministers to Bonestruca in the final agonizing days before the friar's swift descent into madness. Nature accomplishes what Yonah cannot, as Bonestruca's years of transgressions are punished, a result of his own actions. In fact, Gordon's protagonist leads a charmed life, as most of Yonah's enemies are vanquished and good triumphs over evil, in an often too transparent plot. Noah Gordon hasn't the unique gifts of Sharon Kay Penman, but his writing sustains the reader's interest, particularly the details: the methods of torture used by the Inquisitors, the lucrative black-market for sacred relics and the massive relocation of beleaguered Jews. This anecdotal retelling of the Jewish Diaspora from Spain is historically accurate, but would better were the characters not so black and white. Yonah is the epitome of kindness, with few notable exceptions, while his enemies are riddled with faults and inadequacies. Yet the essence of humanity is found in the ambiguity of human nature, where the moral imperatives are subjective and choice is often determined by mitigating circumstances. Reading sacred Jewish text on retribution, Yonah wonders, "If Jews were in power instead of the Church, would they also use God to destroy unbelievers? Was it an axiom that absolute religious power must bring with it religious cruelty?" Good question. Luan Gaines/2003.
Rating:
Summary: Historical fiction of the highest order
Review: This book traces the wanderings of a Spanish Jew towards the end of the 15th century. Forced to leave his native city of Toledo after the mysterious death of first his brother, then his father, Yonah finds that he exists in limbo. He can no longer be a Jew because the King has expelled them from the country and the Inquisition has forcibly converted, or burned, those who did not leave. He cannot renounce Judaism because in his heart, he knows he must hold fast to the religion of his father. He cannot even pretend to have become a Christian, because converts are treated as second-class citizens by all--and often burned by the Inquisition as 'backsliding Jews'. On this basis, Yonah runs from town to town, taking on jobs and even apprenticeships, but leaving as soon as he fears that his secret will be found out. Over the course of years, we see him learn and grow, from a scared kid with vengeance in his heart to a man who has had to accept his enemies as human beings, even to respect them, as he does his duty as a physician. He meets up with characters that illuminate their time and place: the gypsy dwarf who uses his gift for comedy to influence kings, the daughter of a silk merchant whose father won't let her marry a shepherd, the master armorer whose labor of love is a set of scalpels for his surgeon brother, and the inquisitor whose irrational rage turns out to have an organic cause. The main character remains true to his religious ideals, while changing with each phase of his travels, and it is a joy to witness his growth and marvel at the variety in his life. As a member of the SCA...whose character is a Jew whose family comes from Spain, I found the portrayal of the Inquisition, of the reasons for expelling the Jews, and of the lives of those who remained, to be vivid and inspiring. I would love to think Yonah was my character's father or grandfather. In short: a page turner that involves the reader from start to finish. A must-read for those interested in Jewish history, the Renaissance, and historical mysteries.
Rating:
Summary: Well Researched, Well Written
Review: This is a great book, it is definitely a page turner, larger because of a subconcious tension that the author preserves throughout the end of the novel. If you question the historical accuracy you should 1) Do a better job of studying Spanish history yourself and 2) Revisit the research credits in the back of the book- good stuff a rich protrait of life for a Sephardic Jew during the inquisition. Worth every penny.
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Summary: What happens next?
Review: This is not a bad read and I will give Noah Gordon another try but I was left at the end of the book wishing for more. The story of the Jews in Spain is a terrible one and in too many ways not much improved today.
My preference is for a story that ends happily ever after (of course was not possible and in this story it did end as happily as conditions of the time allowed) and I was left wondering would how long the pretence of being Catholic go on? What would happen to the child or children? There are more questions I have along this line but inasmuch as I was not the author I must leave the story to him.
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