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Summary: Naomi Ragen Teaches About Family Heritage
Review: Naomi Ragen has written a wonderful book about people and their families. It taught me how family traditions are passed on from one tradition to other generation. The story was so beautiful. I passed it along to all my friends. Just last week, many years after telling my friend about this book she told me that she has told all her friends to read this book. I can wait to tell her it is available on Amazon. Enjoy the book. Pass it on to your grandchildren.
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Summary: Great mix of history and contemporary
Review: Naomi Ragen's "The Ghost of Hannah Mendes" is a good story, told superbly. Ragen gives us a look into the Spain of 500 years ago that most of us only read about in dry history texts. She gives the characters life and color, and she takes us to the settings with a delightful mixture of sophistication, erudition and plain great storytelling. I grinned a lot during some of the modern sections, too. Who wouldn't want to type out the kind of message that one of the granddaughters writes at the end, partially in capital letters? Oh, you want to know what I'm talking about? Read the book!
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Summary: Interweaves present fiction with true history.
Review: Naomi Ragen's recent novel "The Ghost of Hannah Mendes" kept me interested from beginning to end. The story focuses on the lives of the fictional descendents of the true historical figure, Gracia Nasi, also known as Beatrice DeLuna and Hannah Mendes. The love stories and intrigue that surround elements of the life of Dona Gracia follow a family of assimilated Jews as they try to reclaim their heritage and traditions. It also tells a story that nowadays is a common tale in the American Jewish community, that of a family previous lost to Jewish traditions reclaiming their place in the community.
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Summary: historical romance
Review: One thing that I didn't know about this book, from the reviews, before I started, is that it is essentially (IMHO) a romance novel. And I don't really like romance novels. However I did enjoy this book because I learned alot about Sepharidim and the expulsion of Jews from Spain and then Portugal in the 15 century. And that part I really enjoyed. So if you like historical romance, this is probably for you. If you want to learn something about the Inquisition and don't mind reading a romance, this could also be interesting.
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Summary: In an effort to say something new about T.G.ofH.M. --
Review: So many reviewers have already written eloquently regarding the story-line and Ragen's skill as an author that I hesitated in writing a review as well! I promise not to be repetitive. A few years ago, it occured to me that most of the literature that has been written with a Jewish subject or main character deals in some way with the Holocaust. In many ways, I feel that focus is absolutely appropriate. As many Jewish children of my generation have, I grew up hearing stories from my own family's experiences and made pledges to 'never forget'. Yet, as Naomi Ragen so beautifully demonstrates, Jewish history goes back far before the wars of this century and Jewish traditions and faith are lost in many families. What is it, exactly, that we pledged to remember? As in her other novels, Ragen writes Jewish characters who may be 'haunted' (figuratively or literally) by the past but who continue to move forward with their lives. Even more remarkably, Ragen does not pause throughout her narrative to explain every detail of Jewish life. She writes about the lives of her Jewish characters to tell us (the readers) about them, rather than to teach us about the religion. It IS critical that we 'never forget', yet as the Abuela of Ragen's novel learns it is even more critical that we REMEMBER. I am not only refering to Jews, I am refering to all people. It is critical that we know and remember where we came from so that we can make an educated committment to what we will carry forward with us and what we will leave behind. The Ghost of Hannah Mendez is a wonderful work of historical fiction in that it not only raises issues and ideas of the past, but also comments quite boldly on the present.
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Summary: Ugh. A Harlequin Romace Dressed As An Histoical Novel
Review: The cover is beautiful! The title beguiling! I thought it would be a nice follow up to Anita Diamant's The Red Tent. Nothing could be furher from the truth. With the exception of the initial quote from the original manuscript by Hannah Mendes, the book is a florid, over written, content-free piece of fluff. Although it is a story of an ancient and wealthy family, I would actually prefer descriptions of things, other than expensive, shiny, lush, expensive, heirlom, expensive, gold and silver, rich, wealthy, and expensive. Bacon pretending to be kosher. Ugh.
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Summary: Evokes the entire spectrum of emotion
Review: The Ghost Of Hannah Mendez is a work of wizardry, a superb and eloquent tour de force involving the melding of history and fiction that immediately engages the reader. Utterly realistic characters in present time and the Spirit of Hannah Mendez speak across the space/time continuum directly to the heart of the reader. Couched in a quest, the story held my attention in a friendly, unyielding and compassionate embrace. Anyone not totally engaged by the superlative writing of Naomi Ragen is likely made of wood. Anyone not completely moved by the story is likely made of stone. The Ghost of Hannnah Mendez is a window which allows you to see into life during tubulent and terrible times. It is a window and, if your eyes are fully open, you will see that which any great work of art must be capable of revealing. This book is a mirror. Buy it. Read it. Learn from it.
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Summary: Love, Mystery, Suspense
Review: The novel is absolutely riveting. It is a wonderful mix of culture, history, romance, mystery and suspense. I found it an enchanting and charmful way of learning a piece of history through fiction. This is a wonderful book for people who view history as boring. One can feel the cruelty that was felt by the jewish people during this time through the eyes of a fiction character. Which in turn, leaves one with a new perspective and respect for culture and history. The words simply flow and keep ones attention.
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Summary: Plotless Depiction of an Obscenely Wealthy Family
Review: The one star that I give this book is only for the historical part of the novel. Even the story of Hannah Mendes is marred by the truncated account of her life--every time the story picks up momentum the narrative scraps abruply end, with almost all of the important action--the deaths of her mother and husband never addressed. Speaking of the husband, he is impossibly idealized and their meeting in the forest is ridiculous. The modern part of the book is, quite simply, terrible. I wouldd give it 0 stars if I could. What do I care about about a family that is desperate to hang onto their money? Yes, it is the Mendes name and the Jewish tradition that is supposedly important, too, but the author would have been better served by picking a family with more modest roots. The depictions of Europe are shallow, with the spoiled young women naturally staying in all the best places--the Savoy, the Gritti, etc. And all their marvelling at how they could go crazy spending money in Venice! Please! The women go on a pointless search for manuscripts, accompanied by their perfect escorts, which have all the the personality of Ken dolls, and at the end they have all bred successfully. Yuck! And call me impious, but the refusal to spell out the name of God really got on my nerves. I am so glad that I only borrowed this book!
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Summary: The ghost of Hannah Mendes. Exccelent book!
Review: The topic is the inquisition and tells you a lot of history trough the romance, so you will learn about a historic subject in a light , exciting and entartaining way. You will discover the inpirational life of Hannah Mendes, a heroine from the inquisition period. The message that is brougth to us is : to go back to our roots, our own background can be nice. It is the travel to search one's values in life. It is very spiritual! I personally loved it very much!!!
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