The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon

Rating:
Summary: Murder and a history lesson
Review: "The last kabbalist of Lisbon" is a man named Berekiah Zarco, a jew living in Lisbon in the beginning of the 16th century. During that year's Passover celebration, the christian population in Lisbon revolted against the jews, and many atrocities were commited. Zarco's uncle, Abraham, a powerful jew and kabbalist, was involved in many irregular activities. During the riots, Berekiah's life is turned upside down, and, among other things, his beloved uncle is murdered, under mysterious circumstances.

Richard Zimler has created a novel based in many layers, characters and situations. Sometimes a little confusing, but always interesting, Zimler guides us since his discovery of the hidden documents written by Zarco centuries ago, to his misfortunes while trying to find his uncle's murderer. The violence contained in the novel is purposedly very graphic, so that the reader can relate to what happened during the period. Most of his characters are complex, but, even if the story is narrated in first person, I felt detached from Berekiah, the main character, paying attention to other characters, more interesting in my opinion.

Zimler has written a story that is really a "whodunnit", mixed with the fictional account of one of the most unhappy times in human history. I liked it and recommend it, although it is a little too dense to become "popular".

Grade 8.0/10

Rating:
Summary: A vivid historical novel
Review: A columnist's praise in the June 9, 2000, issue of the Mexico City newspaper Excelsior alerted me to "The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon," and I bought a copy. I found the plot delightfully engaging; it was hard to put the book down. Zimler's portrait of Lisbon in 1506, with Jews being killed by the Christian majority, is vividly drawn. And it appears to be historically accurate: the Encyclopædia Britannica confirms that there was a massacre of Jews in Lisbon that year. Reading the novel, you're in the center of a pogrom, and it's not pleasant. Zimler's portrayal of life under siege is an accomplishment in itself, but to interweave it with a well-constructed detective story is even more remarkable. The next time I'm in Lisbon, I'll walk through the Rossio and the Alfama with a more informed perspective.

In sum, I highly recommend this novel. I have a few criticisms. The novel tends to portray Lisbon's Christians as haggard savages, literally cretins (a pejorative word derived from the Latin for Christian). Zimler's vehemence in this regard surprised me. And the self-righteousness of his hero, Berekiah Zarco, becomes hard to take at times, particularly when it's combined with an intrepidity that Batman and Robin might envy. Moreover, I agree with the June 7, 2000, posting that the regular invocation of a verb "to gift" was irritating and distracting. (The word "center" was also occasionally used in odd ways, but "gift" was particularly grating.) I know of nothing in Portuguese that requires such usage.

I wondered whether the supposedly nonfictional author's note was a literary device or a statement of historical fact. I think I've been able to figure out which it is, but the author may not want the answer posted here, so I'm not going to gift (I mean give) my opinion. Let it be part of the mystery.

Rating:
Summary: The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon
Review: After reading all of Chaim Potok's books, I decided this book would give another perspective on study of Kabbalah. Because many Jewish scholars have opposed study through the centuries of these mystical writings, it was fun to return to 1506 when visions and talismans were commonly believed to work.

The vivid descriptive language used throughout this story can be gruesome at times, but it puts the reader in Lisbon at the time of the forced conversions of Jews.

The mystery is fun to watch unfold, but the characters are a challenge to track. Because they have both Jewish names and New Christian names, it can be challenging to remember which member of the group had the scar where and what his two names are . . .

If you're tired of John Grisham's predictability, try a new environment, an historical setting, and a mystical culture for the setting of a good mystery.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent historical as well as mystery/thriller novel
Review: Cleverly written, it accurately and convincingly conveys the history of early 16th century Portugal as well as being a "page-turner" of a mystery and spell-binding thriller novel. I couldn't put it down! If you liked Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose", you'll love "The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon". The imagery is beautiful, the view into the world of jewish mysticism, and the vivid portrayal of this tumultous historical period is captivating. Like Eco's book, this novel has many layers of meaning and a clever, intricate mystery. However, the pace of this book is much faster than Eco's "Name of the Rose"...once you start reading, it is hard to put it down.

Rating:
Summary: A Dishonest Novel
Review: I am almost wholly convinced that this is a modern novel and that the stuff re finding the MSS is, at best a literary conceit, and more likely a marketing ploy. Because:

1) It just reads modern. I can't argue for this well .. it just does. I mean I've not read any authentically 16th C Iberian Jewish novels (the nearest to that I've read is early Gothic novels and Tom Jones - yeah and I only read that as a teenager looking for mucky bits).

2) Nothing in the biographical stuff re. Richard Zimler suggests he was educated in such a way as to be a possible translator for the alleged found MSS.

3) if such MSS had been discovered, then
a) There would have announcement and articles on it in scholarly journals, yet there are no references given to such in the book.
b) There would be some mention of the museum or institution in which the MSS are now lodged.

4) On p48 there is a ref to the Jews enslaved by the Egyptians building pyramids. Now according to Exodus the Jews were making bricks with which to build two store cities; there is no mention in it of pyramids and anyway the pyramids were not built with bricks. The date of the exodus from Egypt was c. 1270 BCE, having been enslaved for c. 370 years, The Old Kingdom, during which were built the pyramids ended c. 2200 BCE. So this reference to pyramids could not have occurred in MSS written in the early 16th C.

Now, in general the fact that a novel is prefaced by a statement, purportedly not part of the novel, stating that the novel was written at a time other than that in which it really was written need not affect the worth of that novel. But in this case it seems to me that the pyramid reference is such an anachronism as to cast doubt on the authenticity of its account of Jewish life in Lisbon at that time. Suppose we came across a novel, supposedly written in Shakespeare's time which had him visiting Glamis Castle shortly after the events in Macbeth ?! It seems to me that Zimler in writing re. The passover celebration thought: 'Jews in Egypt' --> 'Egypt' --> 'pyramids' --> 'Jews building pyramids'. This is a thought which might occur to someone writing re the Passover who was not part of that tradition, but it would not have come from someone in that tradition. This suggests to me not just that the novel is modern and not in any way based on the source which it claims to be based on, but that Zimmler's research is sloppy and/or his empathy with the culture of which he writes is very shallow.

This seems to me to be a novel written for a supposed audience. Several have compared it with *The Name of the Rose* - I think that comparison was intended by the author. All the stuff about the Kabbala was written with the intention of pushing the buttons of literary theory buffs re reading and intertextuality and so on and so on. The stuff at the end re. Jews having no future in Europe and having to move to a Moslem land is either a piece of Zionist propaganda or a piece of black anti-Zionist propaganda.

This novel has no soul, it has no authenticity. I was reminded of a quest in a computer game.

Rating:
Summary: Agonizingly slow
Review: I just finished Last Kabbalist and it was a chore to do so. The dialogue was amateurishly written and I found that I really didn't care at all about any of the characters. I AM a kabbalistic Jew and bought the book full of anticipation. After the first chapter, however, I proceeded with what could best be decribed as a dogged determination. I had to finish it to see if it ever got any better. Unfortunately, it never did. I finished it with nothing more than regret for the time I wasted in reading it. Not recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Starts well but fades towards the end.
Review: I looked forward to reading "The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon" by Richard Zimler, since the blurbs on the back of the book were glowing. I have read many fictional accounts of the Inquisition in Portugal, and I am always moved by the suffering of the Jews who lived during this terrible time. Zimler's book starts out well. I found the characters, especially Abraham Zarco (brilliant mystic, manuscript illuminator and leader of his community) fascinating. Twenty-year-old Berekiah Zarco, Abraham's nephew, is an enthusiastic and vivid narrator. However, after Berekiah stops being an observer and starts becoming a sleuth, the book loses its momentum. In a repetitious series of vignettes, Berekiah wanders around the neighborhood interviewing a variety of people, as he tries to find out who murdered his uncle. Zimler presents us with a dizzying array of characters who flow in and out of the novel. After a while, I lost track of the characters and I lost interest, as well. What a shame, since Zimler does have a gift for describing this horrible chapter in the history of European Jewry.

Rating:
Summary: The exodus of 1506
Review: Reading Richard Zimler's book The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon is similar in a way to looking at a painting by the Flemish painter Hironymous Bosch: both have many-layered, complex compositions, full of mysterious sometimes gory details yet one can not stop looking /reading them. No wonder the author himself referred in passing, to a painting by Bosch glanced upon by Berekiah and his friend Farid in one of the city's palaces.

I was fascinated not only by the main story itself ascending way beyond a regular murder mystery, but also by it's frame tale - namely, the discovery of Zarco's manuscript by Zimler back in 1990 in Istanbul. Yet, one can not but recall the words of Golden-Age Spanish-Jewish poet Solomon Ibn-Gabirol who wrote: "The poem's best - is its fiction", and that much can apply to this book, by the time you reach the middle of it, it no longer matters whether back in 1990 Zimler actually stayed in Istanbul, found Zarco's manuscript and edited it into contemporary fiction, to be published about a decade later. If indeed these facts are true and not mere fiction - than the world has been blessed with an important discovery of an illuminating historical document that sheds more light on the grim events that took place during 1506 in Lisbon.
But surely this is not the main point behind this amazing, captivating and touching narrative.

What, then is Zimler's bottom-line?
Might it be a warning to Jews all over the world that no place is indeed safe for them in the long run? After all it can not be a mere coincidence that in 1530 Zarco warns his future readers about further wrong-doings towards the Jews of Europe, be it in during his life-time or hundreds of years later - (1930- for instance). One can not help but notice how the graphic descriptions of the massacre of the Anusim during Passover of 1506, connotes in a powerful and disturbing parallels to similar events recounted after the late 19th century pogroms in East Europe as well as after the Holocaust.

Still, this book was not written only for a public well versed in Historia Judaica,
therefore I tend to believe Zimler aimed to reach a higher, more spiritual level of awareness in his reader, pointing out that the real issue here is all about living without masks, telling us between the lines, that a person can only be complete if he lives his life in a place where he is accepted as he really is - be it a Jew or a Muslim, straight or gay.

Rating:
Summary: Not so bad, but not so good
Review: The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon was neither a thriller, nor very educational about the history of Lisbon's Jews, nor was it very much about kabbalah. Rather, it scratched the surface of all three. My advice is, read a book about kabbalah, a book about the History of Jews in Europe, and a book by Agatha Christie or someone. While it might take you three times as long to get through the books, one would learn 10 times as much. Dont get me wrong, The Last Kabbalist is not garbage, but you wont find yourself thinking about the story while day dreaming on the elevator.

Rating:
Summary: Gruesomely enthralling
Review: This book has some amazingly disgusting scenes that are described during the pogrom of the Jewish settlement in Lisbon. Disturbingly, these scenes only make the book that much more interesting and engrossing. The book is a wonderful novel set in an incredible time period. One interesting feature is the change in tense from past to present about halfway through the book. The reader can't help but feel the madness that consumes the protagonist as his obsession to find his Uncle's killer leads him on a maddeningly winding trail. Besides having a great plot line this novel also has the benefit of giving an insight into Kabbalah, a fascinating movement. Readers of mystery and students of religion will relish the experience of reading this fine work.