Key among these voices is Yente, who readers meet at a wedding in the novel’s opening pages. Rather than treating Frank’s life in a straightforward, linear, biographical manner, Tokarczuk views the prophet askew: developments and events are recounted in a multitude of voices, including written accounts the Rabbi Nahman, one of Frank’s oldest friends and most devout followers (and eventual betrayer), the letters of a Catholic priest, and the overarching, near-omniscient voice of the novel itself (its origin revealed in the novel’s final pages). (It is estimated that Frankism had around 50,000 followers over the 18th and 19th centuries.) Imprisoned for thirteen years for his beliefs, Frank maintained his following and lived his final days, following his release, as the Baron of Offenbach, continuing his mystical teachings while supporting a private army. The result was the Frankist movement, which was expansive: it encompassed three religions - he was Jewish, then converted to Islam and added Catholicism, all under the umbrella of his entirely new religion. At nearly a thousand pages (it took Tokarczuk six years to write), “The Books of Jacob” is set in the 18th Century, and follows the life of charismatic religious leader Jacob Frank who, in what was widely regarded as the prophesied end of days (nicely overlapping with the conflict between religion and science of the Enlightenment), sought to create a new faith.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |