The World to Come: A Novel

I found this book disjointed and not easy to follow. I am an avid reader and heard such great reviews of this book but it really doesn't warrant such glowing reports, sorry to say. The characters were not well developed and the story line so convoluted as to not make sense.

In the Yiddish folk tales that are woven through this magnificent book, the World to Come is a heaven occupied both by those that have passed on and those that have yet to be born. So Dara Horn writes about families and generations: elders who have passed on (or in some cases been eliminated), adults facing tragedy, finding new love, or conceiving new life, and children trying to figure out what it all means. One folk tale tells of a town where nobody ever dies, because nobody has really truly lived; throughout the book, Horn is concerned with the quality of living, with risk-taking, faith, and trust, and with authenticity in life or in art. This may sound abstract, but Horn's writing is far from it; her greatest gift is to plunge the reader into the souls of her characters, sharing their experience through their eyes, ears, and skin.

In some ways, this novel reminded me of THE HISTORY OF LOVE by Nicole Krauss, another recent novel spanning several generations of Jewish families in Europe and America. Just as that was tied together by the fate of a manuscript whose history spans much of the twentieth century, so this also revolves around an artwork, or rather two of them: a small Chagall painting that is stolen from a New York museum at the start of the book, and some stories by the Yiddish writer Der Nister (the Hidden One), who ultimately met the same fate as numerous other Jewish intellectuals in Soviet Russia. Both art forms -- painting and folk tales -- offer ways of looking at the world that are instinctive rather than logical, childlike in their immediacy, and closer to religion than to fact. Both deal with other worlds. Many of the characters in the book are involved with the visual arts, but since this is a novel it is the stories that provide the connective tissue, offering a different way of seeing to stand against the many tragedies of the past century. As Horn acknowledges in the appendix, most of the stories are adapted from earlier writers, but her skill is to weave them into a narrative that links divers times and places in a web of feelings and perceptions rather than as points on the railroad of chronological logic. This wondrous novel seems to be at once totally original and to have existed for ever.

I have to admit that my attitudes to the book went through some changes. I was put off reading it for several months because of the excessive cuteness of the original cover [I see it has now changed]. It was not until I got into it that I realized that this was an adult story, childlike at its best moments, certainly, but never childish. Once I had come to trust Dara Horn as a storyteller, I felt she could take me anywhere: to modern life in New York, the privations of an orphanage in Soviet Russia, the horrors of Vietnam, or the imagined world of folk tales going back centuries. I found myself telling everybody I met that this was something on the level of Paul Auster's ORACLE NIGHT, Myla Goldberg's BEE SEASON, the Krauss HISTORY OF LOVE, or (in a non-Jewish context) Ann Patchett's BEL CANTO -- writers that one can trust completely, knowing that danger would be answered by joy, intrigue by the bright clarity of truth. But all these adventurous writers face the problem of bringing their many strands of feeling and event together into a satisfying conclusion. Horn's solution is to end with a folk tale of her own creation. I have to say that this is less effective than most of the adapted tales she had included earlier, taking the reader on an extended excursion to the other world when he is aching to know what happens in this one. But the emotional conclusion that lies behind this little parable is absolutely right, and brings this treasure-house of a book back to something simple and true.

This novel excells in every respect. It is wonderful storytelling. The book uses beautiful language and imagery, has excellent character development, and is easy to read. Dara Horn weaves stories within stories in a maze like fashion that delights the soul. Spread over generations, different countries, and different languages, she posits that The World To come is really what one does on earth in life. She delves into Jewish notions of the afterlife which will relate well to any Abrahamic faith. Her opinion is clear from the text while the reader may choose to differ. Much of the book is about trust and betrayal, truths and lies, the real and the counterfeit. She salts the tale with Yiddish folk tales and interesting plot developments. Those who like to read mysteries will also enjoy this novel. This work is so much better than her first, In the Image, that I was truly pleasantly surprised. My only complaint is that she leaves the ending hanging persumbably so that the reader can elect an ending. I am not fond of trying to guess the end. Further, I wonder if any other careful reader noticed that she uses the image of caterpillars to describe someone's bushy eyebrows. This is the same image Golden used in Memoirs of A Geisha which I read many years ago. Did anyone else notice this? It may have been unconscious or it may have been specifically placed in the book so that the reader could detect a bit of plagerism. After all plagerism is a form of dishonesty similar to forging an art work. If you liked this book, You will like A Day of Small Beginnings.

The World To Come is a sparkling prismlike gem of a book that, viewed from any angle, is equally gorgeous--and there are many, many angles. Dara Horn's magnificent story of a nebbish who might have wandered out of a Woody Allen movie deftly leaps back and forth from a Russian shtetl still reeling from the revolution and the Russian Civil War to the present day to Vietnam to said nebbish's joyless childhood to the next generation of said nebbish's family, and in the process, recreates the nebbish's complete family history, his context as firmly established as the stars in the heavens. Ms. Horn elegantly weaves together so many strands of story and genre (is it a roman-a-clef? Magical realism? Humor? A family saga? An elegant metaphor? All of these and more?) that the book effectively demolishes the artifical walls between genre and shows the reader what can be accomplished when you quit worrying about what a story is and just tell it.

Beyond that, though, it's a marvelously fun read populated by characters that Ms. Horn has the uncanny ability to make fully dimensional after the first lines they speak. You know these people. You weep with them at their tragedies--which are brutal, by the way. Be warned--and rejoice with them all through the way through the climactic redemptive scene--a human birth--at the book's close.

The World To Come, steeped in countless layers of Jewish symbolism and history, is a little miracle.

The book doesn't arrive until Ben rips the Chagall painting off the wall at the end of chapter one. Then, time warps and the physical world is shed, exposing another that is darkly complex, dislocating, and disturbingly melancholy. The book reads like historical fiction; compellingly crafted, trusting that the reader will connect the narratives like the metaphorical bridges scattered throughout the tale. Enjoyable but I would have liked a different closure to the last chapter involving Ben and Erica.

Dara Horn has outdone herself in this novel, which moves backward and forward through the whole 20th century to explain what happened to a famous Chagall painting. Her command of history and of characterization is remarkable. We learn the secret history of Der Nister, a brilliant Yiddish writer who never achieved fame because he was born at the wrong time and in the wrong place. As many reviewers have noted before me, one of the themes here is death, but this book is not depressing but uplifting.

After reading & enjoying Dara Horn's ALL OTHER NIGHTS (a book that I highly recommend, [ASIN:0393064921 All Other Nights: A Novel]), I thought I should read her other books. The first one I received was THE WORLD TO COME. It's a well-written story weaving contemporary and historical characters in what I though was a captivating story. What grabbed me the most, though, was the last chapter, a very imaginative & creative bit of story telling. This chapter enthralled me, and made it a very satisfactory ending. Not every reader may feel the same as stories don't strike the same chord with everyone, but I think one won't go wrong with this book, and it may even help someone who is struggling with what it means to have a soul.

I will read anything written by Horn. This second novel, written when she was 29, won several awards, rightfully so. Despite that, I had never heard of her until a friend recommended her third book, All Other Nights (another great read). I think she gets lumped into the category "contemporary Jewish writers" and so is missed by everyone who doesn't go to Jewish book festivals. Too bad because her stories are terrific. Just try it.

A little complicated with back and forth geography and time periods for the reader to keep track of but well worth the trip. Chapter 19 on the education of the not yet born is a stand alone masterpiece of imagination and humor.

I love a book where the author treats her readers as if they have some intelligence! This is so creative, moves from plot to sub-plot to plot with such connectedness that it all makes sense. It can be read as a simple story of generations whose lives are influenced by cultural tales, or looked into more analytically and deeply into the psychological motivation of the characters.
The heritage of the Russian Jewish population flows through each generation of the story's characters finding a little more resolution along the way. The author's own creative folk tale ending is a flash of brilliance.
American psychologist, Erik Erikson believed the stages of personal development unfold as we go through crisis, defined as "a turning point of increased vulnerability and enhanced potential". That is certainly an accurate description of Boris' family!
A perfect book for discussion!

Horn, almost Rushdie-an in her ability to create a metaphor that is a story in its own right, has mastered her big, fat, lurking metaphor (i.e. The World To Come; a womblike place full of books where the not-yets are taught about life by the already-weres)with a kaleidoscopic command of her story and characters--especially Ben, the quintessential flounderer, and Sara's unborn child, a not-yet,--who are both endearingly and emotionally-charged. THE WORLD TO COME is so much more than the sum of its parts: spine-tingling historical richness à la Umberto Eco; multi-generational enigmas à la Nicole Krauss; and stimulating allusions to obscure myth and lore relevant enough to provoke the reader's curiosity.

This book is vaguely about the theft a masterpiece, by Chagall, stolen from a museum in New York. But the story is more complicated than that. Horn has interwoven Torah, midrash, Yiddish folklore and modern-day Jewish characters. Even if you don't "khop" (catch) these allusions, you'll still enjoy her characterization and the exciting twists and turns of the plot. Horn addresses the nature of suffering, trust, faith, art and eternity, yet this is never pedantic. However, I felt the book could have been better.

_The World to Come_ makes you really think about spiritual issues throughout. The final portrayal of the world to come is funny and poignant. But it espouses a sort of Humanistic Jewish metaphor absent of the presence of G-d and strangely at odds with the universe created in the rest of the book. I felt almost like Horn didn't go far enough. Like in _In the Image_ Horn seems to limit direct discussion of G-d. It does happen, but not as extensively as is really necessary for the completion of the book. For example, a character who seems rather secular is observant enough to not only sit shivah, say kaddish for the year but refrain from listening to music...yet we don't learn why he commits to this path. We don't really understand the inner religious lives of the characters who we otherwise get to understand well. It's feels particularly strange because they inhabit a world where everything is imbued with spiritual meaning.

I think what might be happening is that Horn doesn't want to estrange her readers from diverse religious affiliations. She will find many readers with this route, as she is a master storyteller and there is little to offend here. But I'd REALLY like her to talk more about why contemporary Jews choose their different levels of observance. Even if I disagree with her conclusions, I really want to hear what she has to say. Without taking a firmer position, her work seems to me slightly incomplete, from both an artistic and a philosophical standpoint.

A few other minor quibbles: I wish there had been a positive Vietamese character to balance out the VietNam sequence. Also, it was hard to conceive of the particular Yiddish stories in _The World to Come_ as picture books. As a picture book author, I can tell you the pacing and content of those tales is not appropriate to picture books. It strained my ability to suspend my disbelief. Also, perhaps she could have portrayed Chagall a little more generously.

Despite the above remarks, I really, really enjoyed this book. Horn has created (not alone, surely, but she's definitely is a trend-setter) a new genre of Jewish magical realism that is both intellectual and engaging. It's very romantic, too. _The World to Come_ is a beautiful book, and I will be recommending it to others.

I was very impressed with this multi-layered novel. Dara Horn does an amazing job weaving together stories which take place in different time periods and locations - Ben and his twin sister Sara in the contemporary US; Ben and Sara in the 1980s; Daniel in the 1960s; and another Benjamin in the early Soviet era - along with the historically based characters of Chagall and Der Nister. Imagery, family, and folklore are the binding forces of these stories which become this story.

Wonderful! Now I need to buy Ms. Horn's first book

As I made my usual rounds through my local bookstore, I came upon this novel expecting nothing, as I decided to buy it solely because of the cover. I started reading the book at seven in the evening, and I could not put it down until the following morning. Every word that Dara Horn chooses seemed to me a commensurate result of the thought embedded therein. Not only is the story itself 'beautifully imagined,' as reviewers so often like to say about such novels, but the story is told in such a way that I felt it was a gift of opening into the imagination of not just one, but of many.

One of the stories retold in the novel through different voices is that of a 'dead town' that hung by a hair. The same image works for the way the novel holds the reader by a hair, pulling the reader to examine his or her own life in the way he or she examines the lives of those in the town as well as enouraging the reader the discover the thin film that lies between tragedy and triumph.

I'm afraid I cannot say any more about the story directly without somehow stripping it of its elegance, so I invite and enourage you to read it. :)

I purchased this book on a whim, simply because of the cover. I quickly found it was something much deeper than a typical novel. The extent to which Horn could not only tell many interesting stories and weave them into one while still sending a profound message is beyond what I have read before. I'm not a religious person, so in terms of the messages of God, this did not hit home, but the ideas of who we are, the relationships we carry, and how we can be good people won't escape even the most anti-religious. There's a little romance, a little tragedy, a little comedy, and a little of everything else that makes a great read. The story almost feels like it reads itself. The disjointed pieces fall into place slowly, but not without reward. I highly recommend this novel to anyone.

"The World to Come" is a deeply satisfying journey into a world that looks ordinary from the outside, but reveals deep secrets, hopes and dreams on the inside. I couldn't put this book down! As the characters' lives intersect from chapter-to-chapter, the reader is given a brilliant mosaic of how people are bound together by both love and tragedy over time and geography. It's nearly impossible to finish one chapter without wanting to go on to see the next piece of the puzzle fall into place. Plus, author Horn's knowledge of art, Yiddish literature and even the Vietnam War is like a gripping lesson in history that you'll never forget. I have recommended this book to all my friends, am giving it as gifts to my friends who are avid readers, and find myself celebrating it with librarians who were jaded by too much junky literature until they got their hands on it. Almost all have said, "This is the best book I've ever read!" I can't wait until her next book comes out!

I'm amazed that anyone could dislike this book. I thought it was extraordinary. The author moves around in time between different related characters, and the transitions are never jarring. I especially liked the Bar Mitzvah twin letters and the last chapter of the book. What a brilliant writer! I look forward to reading her other book.

Recently divorced, former TV child quiz show star and child prodigy Ben Ziskind is convinced to attend a singles mixer at the Museum of Hebraic Art, where he spies a small picture on the wall that used to hang in his boyhood living room. As the singles leave the exhibit area to listen to dance music, Ben steals the drawing, a Marc Chagall sketch, and starts an amazing collection of interwoven plots in this wonderful story. The plot lines jump back and forth to a 1920's-era Jewish boys camp in Russia, to Ben and twin sister Sara's childhood in suburban New Jersey, to Ben and Sara's father's tour of duty in the Viet Nam war.

In an ironic twist, it turns out that Erica Frank, the beautiful museum employee who is put in charge of trying to find the stolen Chagall, is a huge fan of the children's books written and illustrated by Ben and Sara's mother, Rosalie Ziskind. Because of ther interest in the children's picture books, Erica makes the connection that Ben is the likely thief of the painting. The main plot dealing with the stolen painting is an excellent story, and the characters in this book are well-developed.

As the story unfolds, author Horn includes various excerpts from letters written by the young Ben to his Russian "Bar Mitzvah twin", stories from the children's books, and other stories from the Yiddish author known as the Hidden One. (Benjamin's "Bar Mitzvah twin" turns out to play a significant role later in the story, another wonderful twist in the carefully interwoven plot.) In the end, all the various stories build upon each other and add up to a wonderfully written novel. I highly recommend this book, and look forward to reading Dara Horn's debut novel.

This novel, although a challenging read at times, was superb. It was moving and fascinating, smart and beautifully written. It is truly one of the best books I have ever read. Compelling characters, vivid depictions of historical events, a mystery and filled with thoughts and ideas that will stay with you for some time.

After reading "In the Image", Dara Horn's impressive debut novel, I could not wait to read her next creation. "The World to Come" exceeded my expectations!

This beautifully written, multidimensional novel will have broad appeal to lovers of historical fiction, symbolic literature, mystery, romance and much, much more. The novel is deep and philosophical, but also is just plain fun to read with colorful characters and a suspenseful plot that smoothly carries the reader between different time periods and places. A lot of research obviously went into this work, and readers learn interesting, little-known facts about Marc Chagall's art, Yiddish literature, and Russian and American history by osmosis.

What makes art famous and what does it mean to own it? How does our family shape our destiny? When do we encounter "the world to come"? The book touches upon these questions and leaves you with even more. I guarantee you will be thinking it over after you have turned the last page. That is the sign of a great novel, and this book definitely deserves your consideration.

The most pressing question for me is ... when does Dara Horn's third novel come out?

I chanced upon this book while at the airport with a five hour wait. I had never heard of the author or the book and it was one of the very best books I read in the last few years. I highly recommend it. It made my wait fly by the story was so captivating and moving. Have a hankie nearby.

This is a very ambitious novel in which Horn attempts to use mystical images and thought to connect two separate times and plot lines. Remarkably, she deliberately does not push the plot to its conclusion, but instead devotes her final chapter to elaboration of the mystical thought.

Unfortunately, I thought Horn got too literal and specific in the final chapter and it did not work. The highlight of the novel for me was the love affair between Ben and Erica, two very likable and well developed characters. The love scene in the darkened cellar of the museum was beautiful and erotically charged.

The World to Come is brilliant--probably the most technically adept book I've ever read, and sprinkled with Yiddish folktales I've heard all my life, and many I haven't. Throughout the book, Horn makes the daily, magical.

There is a passage in this incredibly imaginative novel that caused me to physically catch my breath as if startled. The imagery, language, and most affecting orignality of the ideas in this book are worth the exploration. The author sees familiar things in history and life as if from an entirely new vantage point. And, you'll even care about the characters. A true story in every meaning of the word.

Initially I really enjoyed this novel, a fun concept that the author develops in an interesting and original way. However, began to lose interest when the plot turned to the artist Chagall and the Yiddish writer Der Nister, because I felt she portrayed Chagall very unfairly. She portrayed Chagall as merely a shallow, commercial artist, in contrast to the Yiddish writers of the time who were silenced by Stalin. Obviously she is a great admirer of the work of these writers, as she is a student of Yiddish literature, and it was very tragic that their writings were lost.
An author is always going to have a point of view, however I think when one of the characters is a historical figure I like more accuracy and less bias to be shown. At first I thought, "this is great, it's like your right there back in history", but then I realized it was more how the author wanted you to view it, and I felt that she was forcing her view down your throat in a very heavy-handed way. She quotes Chagall as saying that his work "doesn't mean anything, it is just color", while characters in the book constantly talk about how meaningful the writers' works were. Whenever the character Der Nister was mentioned, I thought, "okay, now it's time to bring out the violins". I believe that painting and writing are two very different forms of art and the works should be allowed to stand on their own.

This book is vaguely about the theft a masterpiece, by Chagall, stolen from a museum in New York. But the story is more complicated than that. Horn has interwoven Torah, midrash, Yiddish folklore and modern-day Jewish characters. Even if you don't "khop" (catch) these allusions, you'll still enjoy her characterization and the exciting twists and turns of the plot. Horn addresses the nature of suffering, trust, faith, art and eternity, yet this is never pedantic. However, I felt the book could have been better.

_The World to Come_ makes you really think about spiritual issues throughout. The final portrayal of the world to come is funny and poignant. But it espouses a sort of Humanistic Jewish metaphor absent of the presence of G-d and strangely at odds with the universe created in the rest of the book. I felt almost like Horn didn't go far enough. Like in _In the Image_ Horn seems to limit direct discussion of G-d. It does happen, but not as extensively as is really necessary for the completion of the book. For example, a character who seems rather secular is observant enough to not only sit shivah, say kaddish for the year but refrain from listening to music...yet we don't learn why he commits to this path. We don't really understand the inner religious lives of the characters who we otherwise get to understand well. It's feels particularly strange because they inhabit a world where everything is imbued with spiritual meaning.

I think what might be happening is that Horn doesn't want to estrange her readers from diverse religious affiliations. She will find many readers with this route, as she is a master storyteller and there is little to offend here. But I'd REALLY like her to talk more about why contemporary Jews choose their different levels of observance. Even if I disagree with her conclusions, I really want to hear what she has to say. Without taking a firmer position, her work seems to me slightly incomplete, from both an artistic and a philosophical standpoint.

A few other minor quibbles: I wish there had been a positive Vietamese character to balance out the VietNam sequence. Also, it was hard to conceive of the particular Yiddish stories in _The World to Come_ as picture books. As a picture book author, I can tell you the pacing and content of those tales is not appropriate to picture books. It strained my ability to suspend my disbelief. Also, perhaps she could have portrayed Chagall a little more generously.

Despite the above remarks, I really, really enjoyed this book. Horn has created (not alone, surely, but she's definitely is a trend-setter) a new genre of Jewish magical realism that is both intellectual and engaging. It's very romantic, too. _The World to Come_ is a beautiful book, and I will be recommending it to others.

This book is thought provoking. The reader needs to interpret what the author means by The World to Come. It is all in the mind of the reader.

A most unusual and deep book. It is an excellent read and recommend it highly

Despite failing eyesight, once I started to read this book, I was so enthralled I kept going. I ordered several copies for my Book Club, and indulged myself with the CD. The reading is excellent. But even for those with 20/20 vision, the discs are not only hard to read, but hard to handle. A flimsy pocket of clear plastic holds a silver disc with small numbers, hard to see on the shiny silver surface. Presumably the market for CDs is made up largely of people with poor eyesight, like me. I suggest the CDs of Doris Kearns Goodwin's TEAM OF RIVALS as a model of an excellent CD -- white print on a matte black surface. with the disc number large and clear at the top. And firm pockets, easy to see and use.