The Weight of Ink

First, the title is so a propos! I have no Jewish roots, so I was surprised that this story was so compelling. The obvious research necessary to write about the world of European Jews in the 1'660's was fascinating. To think that knowledge, writing during that period was reserved only for men is mind boggling! Here is where we meet young intellectual scribe, Ester, juxtaposed with the aging historian Helen in modern day London. Their male counterparts were the blind aging rabbi and Aron, a young American grad student.
There was such excitement in watching these two tales unfold in such a dramatic way made this book a page Turner while the reader learned so much about the plight of the Jews during the Inquisition! Bravo for the excellent character development.
Don't hesitate, don't miss it!
I do believe Ester was sewing seeds for female rabbis!

This is an amazing story about papers found in an old house in England. The new owners want to open an art gallery and need to turn the papers over.

Helen, an aging professor, is called in to inspect the papers before them being turned over to the unversity for study lead by her nemesis before being sold to Sotheby's.

She has been given an arrogant Jewish American, son of a rabbi to assist her.

The book is about the right of a woman in 17th century England to learn as a man would and examine ideas forbidden to Judaism but a heresy as well to all religions.

But it is a story about love as well in its many forms and ties all the players' lives together, a thread that covers over 350 years.

The writer is sometimes ponderous making the reader wait long stretches for truth and light but is marvelous in this era of google, facebook and instant conclusions.

One cannot walk away from this without feeling deeply, and I, personally, found myself spellbound

First, the title is so a propos! I have no Jewish roots, so I was surprised that this story was so compelling. The obvious research necessary to write about the world of European Jews in the 1'660's was fascinating. To think that knowledge, writing during that period was reserved only for men is mind boggling! Here is where we meet young intellectual scribe, Ester, juxtaposed with the aging historian Helen in modern day London. Their male counterparts were the blind aging rabbi and Aron, a young American grad student.
There was such excitement in watching these two tales unfold in such a dramatic way made this book a page Turner while the reader learned so much about the plight of the Jews during the Inquisition! Bravo for the excellent character development.
Don't hesitate, don't miss it!
I do believe Ester was sewing seeds for female rabbis!

If you are not familiar with Jewish doctrine and tradition, and I mean expertly familiar, prepare to spend the first 1/2 of the novel looking up all the obscure words and references. While some of the complexity of the history mentioned is necessary to the plot, much of it seems to be snobbish academia poorly disguised as character and plot development. The only reason I finished this novel is because I'm so stubborn and cannot leave things unfinished. However, the last half of the book almost made the battle to conquer worthwhile. Almost. The story is interesting, beautifully written, and extremely intricate, but the detail does not always enhance the reading experience in this case.

I really, really wanted to LOVE this book. But I couldn't. Until the last 40 or 50 pages. THEN I loved it. But it took so long to get there. The characters, especially the modern ones, didn't seem to develop fully. The concept was intriguing and well executed. The attention to historical detail impressive. But it didn't seem to flow as smoothly as it might - and I was hungering for more philosophical discussion as it related to the 21st century counterparts. I am interested in hearing others' reactions.

Rachel Kadish has written one of my favorite books: Tolstoy Lied, not The Weight of Ink. TWoI just goes on and on, squeezing the life out of the story by extending nearly every storyline longer than needed or, perhaps, wanted. Good story. Beautifully written. Evocative detail. Interesting characters. Too freaking long. It ends well after the story ends or needs to end. I suspect her characters just would not go quietly, be they ghosts, memories, or passionate academics. That being said, I read every word.

There being nowhere to ask about this question, I'm posting it as a review. I can read this book on my Computer and have read a few pages just to see if it shows up on my computer. However, my original plan was to read this book on my Kindle Fire Tablet. I can see the first page with a Shakespeare quote but after that the pages will not turn on the Fire Tablet.Is there a link or place where I can find out how to fix this problem?

This is one of those novels that retroactively imbues the past with today's preoccupations. In the 21st century, I am a strong supporter of LGBT rights, feminism, and the end of bigotry against Jews and others. This novel, however, tries to

Rachel Kadish draws the reader into her magnificent work of historical fiction - The Weight of Ink. The story switches back and forth between the present day and 17th century London. In the contemporary story line, a genizah of sorts from the 17th century has been found squirreled away in a house outside of London being renovated. The scholar of Jewish history of Helen Watt enlists Aaron Levy an American graduate student studying in England. Levy has the pre-requisite linguistic skills (Portuguese, Hebrew) to translate this treasure trove of documents.

As we read the letters, sermons, and other texts, the book flashes back to the 17th century, where the blind Jewish sage Rabbi HaCoen Mendes and his scribe Ester Velasquez live. Ester is an orphan taken in by the rabbi who, as a woman of that time, is very unusual for her education and role supporting the rabbi. Levy and Watts decipher the writings and in parallel, we get glimpses of what is happening in London at that time.

Kadish is an illustrative writer. She weaves a colorful tapestry of words that bring her subjects and their times to life. At the same time, she takes the time to explore the theology, customs and conflicts, challenges and champions, that we rarely get to see in books. Radish is able to give us a deep insight into her characters and their motivations. At the same time, both the modern and old are continually beset by twists and turns of fate that leave us wondering what will happen next.

It's hard, in a review, to do justice to a book as remarkable as The Weight of Ink. This 560-page behemoth is a masterpiece--a work rooted in history and tradition, yet utterly original. It brings to life multiple worlds--the London of the 1600s, Israel post-WWII, and London in the first years of the 21st century--and is so well-researched and vivid that I kept thinking what a wonderful film it would make. It is hands down the best book I've read so far this year. I couldn't put it down.

Other reviewers have ably outlined the plot--how the book alternates the story line and characters between mid-17th-century London and 2001, how the story revolves around Ester Velasquez, an orphaned Sephardic Jew who is taken in by the blind rabbi Moseh HaCoen Mendes and becomes his scribe, and the modern-day scholars, ailing Helen Watt and young, rootless grad student Aaron Levy, who uncover a trove of her papers and struggle to figure out who she was and how the papers ended up sealed in a secret compartment in a home in Richmond. Ester is a rebel from across the centuries, rejecting the traditional role of women in her culture and in broader Gentile society, in favor of learning and philosophy. Helen has similarly devoted her life to scholarship, yet struggles with the consequences of a decision she made decades earlier. Aaron is charming but adrift, capable of translating multiple ancient languages but pursuing a dead-end topic for his dissertation and unsure where he wants life to take him. Along the way there is a supporting cast of many characters: Rabbi HaCoen Mendes, his household servant, Rivkah, Mary Da Costa Mendes, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy Jewish merchant, Wilton, Helen's arch rival, who is also studying Ester's papers, Jonathan Martin, the department head who plays favorites, Patricia, the special collections librarian, the Eastons, whose house had sheltered the papers for four centuries, plus various love interests. The major characters are depicted with depth and insight, the lesser ones believably, and there is seldom, if ever, a false note. Although the characters are all fictional, save the various philosophers who are mentioned, the book is set against some very real episodes in history, particularly the Inquisition, the restoration of the monarchy, which enabled Jews to emigrate to England and practice their religion, and the Great Plague of London.

The amount of research that clearly went into the book is staggering, and yet the words flow seemingly effortlessly off the page. The writing is masterful but accessible, the cultural depictions illuminating, and the whole experience transcendent. As beguiling as it is apt to be to lovers of literary fiction, however, The Weight of Ink is not for the faint of heart. Because of its length and complexity, it requires a significant commitment of time. I was hooked almost immediately, but others may need to stick it out longer until they're completely engaged.

Even so, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a book that will stick with me for a long, long time. I'd give it ten stars if I could.

This is a beautiful novel, elegantly written and filled with humanity. It starts slowly but keep reading. Soon, you will not want to put it down.

Like A. S. Byatt’s Possession, which is referenced on the book jacket, it tells two tales concurrently. The one, set in the present, follows Helen Watt, a woman academic expert on the marrano culture of late seventeenth century London, after Jews had been allowed back into the country for the first time since their expulsion by royal edict in 1290. (Yes, Shakespeare had probably never met a real Jew when he wrote Merchant.) She is invited by a former student to examine a trove of documents, very old and seemingly Jewish, found in a covered over closet in his house, which dates back to the seventeenth century. Sensing a find and under time pressure from the house’s owners, she enlists Aaron Levy, a brash American graduate student whose dissertation is in a stall (he’s looking for Jewish contacts with Shakespeare) to assist her in sifting through the fragile documents and to translate as many as possible as fast as possible. She’s made a rare find, a late seventeenth-century genizah (cache) filled with priceless shemot (etymology: “names,” documents with the Maker’s name in them which have been saved for ritual burial). The rest of this portion follows their fight to make something of the documents and publish something astounding in a proper historical journal before a rival team of researchers takes it all away from them. The woman is retiring soon and suffers from Parkinson’s Disease –badly. She feels she hasn’t been given her due in the male-dominated cloisters of British academe and she’s given up her personal life to get where she is. One of the high pleasures of this portion of the narrative is to watch the slow blooming rapprochement, if not friendship, growing between elderly, stiff upper lip woman scholar and young, blustery, too often flippant but inside radically insecure American scholar. Love –not sexual love but love between friends and associates—can unfold of its own accord if there’s inner respect between people working on a common task.

The second tale is of Ester Velazquez. She’s Portuguese by descent, an orphan, emigrated from Amsterdam in 1657, and now lives with a saintly rabbi in semi-poverty London. He’s blind. He needs someone to read to him so he has indulged her unwomanly thirst to learn languages. In truth, she’s one of the two best, only true students he’s had. The other was Spinoza, expelled by the Amsterdam Jews from the community for heresy. Ester’s tale is the tale of any intellectually curious, questing woman living in an age and culture with no room for women to be scholars. There is a commonalty here with Eva Figes’s The Tree of Knowledge (1990), a fictional life of Milton’s daughter Deborah, educated in languages to read to her blind father but having no place or life outside of that. But Ester is fiercer and more inventive than Deborah Milton. This story is about her struggle to find a place and way to pursue her insatiable thirst for knowledge. Spinoza features prominently though at a distance. Many of the other names mentioned are names I ran across back when I briefly studied the proto-scientific revolution of Cromwellian England.

The book has a great deal to say about the practice of historical scholarship as well. It is interesting to read the chapters detailing Helen’s and Aaron’s struggle to make sense of the fragmentary documents they have found in their effort to pursue the elusive life of the female scribe “Aleph,” who is Ester Velazquez, and then to switch to the full account of Ester’s life, delivered a stream of consciousness from inside Ester’s head. Anyone who’s done serious historical work will sympathize with Helen and Aaron. History is indifferent to its students, who only know what has been left behind, somehow not removed from memory. The record is always faulty, and accordingly frustrating.

It should be evident by this point that a thread binds Helen and Ester together. Both suffer “the passion of a lonely mind.” They both struggle to find a place to pursue the scholarship they need to keep breathing. Both have to give up a great deal in everyday comfort to get there. This isn’t just a woman’s book. The men characters are just as carefully, and respectfully delineated and their inner workings are often just as complex as Helen’s and Ester’s. But the glory of the book lies principally in the depiction of two amazing women. Their lives aren’t always happy, not even fulfilling, but they both find ways to make them their own.

This magnificent novel heralds the coming of a major talent. Rachel Kadish has been compared to A.S. Byatt -- but I thought "The Weight of Ink" was actually better than "Possession" -- which I loved.

Like "Possession," it takes place in the past and in the present. An ailing historian of 17th century Jewish history, Helen Watt, stumbles across a trove of documents hidden in a house near London that appear to be the household accounts of a blind rabbi, the first to return to Britain after Oliver Cromwell lifted the centuries-old ban on Jews living in England. Aided by a Phd. student, the American Aaron Levy, she begins to translate them from the Hebrew and Portuguese and realizes that they were written by a women. This is just the beginning of the discoveries they make.

As we return to the London of Samuel Pepys on the eve of the Great Plague and the Great Fire, we meet Ester Velasquez, a young women of formidable intelligence and intellectual curiosity, trapped by her narrow role both as a Jew and as a woman expected to marry and bear children and certainly not to study. A stubborn, proud person, Ester's wide-ranging mind cannot be contained. It ranges far beyond the boundaries allowed by Jewish tradition and begins to question and explore the most fundamental issues of human existence: why are we here? Who or what is God?What is His role in the world? What is the nature of human suffering? What is the role of free will in the lives and fates of people and nations?

The plot is beautifully complex, as are the many characters. The old, blind rabbi, Moseh HaCoen Mendes, a former teacher of the banned and spurned Spinoza in Amsterdam, is one of many memorable characters. The author's astounding breath of knowledge and learning amazed me. We read correspondence between rabbis and philosophers; we dive into Restoration theaters; we experience anti-Semitism; we dip into the birth of atheism; we explore contemporary attitudes toward homosexuality. Most particularly, we learn of the effects of the movement that gathered in Jewish communities in Europe behind the false Messiah,. Sabbatai Zevi.

Meanwhile Helen and Aaron also have their back stories. Helen's takes us to Israel in the 1950s, to a love affair with an Israeli officer and Holocaust survivor. Back in the present, we learn about the grimy world of academic competition. Helen and Aaron's relationship is also a witty commentary on the differences between British and American modes of behavior and attitudes.

In short, this is a vast panorama of a book -- the best I have read for many years. I want to say I have no connection to the author, either direct or indirect. I offer this tribute as an ordinary reader who craves fiction that makes me both think and feel -- and so rarely finds it. This is a novel that expanded my own knowledge and horizons. I hope it finds the success it deserves.

Manuscripts had laid undisturbed more than 300 years. A discovery had been made.

Helen Watt, British historian is 64 years of age with failing health. She used a cane to walk. She has Parkinson’s disease. Helen’s strength -knowledge & passion for history and Jewish studies stand out - her ruthless commitment to her work reflect who she is - but her illness is quietly just ‘being’. Helen operates much bigger than her disease.
She is not Jewish, but has done a lot of work with Jewish history and taught as University professor. Since Helen is about to retire at the University, she would like to go out with a bang. So there is some urgency and competitiveness in getting the documents she learns about to the college before anybody else gets there hands on them.

Ian and Brigette Easton, lived in a house from the late seventeenth century. It was built in 1661 by Portuguese Jews. It changed hands a few times until 1910 when Brigette’s aunt bought the house and allowed it to deteriorate.
Brigette inherited the property from her aunt. Their plan was to renovate and then open up a gallery in the house. The Easton’s had many building delays. It seemed that Brigette’s late aunt had spent decades offending members of every historical preservation group in the area. After The Easton’s finally obtained all the requisite permissions, the electrician found a stash of papers under their stairs. He thought they were Arabic. He didn’t realize the papers were dated more than 300 years ago— and the lettering was in Portuguese and Hebrew.

NOTE — After finishing the book - I found it ‘a little’ funny that I remembered reading about Brigette’s aunt ‘offending’ people — ( who died before Brigette inherited the house). The more we get to know Brigette in this story - I can say ....”the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”.

Ian had been a student of Helen Watt at University—and he called her to come examine the papers they found in their house. Helen recognized some correspondence between 17th century Rabbis on the documents. She told the couple - ( Bridgette & Ian), that the papers needed to be assessed before they could safely be moved.
Helen tried to explain a little more to Brigette & Ian of what the electrician and covered. She explained that any document that contain the word God could not be thrown out in Jewish communities, but instead had to be buried as a person would be buried. Helen ‘might’ have wanted to toss the found 300 year old documents away - if she could have gotten away with it....so she could get permits and just remodel her old house already. The woman represents everything annoying about ultra modern women today ...lol
Synagogues, and religious Jewish communities stored these documents in troves called genizah’s, until a burial could be arranged.
Helen was adamant that the papers found belonged to England’s history— and not the Jewish community. She believed the documents found belonged at a major research university.

Helen needed help - and calls a colleague to recommend a post grad student to be her assistant.
Aaron Levy, American Jew, a college post grad student had been working on his dissertation, but was struggling to finish it. He was trying to prove there was a Jewish connection with Shakespeare’s writing. Aaron, about 40 years younger than Helen, - 25 ish - resembled a man named Dror, from Helen’s past that she had history with.
Whether or not it was because Aaron, reminded Helen, or Dror, from many years ago ( who we learn more about later in the book)— or because Aaron came off being a basic arrogant schmuck, - Helen & Aaron were not off to a good start as a cohesive happy team.
Helen was aware right off the bat that Aaron didn’t like her much, but at least he didn’t pity her.

The documents discloses letters written by Ester Velasquez, under the care of Rabbi Moseh HaCoen Mendes. Mendes fled Portugal - and went to Amsterdam after the Inquisition killed his parents and left him blind. From Amsterdam, he went to London to try to help with the Jewish community. There’s interesting facts about the struggles of the Jewish community during this time too - hiding their religious identity-or at least keeping it pretty quiet - but they were relatively safe in London- so many Jews didn’t want to rock the boat by pressing for more civil rights.

Ester became the secret scribe for Rabbi Mendes. Her brother, Isaac, didn’t want the job. Ester was proficient in Latin & Greek - but even being literate at ‘all’ was astonishing for women in the 1600’s. She yearned for knowledge and to converse with the great philosophers ....( Spinoza, Descartes, etc.).
The story of Ester is fascinating - she’s MORE than JUST a woman born before her time - a female radical thinker/ philosopher - She took huge risks that would be risky today. She took risks in signing the documents. She took risks with her communications in all her relationships - with both men and women
She entered into a marriage for convenience with a homosexual- that some people today would judge harshly.
And......Esters inquiry about God & Love - the existence of God - freedom to think freely - religious beliefs - social obligations - are presented in depth.

I have been asking myself...., “If I HAD to pick a FAVORITE character in this novel .....
would it be HELEN.....( with her inner strength).....
I learned from this woman. She made me cry. Helen truly taught LIFE LESSONS - so subtle - but truthful - ‘emotions rise’.... and I saw just HOW STUBBORN we as people can be. CHANGE - changing our lives - even if we have dreams to make it better - can be so darn scary - Helen showed us what happens when we don’t take those risks.

Or....Ester for OBVIOUS reasons ..... she never EVER stopped climbing the mountain— her life was a one-way ticket UP......she never stopped pressing the limits of her circumstances. She was incredibly inspiring. Even her mistakes - are forgiving.

Or....*Aaron Levy*: I have a special heart for Aaron. I GOT HIM RIGHT AWAY! It helps to be Jewish to understand his pompous arrogance. I knew his attitude was just his outer shell ....and that once it was stripped away - we’d see a beautiful struggling soul.
I have much more I’d like to say about Aaron....but I’ll leave it for discussion with my buddies who are reading this right now ( or have finished it)- Melissa ....Jan ....Lisa....
and anyone else who wants to jump in for discussion.
My fear is I’d give spoilers away.....
So.....
“Melissa”..... I wanted to CRY *FOR* Aaron TWICE....
Plus....I was SO MAD AT HIM TOO! I hated a choice he made.

YIKES......Forgive me.....( nobody has to read this review)....I see I wrote it out of NEED to complete my OWN EXPERIENCE......( trying to)...

I think this book is extraordinary, brilliant, ambitious, and exquisite! I took my time reading it. I looked up philosophers: Spinoza - etc. I thought about it when I wasn’t reading it. I wrote Melissa private messages - who read it before me - as I was dying to talk about it.

I loved the scenes where Aaron is writing his friend Marisa who went to work on a
Kibbutz in Israel. The author got EVERYTHING about Kibbutzim life right!! I started craving my tomato and cucumber breakfast ( called the dairy meal). The volunteers staying on a Kibbutz would have contests with the Israelis as to who could dice their tomato & cucumber fastest. The Americans always lost. BUT.... by chance we did win....they had to give us a yummy chocolate bar.

“The Weight of Ink” is a heavy-weight book: intellectually challenging and satisfying!!! .....Rachel Kadish is AMAZING!!!!
The only time I had thoughts that maybe this book could have been cut shorter was once when Ester, Mary, Thomas,and John ....were on their boat on the river. I’m not sure why I felt that part went on too long ......yet I actually liked it too. My thoughts though were on another part of the story - curious as to what would develop.

The SUPPORTING CHARACTERS are memorable, too!!!
The dialogue is intimate- engrossing - authentic
The INNER THOUGHTS of THE THREE MAIN CHARACTERS: Helen, Ester, and Aaron are painfully - butterflies- in - my - gut- WONDERFUL!!

There is history - Philosophy- Jewish history - theology: exploring christianity and Judaism. Interfaith relationships are explored - homosexuality - the existence of God- 17th century life: conditions of the times : The plague, and the fire in London.
20th century Kibbutz life in Israel- RICHNESS in SUBSTANCE.

The roles of women are explored. There is mystery, tragedy, triumph, dreams and disappointments.....and GORGEOUS POETIC imagery!!!

POWERFUL and WONDERFUL!!!

“Where words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain, for they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain”.

THANK YOU RACHEL RADISH!!!

elysejody

This book is testament to the fact that publishing houses no longer employ editors, and that such editors as they do have, no longer feel the need to pare back tediously overwritten prose, or to tell an author that she does not need to share every iota of her massive research inthe period. The Weight of Ink should, in fact, be two separate novels: One, about an elderly British scholar at the end of her career, who had a stunningly cliched experience in Israel when she and the state were young. What experience? She, a British WASP had an affair with 'Dror,' a gorgeous, deep feeling young kibbutznik, who survived the Holocaust, and who both falls for her and wards her off because she is not Jewish. All readers of Exodus, and a raft of imitators, will recognize the type, and the situation. Could it get more cliched? Oh, and she is extremely excited to find that the scribe of an historic cache of papers she is called in to examine is not a man but a woman! So, we get Ari Ben Canaan's lovemaking abilities and retro-feminism. No cliche unturned.
The parallel story, which would be much better off on its own, and which could stand far better that way, is about a young, fiercely intellectual woman in London as Jews return from exile, in the 17th Century. I can imagine being caught up in that story -- though it did not happen for me. Why? Partly because the author is just so wordy. No paragraph goes without additional adjectives, piled so thick that you marvel that she can't just state something, anything, in a straightforward manner. The author might have written a really solid historic fiction, but she wants to be literary too. And that makes this book ponderous and unpleasant to read.

A couple has inherited an old house in a suburb of London. As they remodel, they find some ancient documents under their stairs. Upon seeing that the leather binder looks very old and the lettering might be in Hebrew, they contact Helen Watt, a professor of Hebraic studies at a nearby university. When she visits the house to check out the couple's findings, she is shocked to realize that the documents likely originated in the 17th century. It is possibly a treasure trove. Helen is ill with Parkinson's Disease and asks a colleague to recommend a graduate student to help her translate these documents. Enter Aaron Levy who has been working on his doctorate for, what feels to him, forever, and not making much headway. His doctoral thesis is about the connection of Shakespeare with the Jewish populace of his day.

The novel takes us into several worlds - the lives of Helen and Aaron, as well as 'Aleph' and a rabbi, the mysterious authors of the antique documents. Aleph was a scribe and served to write down the letters and sermons of a blind rabbi. Helen has a history with the Jewish people and, though not a Jew herself, she has spent some of her youth in Israel. Aaron is in an existential void and finds that, with these ancient papers, he may have another chance to complete his doctorate.

It is early in the novel when the two contemporary scholars recognize that the found documents were written by Portuguese Jews, once faced with the Inquisition, and later sent to England. As they face academic competition and the fragility of the documents themselves, they also have to navigate their own personal relationship.

This is a fascinating book that takes the reader back in time to the 1600's when London fought the plague, when women were not permitted to do much besides marry and raise a family, where Jews regularly wore crosses around their necks so as to remain safe and secreted. It is also about the present, the ways that human beings deal with morality and ethics. It takes a wonderful look at the philosophy of the 17th century and how it might have been interpreted then and now.

I found the shifting of chapters from the past to the present very nicely done. I just wish that as much emphasis was placed on Helen and Aaron as was on Aleph and the rabbi.

In the 1600s, Esther Velasquez is denied by Judaic law the right to read or write religious or philosophical works. In the 2000s, historian Helen Watt is having things mansplained to her by the department head. Some things never change.

Esther, a Portuguese Jew whose family fled to the Netherlands when Portugal expelled the Jews, is in a unique position. Not only does she long to read and write, she doesn’t want to marry and take the standard position of mother and housekeeper. She and her brother live with a blind Rabbi, and the brother is the official student, reader, and writer for him, with Ester listening in. But when they move to England and the brother leaves, Ester is the available scribe. And no one will find out a woman is doing the transcription. And it’s perhaps a gray area; she is, after all, just writing down a man’s words, not her own.

Helen Watt receives a call from a former student. He and his wife, while renovating an old house, have found a cache of old papers, looking to be in Arabic, Hebrew, or Spanish. Could Helen come and take a look? She’s not eager; she doesn’t imagine they could be anything important. Probably old shopping lists. But she’ll take a look, taking a grad student to do the grunt work. The papers are from 1691, and Helen realizes that they could be an important find. Now she must race against the rest of the history department, her own worsening physical state, and her impending mandatory retirement to get the papers bought, stabilized by the university library, and translated. The story that emerges is one no one imagined.

“Weight of Ink” has been compared to A.S. Byatt’s “Possession”, and it does certainly have similarities. But “Possession” is in large part a tale of two passionate love stories, while “Weight of Ink” certainly has passionate love stories in it, they are minor streams merging into the larger river of Ester’s desire for education and her evolution from scribe to something much more.

This is a great literary mystery, with new things turning up right up to the end. I really liked Ester; I warmed up to Helen as I found out more about her. The cast of characters is huge; not all are likable but that’s how life is. There are a lot of issues dealt with; homosexuality, pregnancy out of wedlock, Jewishness in the time of William and Mary, women’s issues, class, interfaith relationships, and philosophy all both entertain and educate the reader. While the book is slow in places, I never found it boring and it was actually a pretty fast read for a 600 page book! Five stars out of five.

This skillfully crafted, beautifully written book will engage readers with its clearly drawn characters, its attention to detail, its contrast between 17th century and 21st century prejudice against intellectual women, and its moving exploration of the inner turmoil of its protagonists.

In broad outline, the plot centers on the discovery of a treasure trove of documents, primarily letters, in an ancient house in a London suburb that's about to undergo renovation. Nearly retired historian Helen Watt, who is becoming increasingly frail due to Parkinson's disease, is called in to examine the documents and determine if her London university should purchase them. The graduate assistant assigned to help her is a bright but callow American student, Aaron Levy. The clash between her cautious, stiff upper lip British style and his more exuberant, flirtatious style is the source of many clashes as they engage in the initial study and, once the purchase is made, their more thorough examination of the papers. At first, they believe that the documents were written by a Portuguese rabbi who was blinded in the Lisbon Inquisition, escaped to Amsterdam where he became established as a leading scholar and teacher, then sent to London to help reestablish the Jewish community there. As the documents reveal more, however, they see that the "Aleph", or scribe, who writes the blind rabbi's documents, is actually a learned woman -- a clear violation of Jewish laws at the time, which required women to cease study once they start menstruation. Helen and Aaron realize how momentous this discovery is, and are elated -- until the chairman of the history department tells Helen that due to her illness and impending retirement, he will allow her to continue studying the documents, but is assigning a younger historian to the task. With an attitude designed to put Helen in her place, he also is providing the young man with a team, giving him expanded access to the documents, and assuring early publication of the younger male colleague's findings in a scholarly journal.

The book's chapters alternate between the 17th and 21st centuries, as we learn the back stories of Helen and Aaron, and as we also learn about Ester Velasquez. Ester and her younger brother Isaac were taken in by the rabbi and brought to London with him after their parents were killed in a fire in Amsterdam. The chapters featuring Ester are the most impressive. Author Rachel Kadish has clearly studied the history and culture of the mid to late 17th century, from the layout and condition of London, to the state of Judaism in London, to the intellectual thought that enraptures Ester, even as she knows her continued study breaks Jewish law and endangers the frail rabbi who protects and loves her. Long passages of letters between Ester and leading philosophers of the time, with whom she explores he ideas about religion and atheism, are surely a challenge for a casual reader, but hardly impossible to follow. One must admire Kadish for her willingness to explore difficult religious and philosophical theories and her ability to write differing views in a convincing yet approachable way. Kadish also earns our admiration for crafting complex, not always likable, characters, and plumbing their depths to reveal what led them to become who they are. Even her minor characters are richly drawn.

The Weight of Ink is one of the most exceptional books I've read this year, and I highly recommend it.

I really wanted to like this book. It is reasonably well written, but very dense with what were for me, obscure historical facts. I found the mood of the book oppressive. Helen, the aging scholar, is a crank, and not a lovable or endearing one, her reluctant student assistant, Aaron, is immature, arrogant and annoying, and the Easton's, the couple who own the historical house where they find the manuscripts, are stereotypical social strivers.The 17th century woman scholar, Rivka, leads a repressed life with the Rabbi, even as she follows her dream to be his scribe. What stands out in the first third of the book is Helen and Aaron's dislike of one other, and Aaron's boring attempts to win back his girlfriend, even while he admittedly uses flirting as his first line of communication with woman. Maybe these characters find some growth and depth later in the book, but I wasn't compelled to find out and didn't even make it even halfway through. Dense but not necessarily substantial.

“Nothing of the building’s exterior – not even the stone walls, with their once-giant wingspan – had prepared him for this. The staircase was opulence written in wood. The broad treads ascended between dark carved panels featuring roses and vines and abundant fruit baskets; gazing down from high walls, their faces full of sad, sweet equanimity, were more carved angels. And halfway up the stairs, two arched windows let in a white light so blinding and tremulous, Aaron could swear it had weight. Windows to bow down before, their wrought-iron levers and mullions casting a mesmerizing grid across the carved wood: light and shadow and light again.”

The Weight of Ink is the third novel by American author, Rachel Kadish. In 1657, nineteen-year-old Ester Velasquez and her brother Isaac accompanied Rabbi HaCoen Mendes from Amsterdam to London. The rabbi, tortured and blinded by Inquisitors, was going to minister to London’s Jewish community; the siblings had just been orphaned in a house fire.

Late in the year 2000, history professor Helen Watt is asked to examine a cache of books and papers discovered under a staircase in a 17th Century London mansion. Written in Hebrew and Portuguese, the papers appear to date from the mid-seventeenth century, and concern Jewish refugees from the Inquisition. This is potentially an important find, and Helen engages a young American post-graduate student, Aaron Levy to assist her. Unfortunately, they don’t have exclusive access, and find themselves in a bit of a race to uncover the secrets held within.

As they examine the trove of papers, Helen and Aaron are surprised and excited to find that the scribe for the blind rabbi might have been a woman. Then, in between the lines of letters about false messiahs written in Portuguese, they discover the story, in Hebrew, of Ester Velazquez, a young Jewess educated by HaCoen Mendes (not quite accidentally, because the rabbi sees much despite his blindness), a young woman with an almost unquenchable thirst for philosophical knowledge and for discourse thereon. It’s a thirst so deep that she engages in subterfuge to attempt to satisfy it.

What a superb piece of historical fiction this is. Kadish carefully constructs her tale so that the reader shares the excitement of the small but significant discoveries, of facts slowly revealed, all the while bringing to life the daily routine of London’s seventeenth century Jewish community. The astute reader will, early on, catch the hint of “a gossamer-thin connection” that develops into quite a lovely irony by the end of the story.

Her characters, not necessarily likeable at first, slowly gain in appeal: Helen’s gruff exterior (a colleague describes her thus: “Behind the words she could read his regret that the one to make such a find had been Helen Watt – a dried-up scholar, inconveniently unphotogenic, on the cusp of a mandatory retirement no one but her would rue”) mellows somewhat; Aaron will initially strike the reader as arrogant and self-absorbed but his time with Helen definitely matures him: “How had he ever overlooked shy girls? It struck him that the fact that he wasn’t attracted to them might represent a flaw in his character, not theirs.”

Kadish gives the reader some exquisite descriptive prose: “She looked at him with the directness of someone making an inner calculus over which he was to have no influence” and “Today, when he’d peered under the staircase, it was as though what he’d starved for all these lifeless months of dissertation research had been restored to him. History, reaching out and caressing his face once more, the way it had years ago as he sat reading at his parents’ kitchen table. The gentle insistent touch of something like a conscience, stilling him. Waking him to a lucid new purpose” are examples. Stirring and captivating, this is not a short read, but is worth every minute invested.

The story line was fine and the characters were well defined. It was well-written. I admired the main characters and their will to be true to themselves. However, I had to force myself to finish it. It was too long and drawn out. Take 100 pages out of this book and I think I would have liked it. (I will state that I'm reviewing this book because I won a copy of it.)

From the beginning, it iwas clear that this book was written with integrity, unrushed by the author as she wove it together over time. Writing taken seriously, based on research, fictionalized into art.

This is a long book. Its plot developed through various characters separated by centuries. A scholarly mystery to solve. And the parallel mystery of what is life...unfolding across the pages.

It was a privilege to read and review this book. To experience its richness, the nuance, the fierceness of dedication.

The Weight of Ink, Rachel Kadish, author; Corrie James, narrator

Written with the majestic prose of yesteryear, with a vocabulary that enchants on every page, the book takes the reader on a journey between centuries introducing the history of Jewish oppression, the Inquisition, the Church, and the Plague as major players. It carries the story into the present day, a time in which many of the themes recur, foremost being for me, anti-Semitism and the inability of Jewish people to be treated fairly or perhaps, even understood, but equal opportunity and anti-Semitism still remain problems.

Ester Velasquez was from Amsterdam. When her parents were killed in a fire she and her brother were ostracized because of a shadow that hung over her mother’s reputation and the curse upon them that must have caused the fire from her brother’s lantern. They were placed under the protection and care of Rabbi Ha-Coen Mendes in London. He was kind enough to take them in, although his wife Rivka, was not as welcoming to them. He, blinded during his brutal Inquisitor interrogation, is under the care and protection of Rabbi Benjamin Ha-Levy. They are all dependent on others for their welfare now. The Mendes family is wealthy and the children are arrogant, carrying themselves with an air of superiority. They are trying hard to fit into the Christian culture of the times in order to prevent their exile or death. Many convert, or pretend to do so. Others assume the haughty demeanor of their tormentors.

Ester was born during a time when women were trained to be good housekeepers, to care for their husbands and to bear children. Often, marriages were arranged. She, however, dreamed of more. Her father had allowed her to learn to read. She wanted to write, to become a philosopher, presenting her theories to the world, but as a women she would not be accepted or allowed to participate in that profession. It was forbidden to think about or to ask certain questions as well, and Baruch de Spinoza is an example of one ostracized not by the Inquisitors, but by his own people. He was forced into exile as a heretic because he raised questions about G-d. Ester was intrigued by his questions and wanted to correspond with him. Of course that communication was forbidden for all Jews and most especially forbidden to women. Well bred women were only allowed to engage in work dealing with the home. Her brother Isaac was trained as a scribe and she wished she could be; he, however, wanted to be a dockworker, which was an unacceptable occupation for a young Jewish male who studied the Torah. Both Velasquez children were independent in their desires.

When tragedy struck the life of Esther again, she was allowed to become the temporary scribe for the Rabbi until a more suitable male scribe could be found to take her place. She thrilled at the thought of being taken away from the household chores she shared with his wife Rivka and dreaded her return to rough and chapped hands from the washing and mending. When events interceded, requiring her to scribe for him for a longer period, to her delight, it turned into a more permanent need. Her life during that time is a subject of the investigation.
The history of the era, with the terror and violence of the Inquisition and the sickness and death wrought by the Plague is intensely interesting and detailed. The brutality and hatred wrought by the overt anti-Semitism is writ large on the page and the reader will learn of many heinous activities that they might not have known before, that Jews were subjected to, even in places where they were supposedly accepted. The ugly head of anti-Semitism from the Church and the populace seemed always ready to rear its head. Intolerance existed on both sides of the aisle, however, with rules for behavior that disadvantaged not only Jews, but non-Jews and all women as well.

The parallel story, some three and a half centuries later, is that of historian Helen Watt, a gentile whose specialty was Jewish history. It begins at the turn of the twenty first century. Helen’s right to engage in her profession as a non-Jew had often been tested. Professor Watt, in failing health and now about to retire, was asked by a former student Ian Easton, to take a look at a trove of documents found hidden under the stairs of his home, built in the 17th century. As it was undergoing renovation, papers had been found, possibly in what was called a Genizah, (a storage area in a Jewish synagogue for the purpose of storing old documents and books that mentioned God, until they could be buried). Helen was told that the documents, written in Portuguese and Hebrew, seemed old and were possibly written in the Hebrew language, perhaps to a Rabbi. She was enthralled with the idea of one last major discovery and decided to immediately go and investigate them before the university and/or Sotheby’s got their hands on them, possibly removing her access, but surely her great opportunity to discover and present the history and authorship of the documents. Helen suffered from Parkinson’s disease, so a post-grad student from her university, Aaron Levy, was asked to help. He was arrogant and often rude, but he worked with her and matures under her tutelage. Their relationship causes both of them to grow in different ways.

Soon after she and Aaron gained access to the documents, their study was also given to a group of post grads in the school, who were younger, had more influence and were more powerful than she, who was now being relegated to the old and feeble category. She was forced to work more slowly with only Aaron to help her. Still, they made many interesting discoveries which they, perhaps unfairly, withheld for themselves to investigate. The competition in their field was fierce and often a rush to judgment led to incorrect conclusions

The parallel stories enlighten the reader as to the early lives of both Ester and Helen, their lost loves, their challenges, their mistakes and their secrets. Though separated by three and a half centuries, their history, revealed in these pages, shares many similarities. Both women suffer from illnesses, both from unrequited love, both from a desire to learn and both face an environment not fully welcoming to the education and acceptance of women, although in the 21st century, much has changed.

At the time of the discovery, Helen Watts was working on a project she hoped would lead to the discovery of the whereabouts of Jews who had left England during the time of the plague from 1665-1667 and had not reappeared until a few years later. Where had they gone? She was not fully absorbed in the research. Aaron was working on his dissertation which was an investigation concerning the possibility of a connection between Shakespeare and Jews escaping the Inquisition in Elizabethan London, but he was unable to find the impetus to provide the energy or creativity to finish it. Could this discovery of a possible Genizah provide Helen and Aaron the answers to their own personal quests? Would the life of Esther Velasquez shed light on research projects for both of them, and in so doing alter their lives and views.

The history is very well researched and enlightening. There are many questions raised for the reader. Although the story is not true, many of the characters mentioned are real and many that aren’t are based on real people. The history is accurate, although the story is fiction

The Weight of Ink
Rachel Kadish

MY RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
PUBLISHER Highbridge
PUBLISHED June 6, 2017
NARRATED Corrie James

An complex but emotionally rewarding story of two women centuries apart who sacrificed much by choosing a passion of the mind over the heart.

SUMMARY
Two women of remarkable intellect are the subject of this monumental and award winning novel set in London in the 1660’s and early 21st-century. Helen Watt, is an ailing historian with the love of Jewish history, right on the verge of retirement. She has just been called to the home of a former student to review a cache of 17th century Jewish documents, discovered during his home renovations. Helen, with the help of Aaron Levy, an embittered and unsympathetic American graduate student, soon realize they have uncovered something stunning. They are in a quest to unlock the secrets of the documents, the identity of the documents scribe, and the meaning of their own lives.

Ester Velasquez, a bright, young immigrant from Amsterdam tirelessly scribes for an aging blind rabbi, despite prohibitions against her doing so. As a result of her work, she learns much from the Rabbi. Her mind is opened to new ideas and self discovery, and she soon longs to do so much more. Despite offers of marriage, Ester staunchly chooses her scholarly work, and she further desires to engage with the brilliant minds of her day, particularly the controversial Dutch philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza. Ester’s story illuminates the standing of Jews in London, the plague (1665) and the Great Fire of London (1666)

REVIEW
The Weight of Ink is a deftly woven epic story of self-discovery of two women. Ester is in the beginning of her adult life and looking forward, and Helen is completing her career, looking backwards over her life. Both women compellingly chose to focus their lives on scholarly work over love in spite of traditional roles for women. Two true Bluestocking women! Poignant, moving and thought-provoking, this book will draw you in like a moth to a flame, and leave you amazed. This is undoubtably one of the best books I have read in 2018.

Rachel Kadish’s writing is masterful and absorbing. She effortlessly transports us back and forward across the centuries, with memorable characters that keep you grounded and propel the story. With close to 600 pages or 23 listening hours, this is by no means a light or quick read, but it is well beyond satisfying. In January 2018, The Weight of Ink was named a winner of a 2017 National Jewish Book Award The Audible version of this book narrated by Corrie James was performed with perfection.

“Love must be, then, and act of truth-telling, a baring of mind and spirit just as ardent as the baring of the body. Truth and passion were one, and each impossible without the other.”

Rachel Kadish, The Weight of Ink

This is an exceptional book, beautifully crafted and memorable in plot and character. It's a story of oppression -- oppression of the Jews in 17th century Europe, their struggle to preserve their history and the core of their customs. It's a story, too, of emancipation -- of a young woman who defies the limits on her intellectual and personal development at risk of her life. And it's a story of contemporary university scholarship, which is for the most part well done, especially the false leads and excessive zeal for alternative explanations to documented histories. The story weaves between the 17th century in London and the 21st century in various university and library settings, also in England. The principal character in the 17th century is worthy of the best feminine protagonists in literature. The university characters are a bit stereotypical, with their Britishisms, Americanisms, the potted history of academic pilgrims to Israel, and so forth. Nevertheless, they move the plot forward. I waded into this book not quite knowing what to expect, and I enjoyed it from end to end. I feel enriched by the prose and the authoritative rendering of London during the plague, the Great Fire, the re-establishment of the Jewish community, the sectarianism of the mid-17th century, and more. A fabulous book, requiring some patience, but well worth it.

This richly-detailed historical fiction novel about the Jewish population of 17th-century London brings to mind Geraldine Brooks's People of the Book, but in my opinion author Rachel Kadish does a much better job of making the lives of researchers in the modern age as compelling as the story unfolding in the past -- especially near the end, when the two narrative threads begin to parallel one another in some interesting and unexpected ways.

THEN: a young woman serving as scribe to a blind rabbi struggles against the limitations society puts on her gender and her religion, desperate for the freedom to pursue her scholastic interests. NOW: a lonely history professor on the verge of a forced retirement and her assistant, a Jewish grad student stuck on his dead-end dissertation, uncover a cache of documents from the rabbi's household and begin to piece together who could have written them. All three are fierce characters that I came to cherish, and the novel as a whole contains some beautiful meditations on love, history, gender roles, and Judaism. It's currently my top new read of the year, and I'll be thinking over its insights and most poetic passages for quite some time to come.

The premise of the book was so inviting....great main characters, each with a big problem to deal with; so much to learn about Jewish history in the 1600's in Amsterdam and and London. However, the book was way "overwritten" in my opinion......too many similes and metaphors that detracted from the plot; too much reading another person's mind and declaring what they were thinking; way too many words. I had to force myself to finish reading this book.

Readers who value more complex, erudite writing will find “The Weight of Ink” a book they will love. Those who prefer a story that develops rapidly, immediately appealing characters and an escape from life’s reality may want to select something other than Rachel Kadish’s fine novel. The patient reader – it took me almost 200 pages – will discover an engrossing story that is a combination of historical fiction and scholarly detective work, as well as the one detailing the development of personal relationships and personal growth.

The structure of “The Weight of Ink” alternates the text between the mid-17th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Further, the portions of the novel that occur in the mid-17th century are part narrative text and part letters written by or on behalf of the characters. These letters serve as the basis for developments in the 21st century. Historic events – the Inquisition and the Plague – are woven into the text and add an authenticity to the overall story. As the narrative progresses and even though separated by almost five centuries, one begins to notice parallels between the characters’ situations and their lives.

Helen Watt, a university professor, engages Aaron Levy, a graduate student, to assist in the translation of a cache of newly discovered, ancient documents. Written in Portuguese and Hebrew, the papers are those of Rabbi Moseh HaCoen Mendes. A brash individual, Aaron who is having difficulty working on his dissertation involving Shakespeare, welcomes the proposed break. During their work together, discoveries about the individuals from the 17th century provide unexpected information of historic and sociological importance. Personal relationships, both those in the past and those more currently, add an element of humanity that draws the reader further into the characters’ lives.

Rachel Kadish gradually draws the reader into the stories of Helen, Aaron, Rabbi HaCoen Mendes, his scribe, and his housekeeper. In doing so, she allows the reader to become involved in the work of Helen Watt and Aaron Levy. Additionally, the complexity of relationships during both timeframes creates a depth of characterization that is often absent in current literature. Brief flashes of humor, involving Aaron and Helen’s relationship as well as his with the two Patricia’s – librarians at the University, add a nice touch to the story. I found myself coming to like the characters more and more as I continued to read “The Weight of Ink”.

This is a novel that readers will love or will downgrade as tedious and lengthy. If you are patient, love detailed and complex stories, and are not seeking immediate gratification when reading, you will find “The Weight of Ink” is worth your reading time.

Thank you netgalley.com for the advanced reader's copy of The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish in return for my honest review.

From reading the reviews of others I know that I am in the minority with my rating of The Weight of Ink. No one is more surprised than I that I didn't like it more. I expected to. I was anxious to read it, and even chose to read it in the summer when I had the time to savor the story. This is not an easy read. it requires concentration and focus. The book is over 500 pages and it moved very slowly for me. Reading is not always meant to be easy. I recognize that fact and I appreciate that it may take work to muscle through a complicated and intense subject-matter. It simply turned out to be a book that I wanted to like, but I didn't, not really.

I take the blame for my feelings about this book. There is no doubt that the novel is well-developed, well-researched and well-written. Oddly, I liked the modern story more than the historical one,which is unusual for me, but despite my preference, I learned a great deal from the historical period presented. There was so much going on in the story that I am sure that with all that I learned I missed quite a bit more. It was very difficult for me to connect to any of the characters; they were all so flawed, and not necessarily in an endearing way. To the the author's credit though, I feel that I came to know the characters despite not having a real affection for any them.

That being said, I understand the rave reviews. There are readers that are going to devour this historical fiction. I wish that I had been one of them. I am disappointed that I wasn't.

Rachel Kadish draws the reader into her magnificent work of historical fiction - The Weight of Ink. The story switches back and forth between the present day and 17th century London. In the contemporary story line, a genizah of sorts from the 17th century has been found squirreled away in a house outside of London being renovated. The scholar of Jewish history of Helen Watt enlists Aaron Levy an American graduate student studying in England. Levy has the pre-requisite linguistic skills (Portuguese, Hebrew) to translate this treasure trove of documents.

As we read the letters, sermons, and other texts, the book flashes back to the 17th century, where the blind Jewish sage Rabbi HaCoen Mendes and his scribe Ester Velasquez live. Ester is an orphan taken in by the rabbi who, as a woman of that time, is very unusual for her education and role supporting the rabbi. Levy and Watts decipher the writings and in parallel, we get glimpses of what is happening in London at that time.

Kadish is an illustrative writer. She weaves a colorful tapestry of words that bring her subjects and their times to life. At the same time, she takes the time to explore the theology, customs and conflicts, challenges and champions, that we rarely get to see in books. Radish is able to give us a deep insight into her characters and their motivations. At the same time, both the modern and old are continually beset by twists and turns of fate that leave us wondering what will happen next.

It's hard, in a review, to do justice to a book as remarkable as The Weight of Ink. This 560-page behemoth is a masterpiece--a work rooted in history and tradition, yet utterly original. It brings to life multiple worlds--the London of the 1600s, Israel post-WWII, and London in the first years of the 21st century--and is so well-researched and vivid that I kept thinking what a wonderful film it would make. It is hands down the best book I've read so far this year. I couldn't put it down.

Other reviewers have ably outlined the plot--how the book alternates the story line and characters between mid-17th-century London and 2001, how the story revolves around Ester Velasquez, an orphaned Sephardic Jew who is taken in by the blind rabbi Moseh HaCoen Mendes and becomes his scribe, and the modern-day scholars, ailing Helen Watt and young, rootless grad student Aaron Levy, who uncover a trove of her papers and struggle to figure out who she was and how the papers ended up sealed in a secret compartment in a home in Richmond. Ester is a rebel from across the centuries, rejecting the traditional role of women in her culture and in broader Gentile society, in favor of learning and philosophy. Helen has similarly devoted her life to scholarship, yet struggles with the consequences of a decision she made decades earlier. Aaron is charming but adrift, capable of translating multiple ancient languages but pursuing a dead-end topic for his dissertation and unsure where he wants life to take him. Along the way there is a supporting cast of many characters: Rabbi HaCoen Mendes, his household servant, Rivkah, Mary Da Costa Mendes, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy Jewish merchant, Wilton, Helen's arch rival, who is also studying Ester's papers, Jonathan Martin, the department head who plays favorites, Patricia, the special collections librarian, the Eastons, whose house had sheltered the papers for four centuries, plus various love interests. The major characters are depicted with depth and insight, the lesser ones believably, and there is seldom, if ever, a false note. Although the characters are all fictional, save the various philosophers who are mentioned, the book is set against some very real episodes in history, particularly the Inquisition, the restoration of the monarchy, which enabled Jews to emigrate to England and practice their religion, and the Great Plague of London.

The amount of research that clearly went into the book is staggering, and yet the words flow seemingly effortlessly off the page. The writing is masterful but accessible, the cultural depictions illuminating, and the whole experience transcendent. As beguiling as it is apt to be to lovers of literary fiction, however, The Weight of Ink is not for the faint of heart. Because of its length and complexity, it requires a significant commitment of time. I was hooked almost immediately, but others may need to stick it out longer until they're completely engaged.

Even so, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a book that will stick with me for a long, long time. I'd give it ten stars if I could.

This is a beautiful novel, elegantly written and filled with humanity. It starts slowly but keep reading. Soon, you will not want to put it down.

Like A. S. Byatt’s Possession, which is referenced on the book jacket, it tells two tales concurrently. The one, set in the present, follows Helen Watt, a woman academic expert on the marrano culture of late seventeenth century London, after Jews had been allowed back into the country for the first time since their expulsion by royal edict in 1290. (Yes, Shakespeare had probably never met a real Jew when he wrote Merchant.) She is invited by a former student to examine a trove of documents, very old and seemingly Jewish, found in a covered over closet in his house, which dates back to the seventeenth century. Sensing a find and under time pressure from the house’s owners, she enlists Aaron Levy, a brash American graduate student whose dissertation is in a stall (he’s looking for Jewish contacts with Shakespeare) to assist her in sifting through the fragile documents and to translate as many as possible as fast as possible. She’s made a rare find, a late seventeenth-century genizah (cache) filled with priceless shemot (etymology: “names,” documents with the Maker’s name in them which have been saved for ritual burial). The rest of this portion follows their fight to make something of the documents and publish something astounding in a proper historical journal before a rival team of researchers takes it all away from them. The woman is retiring soon and suffers from Parkinson’s Disease –badly. She feels she hasn’t been given her due in the male-dominated cloisters of British academe and she’s given up her personal life to get where she is. One of the high pleasures of this portion of the narrative is to watch the slow blooming rapprochement, if not friendship, growing between elderly, stiff upper lip woman scholar and young, blustery, too often flippant but inside radically insecure American scholar. Love –not sexual love but love between friends and associates—can unfold of its own accord if there’s inner respect between people working on a common task.

The second tale is of Ester Velazquez. She’s Portuguese by descent, an orphan, emigrated from Amsterdam in 1657, and now lives with a saintly rabbi in semi-poverty London. He’s blind. He needs someone to read to him so he has indulged her unwomanly thirst to learn languages. In truth, she’s one of the two best, only true students he’s had. The other was Spinoza, expelled by the Amsterdam Jews from the community for heresy. Ester’s tale is the tale of any intellectually curious, questing woman living in an age and culture with no room for women to be scholars. There is a commonalty here with Eva Figes’s The Tree of Knowledge (1990), a fictional life of Milton’s daughter Deborah, educated in languages to read to her blind father but having no place or life outside of that. But Ester is fiercer and more inventive than Deborah Milton. This story is about her struggle to find a place and way to pursue her insatiable thirst for knowledge. Spinoza features prominently though at a distance. Many of the other names mentioned are names I ran across back when I briefly studied the proto-scientific revolution of Cromwellian England.

The book has a great deal to say about the practice of historical scholarship as well. It is interesting to read the chapters detailing Helen’s and Aaron’s struggle to make sense of the fragmentary documents they have found in their effort to pursue the elusive life of the female scribe “Aleph,” who is Ester Velazquez, and then to switch to the full account of Ester’s life, delivered a stream of consciousness from inside Ester’s head. Anyone who’s done serious historical work will sympathize with Helen and Aaron. History is indifferent to its students, who only know what has been left behind, somehow not removed from memory. The record is always faulty, and accordingly frustrating.

It should be evident by this point that a thread binds Helen and Ester together. Both suffer “the passion of a lonely mind.” They both struggle to find a place to pursue the scholarship they need to keep breathing. Both have to give up a great deal in everyday comfort to get there. This isn’t just a woman’s book. The men characters are just as carefully, and respectfully delineated and their inner workings are often just as complex as Helen’s and Ester’s. But the glory of the book lies principally in the depiction of two amazing women. Their lives aren’t always happy, not even fulfilling, but they both find ways to make them their own.

I almost didn't order this book because the blurb compares it to Possession, which I couldn't get through, but fortunately The Weight of Ink was much more readable for me. If you didn't like Possession, you may nonetheless enjoy this read as much as I did.

I am not going to recap the plot, because other reviewers have already done so. Suffice it to say that the story alternates between 1665-66 London and pre- 9/11 2001. There are many interesting parallels between the two narratives.

The subjects covered, with the authority and evidence of extensive research and scholarship, include -- 17th century Judaism, with a particular focus on Sephardic Jews in the diaspora as a result of the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal; Spinoza [& Hobbes]; modern academia; the roles and powers of women; love; the handling and conservation of antiquarian documents; pleasure; deism v. humanism; sex; and the plague. I learned a lot and, as a result of reading this book, have been inspired to launch my own more detailed study of a number of topics in the book, including Spinoza, the plague and the 1666 London fire.

The plot is, in many ways, a mystery story, as modern scholars try to understand, place into context and value recently discovered writings from the 17th century.

I read this book in several days. Do not let it's length deter you.

I am withholding one star for a few plot points that I found underdeveloped or misleading, though I may be guilty of missing some details that would cure these issues. I did not fully understand the professor's relationship with the man she loved in Israel & I felt misled about the fate of one of the 17th century characters.

Many people in the book suffered from not being able to formulate a partnership with the one they most loved, so the topic of lost love is ever present. Interestingly, [even without facebook (!)] most characters were eventually able to find out what had happened to the "one who got away", but that knowledge never erased the sadness, regret or reflection on what could have been.

I highly recommend this read to anyone who loves history, philosophy, and/or a good mystery story.

This magnificent novel heralds the coming of a major talent. Rachel Kadish has been compared to A.S. Byatt -- but I thought "The Weight of Ink" was actually better than "Possession" -- which I loved.

Like "Possession," it takes place in the past and in the present. An ailing historian of 17th century Jewish history, Helen Watt, stumbles across a trove of documents hidden in a house near London that appear to be the household accounts of a blind rabbi, the first to return to Britain after Oliver Cromwell lifted the centuries-old ban on Jews living in England. Aided by a Phd. student, the American Aaron Levy, she begins to translate them from the Hebrew and Portuguese and realizes that they were written by a women. This is just the beginning of the discoveries they make.

As we return to the London of Samuel Pepys on the eve of the Great Plague and the Great Fire, we meet Ester Velasquez, a young women of formidable intelligence and intellectual curiosity, trapped by her narrow role both as a Jew and as a woman expected to marry and bear children and certainly not to study. A stubborn, proud person, Ester's wide-ranging mind cannot be contained. It ranges far beyond the boundaries allowed by Jewish tradition and begins to question and explore the most fundamental issues of human existence: why are we here? Who or what is God?What is His role in the world? What is the nature of human suffering? What is the role of free will in the lives and fates of people and nations?

The plot is beautifully complex, as are the many characters. The old, blind rabbi, Moseh HaCoen Mendes, a former teacher of the banned and spurned Spinoza in Amsterdam, is one of many memorable characters. The author's astounding breath of knowledge and learning amazed me. We read correspondence between rabbis and philosophers; we dive into Restoration theaters; we experience anti-Semitism; we dip into the birth of atheism; we explore contemporary attitudes toward homosexuality. Most particularly, we learn of the effects of the movement that gathered in Jewish communities in Europe behind the false Messiah,. Sabbatai Zevi.

Meanwhile Helen and Aaron also have their back stories. Helen's takes us to Israel in the 1950s, to a love affair with an Israeli officer and Holocaust survivor. Back in the present, we learn about the grimy world of academic competition. Helen and Aaron's relationship is also a witty commentary on the differences between British and American modes of behavior and attitudes.

In short, this is a vast panorama of a book -- the best I have read for many years. I want to say I have no connection to the author, either direct or indirect. I offer this tribute as an ordinary reader who craves fiction that makes me both think and feel -- and so rarely finds it. This is a novel that expanded my own knowledge and horizons. I hope it finds the success it deserves.

Manuscripts had laid undisturbed more than 300 years. A discovery had been made.

Helen Watt, British historian is 64 years of age with failing health. She used a cane to walk. She has Parkinson’s disease. Helen’s strength -knowledge & passion for history and Jewish studies stand out - her ruthless commitment to her work reflect who she is - but her illness is quietly just ‘being’. Helen operates much bigger than her disease.
She is not Jewish, but has done a lot of work with Jewish history and taught as University professor. Since Helen is about to retire at the University, she would like to go out with a bang. So there is some urgency and competitiveness in getting the documents she learns about to the college before anybody else gets there hands on them.

Ian and Brigette Easton, lived in a house from the late seventeenth century. It was built in 1661 by Portuguese Jews. It changed hands a few times until 1910 when Brigette’s aunt bought the house and allowed it to deteriorate.
Brigette inherited the property from her aunt. Their plan was to renovate and then open up a gallery in the house. The Easton’s had many building delays. It seemed that Brigette’s late aunt had spent decades offending members of every historical preservation group in the area. After The Easton’s finally obtained all the requisite permissions, the electrician found a stash of papers under their stairs. He thought they were Arabic. He didn’t realize the papers were dated more than 300 years ago— and the lettering was in Portuguese and Hebrew.

NOTE — After finishing the book - I found it ‘a little’ funny that I remembered reading about Brigette’s aunt ‘offending’ people — ( who died before Brigette inherited the house). The more we get to know Brigette in this story - I can say ....”the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”.

Ian had been a student of Helen Watt at University—and he called her to come examine the papers they found in their house. Helen recognized some correspondence between 17th century Rabbis on the documents. She told the couple - ( Bridgette & Ian), that the papers needed to be assessed before they could safely be moved.
Helen tried to explain a little more to Brigette & Ian of what the electrician and covered. She explained that any document that contain the word God could not be thrown out in Jewish communities, but instead had to be buried as a person would be buried. Helen ‘might’ have wanted to toss the found 300 year old documents away - if she could have gotten away with it....so she could get permits and just remodel her old house already. The woman represents everything annoying about ultra modern women today ...lol
Synagogues, and religious Jewish communities stored these documents in troves called genizah’s, until a burial could be arranged.
Helen was adamant that the papers found belonged to England’s history— and not the Jewish community. She believed the documents found belonged at a major research university.

Helen needed help - and calls a colleague to recommend a post grad student to be her assistant.
Aaron Levy, American Jew, a college post grad student had been working on his dissertation, but was struggling to finish it. He was trying to prove there was a Jewish connection with Shakespeare’s writing. Aaron, about 40 years younger than Helen, - 25 ish - resembled a man named Dror, from Helen’s past that she had history with.
Whether or not it was because Aaron, reminded Helen, or Dror, from many years ago ( who we learn more about later in the book)— or because Aaron came off being a basic arrogant schmuck, - Helen & Aaron were not off to a good start as a cohesive happy team.
Helen was aware right off the bat that Aaron didn’t like her much, but at least he didn’t pity her.

The documents discloses letters written by Ester Velasquez, under the care of Rabbi Moseh HaCoen Mendes. Mendes fled Portugal - and went to Amsterdam after the Inquisition killed his parents and left him blind. From Amsterdam, he went to London to try to help with the Jewish community. There’s interesting facts about the struggles of the Jewish community during this time too - hiding their religious identity-or at least keeping it pretty quiet - but they were relatively safe in London- so many Jews didn’t want to rock the boat by pressing for more civil rights.

Ester became the secret scribe for Rabbi Mendes. Her brother, Isaac, didn’t want the job. Ester was proficient in Latin & Greek - but even being literate at ‘all’ was astonishing for women in the 1600’s. She yearned for knowledge and to converse with the great philosophers ....( Spinoza, Descartes, etc.).
The story of Ester is fascinating - she’s MORE than JUST a woman born before her time - a female radical thinker/ philosopher - She took huge risks that would be risky today. She took risks in signing the documents. She took risks with her communications in all her relationships - with both men and women
She entered into a marriage for convenience with a homosexual- that some people today would judge harshly.
And......Esters inquiry about God & Love - the existence of God - freedom to think freely - religious beliefs - social obligations - are presented in depth.

I have been asking myself...., “If I HAD to pick a FAVORITE character in this novel .....
would it be HELEN.....( with her inner strength).....
I learned from this woman. She made me cry. Helen truly taught LIFE LESSONS - so subtle - but truthful - ‘emotions rise’.... and I saw just HOW STUBBORN we as people can be. CHANGE - changing our lives - even if we have dreams to make it better - can be so darn scary - Helen showed us what happens when we don’t take those risks.

Or....Ester for OBVIOUS reasons ..... she never EVER stopped climbing the mountain— her life was a one-way ticket UP......she never stopped pressing the limits of her circumstances. She was incredibly inspiring. Even her mistakes - are forgiving.

Or....*Aaron Levy*: I have a special heart for Aaron. I GOT HIM RIGHT AWAY! It helps to be Jewish to understand his pompous arrogance. I knew his attitude was just his outer shell ....and that once it was stripped away - we’d see a beautiful struggling soul.
I have much more I’d like to say about Aaron....but I’ll leave it for discussion with my buddies who are reading this right now ( or have finished it)- Melissa ....Jan ....Lisa....
and anyone else who wants to jump in for discussion.
My fear is I’d give spoilers away.....
So.....
“Melissa”..... I wanted to CRY *FOR* Aaron TWICE....
Plus....I was SO MAD AT HIM TOO! I hated a choice he made.

YIKES......Forgive me.....( nobody has to read this review)....I see I wrote it out of NEED to complete my OWN EXPERIENCE......( trying to)...

I think this book is extraordinary, brilliant, ambitious, and exquisite! I took my time reading it. I looked up philosophers: Spinoza - etc. I thought about it when I wasn’t reading it. I wrote Melissa private messages - who read it before me - as I was dying to talk about it.

I loved the scenes where Aaron is writing his friend Marisa who went to work on a
Kibbutz in Israel. The author got EVERYTHING about Kibbutzim life right!! I started craving my tomato and cucumber breakfast ( called the dairy meal). The volunteers staying on a Kibbutz would have contests with the Israelis as to who could dice their tomato & cucumber fastest. The Americans always lost. BUT.... by chance we did win....they had to give us a yummy chocolate bar.

“The Weight of Ink” is a heavy-weight book: intellectually challenging and satisfying!!! .....Rachel Kadish is AMAZING!!!!
The only time I had thoughts that maybe this book could have been cut shorter was once when Ester, Mary, Thomas,and John ....were on their boat on the river. I’m not sure why I felt that part went on too long ......yet I actually liked it too. My thoughts though were on another part of the story - curious as to what would develop.

The SUPPORTING CHARACTERS are memorable, too!!!
The dialogue is intimate- engrossing - authentic
The INNER THOUGHTS of THE THREE MAIN CHARACTERS: Helen, Ester, and Aaron are painfully - butterflies- in - my - gut- WONDERFUL!!

There is history - Philosophy- Jewish history - theology: exploring christianity and Judaism. Interfaith relationships are explored - homosexuality - the existence of God- 17th century life: conditions of the times : The plague, and the fire in London.
20th century Kibbutz life in Israel- RICHNESS in SUBSTANCE.

The roles of women are explored. There is mystery, tragedy, triumph, dreams and disappointments.....and GORGEOUS POETIC imagery!!!

POWERFUL and WONDERFUL!!!

“Where words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain, for they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain”.

THANK YOU RACHEL RADISH!!!

elysejody

This book is testament to the fact that publishing houses no longer employ editors, and that such editors as they do have, no longer feel the need to pare back tediously overwritten prose, or to tell an author that she does not need to share every iota of her massive research inthe period. The Weight of Ink should, in fact, be two separate novels: One, about an elderly British scholar at the end of her career, who had a stunningly cliched experience in Israel when she and the state were young. What experience? She, a British WASP had an affair with 'Dror,' a gorgeous, deep feeling young kibbutznik, who survived the Holocaust, and who both falls for her and wards her off because she is not Jewish. All readers of Exodus, and a raft of imitators, will recognize the type, and the situation. Could it get more cliched? Oh, and she is extremely excited to find that the scribe of an historic cache of papers she is called in to examine is not a man but a woman! So, we get Ari Ben Canaan's lovemaking abilities and retro-feminism. No cliche unturned.
The parallel story, which would be much better off on its own, and which could stand far better that way, is about a young, fiercely intellectual woman in London as Jews return from exile, in the 17th Century. I can imagine being caught up in that story -- though it did not happen for me. Why? Partly because the author is just so wordy. No paragraph goes without additional adjectives, piled so thick that you marvel that she can't just state something, anything, in a straightforward manner. The author might have written a really solid historic fiction, but she wants to be literary too. And that makes this book ponderous and unpleasant to read.

Ester represents the epitome of a woman who fights for her right to fulfill her genius, balking against the constraints of seventeenth century society. I learned from her about the Portuguese Inquisition and a family that suffered its consequences, yet one among them that remained to celebrate their history and reveal her own search for the meaning of life through the power of words. Rachel Kadish gives her readers a deeply personal gift.

The Weight Of Ink tells the story of Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who becomes a scribe for a blind rabbi in London in the 1600s right before the plague. At the same time we learn about Helen Watt, a close to retiring British historian who is working on translations of some 17th century documents signed by scribe “Aleph”. Even though these women lived-in different centuries, both were strong and determined to pursue their interests and fight to be heard, and choosing a life to satisfy the mind and sacrifice the heart.

Ester is a product of the Portuguese Inquisition and although displaced with little family, what feels like home for her is her job a a scribe for the rabbi, where her love of learning is nourished. She turns down marriage offers as she prefers to work for the rabbi in order to continue her scholarly pursuits. She has an open mind and longs to converse with philosophers and educated men, and although it is not acceptable for women to engage in these types of discussion, she creates unorthodox opportunities to be heard.

Helen has a love of Jewish history and as she and her American graduate student assistant Aaron Levy investigate the many pages of letters written to and from the London based rabbi to determine the identity of the scribe, it is a race against time as Helen’s physical health is failing, she is approaching retirement, and another team of historians are working on the same project.

We also learn about Aaron Levy, the Jewish assistant, who is interested in a relationship with a girl who is living in Israel on a Kibbutz and is pushing him away. And then there are Ian and Brigette Easton, the couple who live in the 17th century house where the documents were found. This is a complex story; a mystery and rich with history and well developed characters.

Author Rachel Kadish provides extensive depth: Jewish theology and philosophy, interfaith relationships and lost love, 17th century history, the Portuguese inquisition, the plague and so much more…no skimping on research here, but for me a bit too wordy, complex and long. The Weight of Ink is powerful, intricate and the well deserved winner of the National Jewish Book Award. Although this is not an easy book, if you love historical fiction and Jewish history and set aside a big chunk of time to conquer it, you will be rewarded with the beauty of memorable storytelling.

The Weight of Ink is the best book I have read or listened to in years. Since I listened to it on my Kindle, I was surprised to learn that it was nearly 600 pages long. I enjoyed every hour I spent with the book. As others have said, it ticks many of my areas of interest: women, history of the Jews, modern day Israel, life in past centuries, to name a few. If you have treasured time with Shakespeare, Michener, and others of this ilk, you will find this book impossible to set aside as you wait for the next time you can spend reading.

Its been a long time since I have been "held" by a book. I was mesmerized by the Ms.Kadish's writing and her ability to flow from one time frame in history to another. As a Gentile the history of the Jewish journey was very interesting and informative. I l earned so much in this book and I congratulate Ms. Kadish on a job well done. This book will be a recommendation to my book club in the near future.

I purchased this on Audibles and would listen to this on the way to and from work. I made it about a quarter of the way through before it dawned on me I really did not care about these characters at all. I absolutely love the title, other than that, nope. I do have a question, what happened to the money? Ester's family had money, lots of money. It was a point brought up repeatedly and then the fire. Then the children were orphans and had nothing. Perhaps this point is explained later in the book, I'll never know as I have no intention of wasting anymore time to find out.

I picked this book up as it was referenced to be like Geraldine Brooks People of the Book. It's much more dense, thick on history, and thus more difficult for me to read. I appreciated how much research and thought Kadish put into the 4 intertwining stories -- each of which is a book in itself. If you like history with some story, you'll like this.

Absolutely flawless. Based on the book jacket, I didn't think I'd like this book at all but I thought I'd try a few pages. Ten pages into it, I was HOOKED. What a writing style. What a story. The blind Rabbi and Rivka were as riveting as the 2 central characters. Parts of the book gave me goosebumps. It was so compelling, soul-wrenching, and yet so compassionate.

I am about 75% through and struggling through the letters and the philosophy, skimming a lot. There is just way to much of the historical part and not enough of the fiction part. The balance is way off, yet I am engaged enough to want to find out the ending, particularly for the current story line so I will keep going.

The review said that The Weight of Ink appeals to readers who enjoyed Possession. I read Possession as an impatient twenty-something and loved it. I read this novel in the last half of middle age and found it perfect. The characters seem so human and the life imagined is one that understands the longing for what might have been while living what is to the fullest measure.

Epic story told in two time periods 400 years apart. Beautifully and intelligently written. Long but engrossing, great characters. I didn't expect to like it -- read it only b/c my wife read it and I was looking for a good in between books.

I had no expectations for this book. It was recommended highly somewhere on the web so I bought it. What a joy it was to read. I read right I through the end bits...the thank yous, the interview, the study guide, everything. And it has peaked my interest in a variety of topics I rolled through in college. Enjoy this lovely piece asap.

The Weight of Ink stands shoulder to shoulder with The Name of the Rose - another book I absolutely love for its characters, history, prose, and mystery. My new mission is to find another book of the calibre of The Weight of Ink!

This is an intriguing story that explores several themes, among them are spirituality, the role of women, and what drives us through our lives. There’s much more here. I’d love to hear what a current day Jew makes of this novel.

A truly excellent book on so many levels. It took a little work to get involved with the characters because they were real--and human and imperfect. But with such depth. The history and philosophy were deeply researched and rang true. And the feeling of a mind burning for truth while feeling such loneliness echoed through each character. The book engaged me completely. It's been awhile since that happened and I read voraciously. I recommend this book strongly.

I love historical novels. I love great writing that makes one think. I love strong female characters that won't compromise just so a man can have what he wants and thinks is more important. This novel combines them all and does it beautifully.

Kadish has embraced entire worlds in this huge book (weighty in emotions and philosophy as well as size), but what carried me personally through all the debates and the descriptions of 17th-century life were the rich characters, multi-layered and driven by multiple motives. The emotions got so raw at times that I had to take a breather and let myself take in what I had just learned. However, the book is a bit too much: too many arch English looks and agonized confrontations, too many lives to wrap up, too much fake 17th-century epistle style, too much in general--and did Shakespeare have to be part of the mix along with everything else?

I love historical fiction that revolves around modern day research and connecting it with periods of time and people of which I have just a basic knowledge. When historian, Helen Watts, is invited to view the writings of a Jewish rabbi of 1660’s, London she realizes that this could be her chance to make a name for herself in her field. As she spars with her American assistant, Aaron, they discover that the scribing has been done by a woman. Women were not allowed to read and write so this is a big discovery. As Helen’s career ends along with the increased pain from Parkinson’s Disease, the two of them find a final document about the scribe, and both Helen and her young doctoral assistant find they have more in common than they thought. Her final gift to Aaron creates a perfect ending.

I am so impressed by this work, as in maybe I should give up writing! Ms. Kadish keeps three stories going at once: two modern-day historians, one British, one American, discovering a trove of letters from the 17th century; the British female historian's back story; the story of Ester, a Jewish orphan in London who defies expectations for women and devotes herself to the written word, philosophy, and history. The book is very long, about 600 pages, but there wasn't a page I didn't love. It's mind boggling to think how Kadish mastered all the research, learned to write in 17 C. prose, figured out how to render a picture of London in the grips of the Plague, etc. Ester is a character that will live in my mind for a long time. A good read for any of you feminists out there.

This book did not capture my attention. I love historical fiction and really wanted to enjoy this, but it just didn't happen for me.The major drawback of the audiobook was the narrator was too soft spoken. I do most of my listening while driving, and I could barely hear her over the normal noise of my vehicle. My car is older (2004) and not bluetooth capable, so I only rely on my iPhone. I had the volume turned up to maximum, but it was not enough for this book. I got about halfway through it, but finally gave up. Had the story and/or writing been more exciting and succinct, I might have tried to carve out time in a quieter environment, but it wasn't worth it to me.

I would have thoroughly enjoyed this book, despite its lengthiness, if not for the parts told from the male protagonist. The author, with her keen talent to convey details and emotions, has crafted a beautiful tale of an extraordinary woman with a stunning mind. However, having to suffer through those rather dreadful parts (the extend of my dislike of the character Aaron cannot possibly be exaggerated: he is immature, ignorant, self absorbed, in other words, American; regardless of the author's attempt to redeem him at the end, his whiny voice was beyond irritating, and in my opinion rather unnecessary for the story), the whole narrative felt somewhat sluggish and disengaging.

So full of thoughts and feelings upon finishing this one... I'm not sure I can adequately express my ideas right now except to say this is one of the most interesting and memorable books I think I've ever read. The characters and the stories are incredibly rich with history and culture, religion and philosophy, literature and even science. Other than proclaiming the brilliance of Rachel Kadish, I think I'll stew on it further before trying to sing its praises.

I am halfway through listening, with many restarts, and haven't found a character to feel any emotion over.. I am confused and bored, but expected to be wild about this book. I love long, well-written books, but I cannot get lost in this one. The narrator seems to swallow her syllables or words.. at top volume, she is not any more clear. Her voice is nice for conversing but her reading or telling a story just doesn't work for me. I like to listen while driving in my car, but she is so unintelligible that I just gave up.

When I bought this book to read for a book club, I was initially rather discouraged by its length. However, once begun the book became an "unputdownable" - I couldn't stop reading, often staying up until the early hours of the morning of the following day. This is a magical book; the two plots running side by side kept me engrossed, and I couldn't decide which characters I preferred, those living in the Medieval times or those living in the present day. It's a mystery, a psychological analysis, a romance, and more. I can't recommend this book more strongly! Don't be intimidated by the length because the writing is so good that the story moves along at the rate of a high-speed train!

After reading glowing reviews from critics, I was ready for a great book. This unfortunately was not it. The story plods along and I did not find any of it interesting. I was stuck on a seven hour flight with only this one book, don't repeat my mistake!

I didn’t think I would get through the while thing, but I am glad I did. I was drawn to the book because of its similarity to other novels like Possession by AS Byatt. And it is. A British professor and a grad student are swept up in a mysterious set of papers. At first they try to guard their find, but then another group of scholars gets access and publishes before them. I almost stopped reading then because it seemed hopeless, but then, it got better... the modern story is interrupted frequently by narratives of the writer of the manuscripts in the 17th century, which I didn’t like as much as the present day narrative. Overall, it is definitely worth getting to the end.

This is a big novel—literally and figuratively: history, philosophy, complicated relationships, an exploration of gender bias, and engrossing stories both past and present. The past is the Sephardic Jewish community in mid-seventeenth century London, including the plague years. The present is two historians, one at the end of her career, another at the beginning of his, deciphering the meaning of a cache of papers from that past period. Well executed, engrossing, and food for thought, I highly recommend The Weight of Ink.

I am stunned, thrilled, compelled to read it again right this minute. The writing is gorgeous beyond my ability to describe. The characters not only live on the page, they follow you around for hours. No book I've ever read has moved me, informed me, captured me, caused me to cry and laugh and FEEL as this one has. I can't find words to describe the impact of this book on me as a person, as a woman. Ms. Kdish, thank you for this beautiful, powerful gift.

I took this book with me on vacation to Jamaica and I could not put it down (my husband complained at one point). This is like 4 books in one. It is a mystery with multiple love stories set in 17th century and 2001. I've never read anything like it. It has the suspense of a thriller (at times) and the power of great literature. It did take me about 30 pages to get hooked but after slowed down and savored Kadish's every word. She writes with both clarity and beauty. When I finally closed the cover after finishing it, I felt inspired and satisfied. I hope this book wins many awards as it deserves them.

Ester represents the epitome of a woman who fights for her right to fulfill her genius, balking against the constraints of seventeenth century society. I learned from her about the Portuguese Inquisition and a family that suffered its consequences, yet one among them that remained to celebrate their history and reveal her own search for the meaning of life through the power of words. Rachel Kadish gives her readers a deeply personal gift.

The Weight Of Ink tells the story of Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who becomes a scribe for a blind rabbi in London in the 1600s right before the plague. At the same time we learn about Helen Watt, a close to retiring British historian who is working on translations of some 17th century documents signed by scribe “Aleph”. Even though these women lived-in different centuries, both were strong and determined to pursue their interests and fight to be heard, and choosing a life to satisfy the mind and sacrifice the heart.

Ester is a product of the Portuguese Inquisition and although displaced with little family, what feels like home for her is her job a a scribe for the rabbi, where her love of learning is nourished. She turns down marriage offers as she prefers to work for the rabbi in order to continue her scholarly pursuits. She has an open mind and longs to converse with philosophers and educated men, and although it is not acceptable for women to engage in these types of discussion, she creates unorthodox opportunities to be heard.

Helen has a love of Jewish history and as she and her American graduate student assistant Aaron Levy investigate the many pages of letters written to and from the London based rabbi to determine the identity of the scribe, it is a race against time as Helen’s physical health is failing, she is approaching retirement, and another team of historians are working on the same project.

We also learn about Aaron Levy, the Jewish assistant, who is interested in a relationship with a girl who is living in Israel on a Kibbutz and is pushing him away. And then there are Ian and Brigette Easton, the couple who live in the 17th century house where the documents were found. This is a complex story; a mystery and rich with history and well developed characters.

Author Rachel Kadish provides extensive depth: Jewish theology and philosophy, interfaith relationships and lost love, 17th century history, the Portuguese inquisition, the plague and so much more…no skimping on research here, but for me a bit too wordy, complex and long. The Weight of Ink is powerful, intricate and the well deserved winner of the National Jewish Book Award. Although this is not an easy book, if you love historical fiction and Jewish history and set aside a big chunk of time to conquer it, you will be rewarded with the beauty of memorable storytelling.

The Weight of Ink is the best book I have read or listened to in years. Since I listened to it on my Kindle, I was surprised to learn that it was nearly 600 pages long. I enjoyed every hour I spent with the book. As others have said, it ticks many of my areas of interest: women, history of the Jews, modern day Israel, life in past centuries, to name a few. If you have treasured time with Shakespeare, Michener, and others of this ilk, you will find this book impossible to set aside as you wait for the next time you can spend reading.

Its been a long time since I have been "held" by a book. I was mesmerized by the Ms.Kadish's writing and her ability to flow from one time frame in history to another. As a Gentile the history of the Jewish journey was very interesting and informative. I l earned so much in this book and I congratulate Ms. Kadish on a job well done. This book will be a recommendation to my book club in the near future.

I purchased this on Audibles and would listen to this on the way to and from work. I made it about a quarter of the way through before it dawned on me I really did not care about these characters at all. I absolutely love the title, other than that, nope. I do have a question, what happened to the money? Ester's family had money, lots of money. It was a point brought up repeatedly and then the fire. Then the children were orphans and had nothing. Perhaps this point is explained later in the book, I'll never know as I have no intention of wasting anymore time to find out.

I picked this book up as it was referenced to be like Geraldine Brooks People of the Book. It's much more dense, thick on history, and thus more difficult for me to read. I appreciated how much research and thought Kadish put into the 4 intertwining stories -- each of which is a book in itself. If you like history with some story, you'll like this.

What a wonderful book! Very complicated but easy to follow. I learned history lessons, something about the philosophy of religion, and about the sometimes snarky competiveness of contemporary academic life. In addition, the book was a demonstration of how people care about each other and can give support to each other.

Oh, this is such a beautiful book! It's the kind that you get lost in, so absorbed. The story is fascinating, and the writing superb, but what I love about Kadish's stories is her ability to inhabit each character and tell their tale with such compassion and authenticity. Wonderful and heartbreaking.

Usually today's serious books disappoint because although they are beautifully written, they often lack plot. This is the complete opposite. Starting around page 15, I felt overwhelmed by the poor writing but forced myself to continue since I love historical novels. But the idea of juxtaposing a current day researcher with the actual unfolding of the events in the past isn't original. It was done to perfection by A. S. Byatt in "Possession".