The Golem and the Djinni
A beautiful story of neighboring immigrant communities in gilded age New York
The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker was one of my last reads of the hellish year that was 2020 (199 of 201) and it gave me a welcome escape from the ongoing nightmare. It's a beautiful story of neighboring immigrant communities in Gilded Age New York. Chava is a Golem made by a shady old man in Danzig, brought to life on the passage to New York whereupon her master dies. Ahmad is a Djinni who was trapped in an oil flask and unknowingly brought to New York where he is accidentally released by a tinsmith. They are both lonely and lost in their new surroundings and struggle to find belonging and safety.
The writing is beautiful and the story is slow-paced (but never drags). Chava and Ahmad don't even meet until 200 pages in. The time it takes to build up their backstories and their early days in New York is time well spent and crafts an intimate look into the communities in which they have found themselves. The world-building seemed familiar to me, probably because of all the Bowery Boys New York History podcast episodes I have binged over the years, the Gilded Age being a favorite time period of Greg and Tom, especially the Lower East Side neighborhoods.
Though there are subtle hints that their relationship might at some point become romantic, the central relationship between the Golem and the Djinni is a deep friendship. Both of them have a deep well of loneliness in them and find kinship in each other. They start out a friendly acquaintanceship, but become closer as the stakes become higher and they become in danger of being found out for their true natures. We see flashbacks of Ahmad's past to find out how he became imprisoned in the oil flask in the first place and how that informs his present quest for freedom.
A deeper reading of this story is the meaning of "nature," and how much one can change oneself with practice and growth. Not just of Chava who has been literally made to have certain characteristics, but also of the "ordinary" humans around her and Ahmad. We see Chava, Ahmad, and their companions grow and mature through this friendship and it is incredibly satisfying. Chava and Ahmad's temporal narrative arcs are vastly different (seemingly, just a few years vs. more than a thousand years, respectively) and I was intrigued with how Wecker used these as complementing and contrasting time frames.
The Golem and the Djinni is enchanting and enthralling and I savored every word. It's a beautiful story in craft and substance and I would highly recommend it. I look forward to reading more Helene Wecker in the future.
