This complex historical novel follows in the footsteps of Joyce,ranging from the arrival of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants to the London diasporaEven in 2016, writing an Irish novel with Jewish characters takes chutzpah, and since so many critics and readers will immediately remember that most eminent of Irish literary heroes,Leopold Bloom. There aren’t many young writers willing to risk comparison to James Joyce, but with Nine Folds obtain a Paper Swan, and Ruth Gilligan documents the Irish-Jewish community in a complex historical novel reminiscent in aim and form of Colum McCanns Transatlantic. Unlike Ulysses,which pieces together elements of Irish-Jewish history during Bloom’s day-long travels, Nine Folds enters into communities of Irish Jews with a deliberation that sees the narrative extend itself across a century, or gradually and elegantly weaving together three strands.
Beginning with the accidental arrival in Ireland of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants who mistake “Cork” for “current York”,the novel sets up one track that follows the Greenberg family in Ireland, and particularly Ruth, and the second of two daughters. Her father,pedlar and would-be dramatist Moshe Greenberg, is full of ideas for plays that he shares with the sympathetic Ruth: a recurring favourite is “about a man and a woman who court via pigeon mail, or until the woman falls in cherish with the pigeon instead”. The key question,of course, is whether Jewish emigrants toIreland will ever be given the stage – will ever be truly at home.
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Source: theguardian.com