The Golem and the Jinni Review: An Unusual Pairing

I love stories of unexpected friendships, and what could be more unexpected than a golem and a jinni? These two mythological creatures come from different traditions, different regions, and altogether different worlds. Yet in Helene Wecker’s debut historical fantasy novel, they meet by chance on the streets of New York City. My whole family has been reading this book, and I’m so glad I finally hopped on that bandwagon!

The Golem and the Jinni begins in Poland at the turn of the 20th century, when a disgraced rabbi makes a woman out of clay—a golem—to serve as his client’s perfect and obedient wife. But after an unexpected turn of events, the golem arrives at Ellis Island alone and masterless. She is taken in by a kindly rabbi who names her Chava and introduces her to the local Jewish community. Meanwhile, a tinsmith in Little Syria sets to work on an old copper flask when suddenly out of it comes a jinni who has been trapped for a thousand years. Adopting the name Ahmad, the jinni reluctantly takes on the role of tinsmith’s apprentice while trying to figure out how to break the bonds that keep in stuck in human form. When Chava and Ahmad meet, they feel a kinship—both are outsiders trying to fit into, yet not truly part of, the human world. Yet their natures are so different, this altruistic being of earth and flighty being of fire, that their friendship brings as much conflict as comfort. All fights are forgotten, however, when they realize that someone who poses a danger to them both has found his way to New York City. 

Golems and jinn are two creatures that I’ve always loved reading about, though never before have I encountered them together in the same text. Their juxtaposition in this novel, however, highlights their similarities: Both are supernatural creatures that can be harnessed through the use of arcane knowledge to do the bidding of humans. The jinni will probably be a more familiar concept to most readers—we all know the tale of Aladdin rubbing the lamp. But Helene Wecker’s Ahmad does not grant his rescuer three wishes. In fact, Ahmad spends most of the story not serving any human master, yet not quite free, either—a liminal space that leaves the jinni restless and unpredictable. Jinn are traditionally thought to have all sorts of supernatural abilities: primarily shape-shifting, strength, and flight, but sometimes also near unlimited magical powers to grant the wishes of their masters. But in this book, Wecker plays with folklore to grant the jinni more specific powers. Drawing on the traditional notion that jinn are beings made of fire, Wecker describes Ahmad as having the ability to create heat and flame from nothing, even while shackled to his human form. I found this to be a particularly clever interpretation, and it suits Ahmad in new role as a metal-worker.

Golems have not pervaded popular imagination to quite the same extent as jinn, but some of my readers may remember that I mentioned these beings in my post on Dark Tales of Jewish Folklore. In Jewish tradition, a golem is a humanoid clay creature brought to life through the power of one of the names of God, or some other Hebrew incantation. Most of our golem legends come from central Europe, such as the famous Golem of Prague, created by Rabbi Judah Lowe ben Bezalel to protect the Prague ghetto from antisemitic attacks. The golem in that story eventually became a danger to its own people, and the rabbi had to deactivate it. Wecker draws on this legacy in her creation of Chava. Chava is created in Poland, where in fact the oldest golem legends originate. Both her creator and the rabbi who takes her in worry about the golem’s natural proclivity toward uncontrollable violence, and one of the central questions of the novel is whether to destroy her before she gets to that point. Chava is rather unique for a golem, however, since this novel puts her in the unprecedented predicament of not having a master to obey. Wecker makes this a jumping-off point for her own unique interpretation of golems—not having a master means that Chava is pulled to fulfill everyone’s desires and can psychically sense their wants and fears. This makes her uncommonly empathetic and altruistic, though she soon has to learn how to put herself first.

All this rambling just to say—The Golem and the Jinni creates a vivid and unique story from a creative interpretation of two creatures from vastly different folklore traditions. I’d recommend this book to anyone, regardless of their usual genre preferences, as it is neither a traditional fantasy, nor love story, nor historical fiction. There’s a little something in it to appeal to everyone, and its deeper explorations of morality, identity, and friendship are universal. You can find The Golem and the Jinni at your local retailer, or buy it online and support The Gothic Library in the process by clicking this Bookshop.org affiliate link.