Michael David LukasCritiques

Digital audiobook performed by Mozhan Marno

This work of historical fiction takes us to 19th-century Stamboul, seat of the Ottoman Empire (now, Istanbul, Turkey). When her mother dies as Eleanora Cohen is born, a flock of hoopoes suddenly appears. Two midwives appear mysteriously to deliver the child and begin caring for her; they claim to have “read the signs.” Raised by her father, a carpet merchant, she is indulged and cosseted. Clearly intelligent (she is reading advanced works at an early age), she manages to stowaway on his voyage to Stamboul. Eventually, Eleanora charms and intrigues the sultan, himself, with her precocious intellect and astute observations.

I was completely enchanted by this tale. In may ways it reads like a fairy tale, with castles and secret passages, court intrigue and wicked stepmothers, and, of course, the mysterious flock of hoopoes which follow Eleanora wherever she goes.

The writing is atmospheric and mystical. There were times when I had to remind myself of the setting in the late 19th century.

There were a couple of threads that disappeared without a satisfying conclusion, and the ending is ambiguous. But, on the whole, I was great entertained by this novel.

Mozhan Marno does a wonderful job of performing the audiobook. He really brought the setting and the characters to life for me.

Years ago, I read "Sacred Trash: the lost and found world of the Cairo Geniza", by Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole. That led me to "The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels", by Janet Soskice, about two Scots Presbyterian "learned ladies" who assisted Solomon Schecnter in acquiring documents from the Geniza for Cambridge University.

Lukas' book is a work of fiction, moving between the story of the first watchman of the Ibn Ezra synagogue, a young Muslim orphan boy, set in the 11th-century; that of the discoveries at the Geniza in the late 19th-century; and that of an present-day American graduate student, son of an Egyptian Jewish mother and an Egyptian Muslim father, a descendant of the family that for centuries served as watchmen at the synagogue.

Lukas does a lovely job of describing Cairo in these three vastly different periods.

This is what I wrote in 2011 about this read: "Interesting read; learned more about the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul, some of the history. The 8 year girl is a savant and draws the attention of the Sultan, we suppose fulfilling her destiny recognized by 2 Tartar women at her birth. Unfulfilling ending, again making me wonder . . . there is a sequel in the works? Where did Elenora Cohen go when she fled Stamboul?"

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Historical fiction about Joseph al-Raqb, an American graduate student of Egyptian descent, who travels to Cairo in the year 2000 in a quest to solve the mystery of a package sent to him after his father’s death. Two other timelines are covered. The first is set in the 11th century and follows Ali ibn al-Marwani, a Muslim orphan, as he is invited by the Jewish council members to become the first night watchman over the Ibn Ezra Synagogue in Cairo. The second involves English twins, Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson, as they arrive in Cairo in 1897 to acquire ancient scrolls stored in the same synagogue. The common thread in the three stories is the legendary Ezra scroll, presumed to be the most perfect Torah scroll ever written and rumored to have been stored in the synagogue.

This premise is intriguing, but it falls down a bit in the execution. On the plus side, the descriptions of both ancient and modern Cairo are evocative. The author succeeds in bringing three eras in history to life. The author’s message of hope with respect to building relationships and understanding among cultures and religions of the world is positive and uplifting, as is the emphasis on forgiveness. On the minus side, the book’s structure feels very fragmented. The most interesting of the three storylines, to me, is the ancient story of Ali, but it is not examined in any depth and soon becomes a mundane love story. The twin sisters are agents of imperialism but are represented as heroines. Joseph seems to be on a quest for self-discovery and healing, but he never succeeds in achieving any type of satisfactory resolution.

I liked this book and recommend it as a learning experience regarding history of Cairo. The author clarifies which portions are based on fact. Just be aware that it has an unfinished quality and leaves many open questions for the reader to interpret. If we could award half-stars, I'd give it 3.5.

The Last Watchman of Old Cairo follows three linked story lines: Ali, a Muslim youth in perhaps 1200 AD; twin sisters in 1872 who are eager to get their hands on the surviving documents of an historic synagogue's genizi; and Joseph (or Yusef), a young gay man born to a Jewish mother and Muslim father. These documents--and the synagogue--are important to each of them for different, but related reasons. "a thousand years of love letters and prayer books, business contracts, deeds, and the occasional shopping list, all muddled together in a great heap of possible divinity."Lukas explores themes of identity in multiple ways, giving us vivid pictures of Cairo then and now. I was intrigued to learn afterwards that the sisters are based on historical figures, under-appreciated for their contributions to archaeology and preserving Arabic and Syriac manuscripts. You may well have heard the name Solomon Schechter but you likely do not know of Agnes and Margaret Smith!

"A story is never just a story," a rabbi observes at one point. This novel gives us a compelling story, wrapped in beautiful prose and exploring profound themes. And later, a character says that "language is a gesture--a finger pointing at the moon, not the moon itself". That may be true, but without such pointing, we may not notice the moon's light.

Intertwined stories tell of the Jewish community in Cairo and the Muslim family who watched the synagogue. Main narrative is by a Jewish-Egyptian American who finds himself in the historical documents found in the ancient synagogue in Cairo. Much better than this description, and well written, too!

3-part story of long line of Muslim guards of Cairo's Ibn Ezra Synagogue.

I found the ancient and exotic story of the first guard Ali al-Raqb intriguing and moving. A naive, sincere boy when he starts job; and in time with trust placed in him by the supportive and appreciative congregation, he gains experience and becomes an honorable, discreet man, loving husband and father.

The 2nd part of the novel deals with a large number of old documents found at the synagogue; recognition of their historical and religious value to Jews and Muslims, and to the world at large. And the need to collect, move and organize these documents to a safe location quickly; as their desirability, unsurprisingly, has resulted in greed and ongoing theft. Filled with twists and turns, lots of humor and wit, and mostly wonderful but some annoying and irksome characters made reading a pleasure.

Sadly disappointing is the 3rd and modern portion of The Last Watchman of Old Cairo which mostly felt flat, and disjointed as though Lukas had lost interest. The section about Joseph's parents' relationship, and their letters was redeeming, but adding a major decision at the end of the book felt awkward and insincere.

Still a good read overall.

The Oracle of Stamboul, the story of a polyglot little girl whom the Turkish sultan asks for advice, is heavy on atmosphere, setting, and birds... but light on character development and plot. If you're looking for a light costume drama of a book to make you crave Turkish coffee, look no further. I think the strongest aspect of the book is the portrayal of the girl's love for reading. (And a cameo appearance of Eugene Onegin.)

(There's more on my blog here.)

I would give it 3.5 if I could.

This book was basically three stories that loosely linked together. They were set in different time periods and, by far, Ali's story was the most interesting. He was a young Muslim boy who became the watchman of a Jewish synagogue. I loved the lush descriptions of old Cairo and Ali was a delightful protagonist.

Sadly, I found the twins, Margaret and Agnes, and their story boring, although it had potential. By the halfway point I was skimming their sections. The third story, which focused on modern day Joseph, was nearly as bad but I did like that he was a descendent of Ali. However the ending was disappointing. A mediocre read.

THE LAST WATCHMAN OF OLD CAIRO is three things. First, it is a family chronicle about a Muslim father who falls for a Jewish woman in Cairo. They have a son but never marry and eventually drift apart. Second, the novel is a coming-of-age story about a young man who seeks to understand his estranged father following a confusing bequest. And third, it is an historical mystery about a lost Jewish scroll.

The book focuses on the little-known story of the once thriving Jewish community of Cairo. Lukas tells the story from three different historical perspectives. One thousand years ago, a Muslim orphan is chosen to be the night watchman at the endangered Ibn Ezra Synagogue where he becomes the progenitor of a long line of family members who assume the same role. A second storyline takes place in 1897 when British twins, Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson, assist the noted scholar, Solomon Schechter, in preserving ancient documents from the synagogue’s attic known as the geniza. One of the documents was the putative Ezra scroll, purported to be the most perfect Torah scroll ever created and supposedly stored at the geniza. Set in the present, Joseph al-Raqb, an American graduate student, receives a curious package from his recently deceased Cairene father ambiguously stating “this was something that he should want to have.” Joseph’s parents never married and his mother had emigrated to America. His father had been the last of the synagogue watchmen. In an effort to unlock the mystery of his father’s bequest, Joseph travels to Cairo.

Lukas sets a mood of mystery in Cairo and the ancient synagogue thought to have been built at the site where Moses was retrieved from the Nile as a newborn. Jewish law requires that sacred texts cannot be destroyed but must either be stored indefinitely of buried. Tales of document decay and mysterious thefts from the geniza build the mood along with a nighttime disinterment in a deserted graveyard. Lukas’ clever plotting and evocation of ancient Cairo are marred by an overly optimistic tone that suggests that mutual understanding will overcome thousands of years of cultural conflict and mistrust.

The Last Watchman of Old Cairo - Lukas
Audio performance by Edoardo Ballerini
3.5 stars

The first chapter is the best. It begins “in the forty-eight-hundredth year of creation, four centuries after Muhammad’s migration to Medina and more than a thousand years after the birth of Jesus.” It is late summer in Cairo and a young, Muslim water carrier named Ali is about to become the first night watchman of the Ibn Ezra Synagogue. This is the first historical storyline. It grabbed my attention immediately.

The second historical storyline concerns the 19th century twin sisters who negotiate to acquire the ancient documents of the Ibn Ezra Synagogue Geniza. These sisters and their acquisition of the documents are not fictional although Lukas creates a fictional storyline for them. They are interesting characters. I’d like to know more about them. However, in the context of this book, there is either not enough complexity and depth given to their story, or there is too much. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but there’s another storyline to mention before I explain.

The dominant storyline is contemporary. It is the first person account of Joseph al Raqb, son of a Jewish Egyptian mother and Muslim father. Joseph is a English literature graduate student at UC Berkeley when he learns of his father’s death in Cairo. Joseph receives a package from his father’s lawyer. It contains a framed document from the geniza, connecting his family to the historical Ali, that first watchman. Joseph goes to Cairo to disinter his family history.

This is what Joseph (and the author) has to say on the last page of the book; ”At first I wanted to write a book that would contain all of these stories, a thousand pages encompassing a thousand years of Jewish life in Cairo, however my project settled into a more modest frame, this fragmented account of fathers and sons, grief, forgiveness, and forbidden love.”

This quote rounds out the story nicely and it made for a tidy ending. But, I was disappointed and I think it’s a cop-out. The problem is that the book is only 288 pages long. It’s good writing, but there isn’t enough of it. Lukas introduces a theme of forbidden love in all of his storylines; love that crosses religious barriers and love that defies sexual mores. It’s there, but the author doesn’t do anything with it. I never felt an emotional connection to the pain of the characters who had to cope with the consequences. There is the fascination with the mystical Ezra Scroll that is never explained. Religious conflicts permeate, but I never felt that any character was truly grappling with faith. The documents are removed from Egypt. Were those sisters saving and preserving, or was this cultural theft? The book doesn’t even touch this issue, and since it doesn’t, does the storyline need to be there?

This book didn’t need to be a thousand pages long or tell of all of Jewish history, but twice as long would have worked. I would have been happy to read it. It’s a good book. I recommend it. I just wanted it to be better.½

I listened to this book on tape, and wished I had read the physical book. The book uses three specific time periods to tell the story, and I found it hard to make the transition between them while listening to the tape.
However, the book was well written, with interesting details included about the people and the time periods - well worth the time spent with it.

A light and easy read with some interesting, if underdeveloped characters. Eleanor's age (8) was a tad unbelievable, even for a 'savant', but the place was evoked magnificently, at a time in history when there was much change, giving the possibility than anything might happen.

Joseph, a literature student at Berkeley, is the son of a Jewish mother and a Muslim father. One day, a mysterious package arrives on his doorstep, pulling him into a mesmerizing adventure to uncover the tangled history that binds the two sides of his family. For generations, the men of the al-Raqb family have served as watchmen of the storied Ibn Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo, built at the site where the infant Moses was taken from the Nile. Joseph learns of his ancestor Ali, a Muslim orphan who nearly a thousand years earlier was entrusted as the first watchman of the synagogue and became enchanted by its legendary—perhaps magical—Ezra Scroll. The story of Joseph’s family is entwined with that of the British twin sisters Agnes and Margaret, who in 1897 depart their hallowed Cambridge halls on a mission to rescue sacred texts that have begun to disappear from the synagogue.

In The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, Lukas masterfully weaves together three time periods, whose stories connect through a family mystery that is traced back a thousand years before the contemporary narrator. Each of the narrative threads is populated by characters who are peculiar to their time, and who fit perfectly within the specific Cairo in which they find themselves.

We care about these characters, whose struggles we identify with, no matter the background or epoch. Here we find people who strive to lead good lives, who demonstrate the many ways in which responsibility and forgiveness, love and kindness, shape the way we see and act in the world. Faith also plays an important role, but it is not the faith of only one religion or belief. It seems more the faith of striving to live a good life, and of knowing that it is worth the effort.

Lukas highlights the central role of story, the meaningful stories we tell ourselves and each other throughout our lives and through the ages. This beautiful tale provides us with some needed inspiration in our challenging times.

Won ARC from Firstreads.

The flow of this book worked wonderfully. It moved well and was hard to put down. I had a lot of trouble remembering that Eleonora was supposed to be an 8 year old girl. Every once in a while someone mentioned her age and I always had a moment of "Oh Yeah...". By her behavior, thought process, etc. I had at least doubled her age in my head. I was also a little bit sad at the ending. It felt abrupt to me. The epilogue helped a little bit with this, but I felt like it just ended. Overall, the language was wonderful and made it easy to read. I will definitely read this book again and will be looking forward to reading more books by this author.

The word that comes first to mind about this book is "fresh." It is a beautiful tale about a young girl and her unusual circumstances in the world, filled with powerful thoughts and clear emotions. It was not necessarily deep - but that is okay. There were hints of intrigue and hints of mysterious sub-plots that were not attended to. But these alternate stories would have muddled the story and detracted from it's cleanness. It has been a while since I read something with absolutely zero sexual innuendo or undertones and not even any romance for that matter. It was really refreshing and thoroughly enjoyable.

"When you follow the ardent instructions of your heart, when you follow not the easy path nor the selfish path, but the path you knew all along was correct, you can only but do what's right by the world."

Beautiful prose, lush imagery, an untenable situation, an expected outcome. So glad I went along on this short journey.

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The writing in The Oracle of Stamboul is as beautiful as the cover. The story is unique--a young girl, born literally in the midst of violence (as her town is being plundered by an invading army), whose extraordinary intelligence is revealed as she grows up and becomes influential in the palace of the Sultan, the ruler of the dwindling Ottoman Empire. Big things happen in Eleanora's life, and she is thrown into circles that will determine the course of history for a significant part of the world--but in the end, the story is really a simple one about a girl's journey to discover who she is.

I sometimes get caught up in things I feel like I SHOULD be reading, and then, even though I do like the books, reading them starts to feel like a chore. The Oracle of Stamboul was not one of those books. Every time I had to put it down, I looked forward to getting to pick it up again, and I loved every minute of my reading.

I was mildly disappointed with the fact that some of the characters were never developed as fully as I'd hoped they would be. It may have been the author's intent to leave us with questions about certain people, their motives, and what they really were like as a person, but I would have preferred a little more substance there.

The ending also felt a little abrupt at first, but as I thought about it, I decided that I like how it happened. There were a lot of forces at work in Eleanora's life, too many options and at the same time, not enough at all. But though it was a long time that those forces were building and building, in the end, everything came down to one moment of decision.

I won this copy through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

This was a light and pleasant book, the sort I like to read in between book club books just for pleasure. The visual images were lovely, and it is an area of the world that I am not particularly familiar with. I found the end to be rather abrupt, and the part where she unwittingly unburdened herself of secrets a tad bizarre. But it was enjoyable.

Oh this book had so very much promise, but for me it fell short.

From the inside flap: "Late in the summer of 1877, a flock of purple and white Hoopoes suddenly appears over the town of Constanta on the Black Sea, and Eleonora Cohen is ushered into the world by a mysterious pair of Tartar midwives who arrive just minutes before her birth. They had read the signs, they said: a sea of horses, a conference of birds, the North Star is in alignment with the moon. It was a prophecy that their last King had given on his deathwatch."

Sounds wonderful and promising evoking a richness of imagery, characterization and story. But that was not to be. Although, the descriptions of the physical world are rich and evocative, the story itself just was not enough for me. I wanted to know more about the mysterious midwives, I wanted to know more about Eleonora. I wanted to know more of the intrigue of the seemingly unscrupulous Reverend, I wanted to know more of the interaction between Eleonora and Moncef Bey, the Sultan & Mrs Damakan.

I Just Wanted More........

8-(

Fascinating story. Intoxicating scenery. Larger than life characters. This book was magnificent.