RaveWords Without Borders... virtuosic translation by Jennifer Croft ... demonstrates Tokarczuk’s delicate artistry ... This millenarian religious atmosphere offers a high-stakes context for reading and interpretation: characters must be vigilant for signs of the impending Final Judgment. Bodily ailments like infected, peeling skin might mean you’re cursed. Or that you’re the messiah ... Creating literature from history is another of Tokarczuk’s strengths. Books of Jacob is built from years of research, but perhaps most importantly, Tokarczuk has a light touch with research, treating each turn in Jacob’s story as if it were fresh and unexpected rather than recorded ... Tokarczuk’s tenderness wraps her novel’s world in a cozy atmosphere; it also precludes judgment, which would have likely stifled a novel on an eighteenth-century cult ... Tokarczuk’s generous interest in the teapot, food, geography, religion, omens, death, relationships, writing and books, among other things, is the life-giving force that propels this novel forward. Croft’s swift, energetic English maintains momentum and enthusiasm through nearly one thousand pages. A buoyant, anarchic, consuming reading experience, Books of Jacob is a novel so all-encompassing and alive that it’s as if Tokarczuk has managed to break off a piece of the world and convert it into paper and ink.
Donna Zuckerberg
PositivePloughshares... in shedding light on how the Internet’s \'manosphere\' abused ancient texts, her book might expand how scholars of the classics study contemporary uses of the ancient world in lesser-known realms ... The result is a clear explanation of the machinations of the red pill community ... The shortcomings of social media, how forums have allowed hate groups to flourish online, isn’t the focus of Not All Dead White Men, but there are moments when Zuckerberg explicitly, if tactfully, critiques the tech companies who also make their home in Silicon Valley ... While the book doesn’t offer structural solutions to the problems of tech, Not All Dead White Men offers some sense of how individuals with an interest in progressive politics might respond to not only the abuse of ancient works, but also to the works themselves. In dissecting the far right’s misuse of these texts, Zuckerberg opens the door to a reconsideration of what is and isn’t the \'foundation of Western Civilization.\'
