There are a fairly large number of characters, each with a character arc that runs the length of the book, eventually tying into the resolution. The Golem and the Jinni is as rich as one of those long full-cast classics, like Middlemarch or The Hunchback of Notre Dame (but not as wordy and with far less infodumping). What is more fantastic than that? Okay, fine, if by "fantasy" you mean strictly secondary world fantasy, then move along - there are no elves here. The main characters are two creatures right out of Jewish and Arabic myth, but they blend perfectly into this novel of early 20th century New York. Because it's a carefully constructed modern fable written as seriously as any historical literary fiction. But I'm gonna be totally judgmental about any self-identified aficionado of fantasy fiction who doesn't like this book because it's "too long" or too "slow-moving" or whatever stupid reason it failed to get your fantasy rocks off. If you claim you like fantasy but you don't like this book, then what you like is YA wizards, or paranormal romances with hot werewolf-on-chick action, or "fantatwee," to quote Nick Mamatas. Gather round, folks, let's talk about fantasy fiction. But a powerful menace will soon bring the Golem and the Jinni together again, threatening their existence and forcing them to make a fateful choice. Meeting by chance, the two creatures become unlikely friends whose tenuous attachment challenges their opposing natures, until the night a terrifying incident drives them back into their separate worlds.
Surrounding them is a community of immigrants: the coffeehouse owner Maryam Faddoul, a pillar of wisdom and support for her Syrian neighbors the solitary ice cream maker Saleh, a damaged man cursed by tragedy the kind and caring Rabbi Meyer and his beleaguered nephew, Michael, whose Sheltering House receives newly arrived Jewish men the adventurous young socialite Sophia Winston and the enigmatic Joseph Schall, a dangerous man driven by ferocious ambition and esoteric wisdom. Struggling to make their way in this strange new place, the Golem and the Jinni try to fit in with their neighbors while masking their true natures. Trapped in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard centuries ago, he is released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire, born in the ancient Syrian Desert. When her master dies at sea on the voyage from Poland, she is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York Harbor. Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a strange man who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. Helene Wecker's dazzling debut novel tells the story of two supernatural creatures who appear mysteriously in 1899 New York.
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