Helene Wecker’s debut novel, The Golem and the Jinni (reviewed here), explores the immigrant experience through the eyes of two folkloric creatures. Helene took some time from her schedule to answer some of my questions and to give me a signed copy of The Golem and the Jinni which I’ll pass on to one random commenter.

Marion Deeds: The Golem and the Jinni is primarily an immigrant’s tale, but your title characters, being folkloric creatures, added a new level to the story. Once again, America is engaged in a dialogue, often a nasty one, about the value of immigrants. Should we have a quota for immigrant jinnis, for instance? (Just kidding.) What do you think your book brings to the discussion?

Helene Wecker: It's funny, it took me a while to realize th... Read More

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

[In our Edge of the Universe column, we review mainstream authors that incorporate elements of speculative fiction into their “literary” work. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.]

A Genie. A golem. Nineteenth-century New York City. Boy, did I want to love this book. Drawn by its come-hither characters, its promise of poetry, and by its dark side in the form of a truly nasty character, I really, really wanted to love it. And truth is, I liked The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker. But in the well-trod words of middle school, I didn’t “like like” it. Oh, it was fun, it made me smile sometimes and think sometimes and feel a bit sad at other times. I enjoyed hanging out with it for the length of its near-500 pages. But, despite that fire-genie at its heart, there just wasn’t tha... Read More