Aryeh Lev StollmanRecensioner

Surprising, well-written story well-described by the other reviews.

The narrator's father, a pulpit rabbi, has spent much of his life working on his magnum opus, inspired by his grandfather's journal of a trip to Mesopotamia. This book is one of three stories I've recently come across in which someone devotes much of his life to an old manuscript. [The others are A.N.Wilson's Wise Virgin (1982) and the movie, Footnote (2011).]

Some quotes that I especially liked said by the narrator's father to the narrator:
"This seeking after patterns is nothing more than man's natural yearning to know God. It underlies every pursuit of knowledge." [p. 43]

"Our forefathers, strangely enough---and this I believe is the real root of mankind's problem---originally came not from Kana'an, not from an earthly Jerusalem, but from the far Euphrates with its source in Eden, from an impossibly remote and primordial home. We cannot forget it, or even find it again. I believe this fact has afflicted us to the present day." [p. 163]

After telling the Midrash that explains why the moon is smaller than the sun: "God regretted that He punished the moon and so He set the stars in attendance to appease her." [p. 164]

Who is the Illuminated soul? The initial answer is that it is Eva Laquedem, who appears at the home of Adele Ivri and her two sons in Windsor, Ontario. She is a refugee from Nazi Europe, carrying with her a famous illuminated manuscript, the Augsburg Miscellany. Eva takes the boys and Adele into the rarefied world of ancient and exquisite beauty, but also the need to guarantee the progeny of beautiful objects. But Eva herself presents a command performance by her sheer entry into a room, and captures everyone who looks at her into her special world. She does pine the possible loss of her father, for whose knowledge she is on a complex quest, and is the reason for her travels in Canada.

Asa, the brother of Joseph, who narrates the novel, may have an illuminated soul. He suffers from a slowly developing blindness. Eva is albe to affirm to affirm his special quality as a human being and he seems to have a character full of simplicity and goodness that one might associate wih a good soul. He is able to draw and very accomplished at it, and his life possesses a worthwhile quality to it.

Adele may have become illuminated, as she performs research across the river in Detroit for Eva, because Eva has developed a passport problem. Adele is widowed, bright, devout but closed in. But she is transformed by Eva when she begins to discover her own talents in baking and and then is able to set up her own business.

Perhaps even the narrator is illuminated in the relaying of the life of Eva and theose who are transformed by her. We as readers may allow ourselves to be transformed and allow ourselves to produce our illuminated life.½

Stollman's soft musical voice belies the monstrous, inhuman truth lying below the surface. The novel describes the lives of 2 Jewish families in post-WWII Canada; the rabbi of the local congregation, his wife and son, Alexander, and the other, the cantor and his wife. The cantor and his wife are like a second set of parents to Alexander. How do people live normally with a horrendous truth? How far can one go to protect a child from the truth? Is it better for the truth to be released?

Stollman handles language magically to create a word melody filled with the love, agony, psychology and spiritualism inherent in Jewish life.

Excellent and amazing!½

These were very interesting, well written stories with excellent character development. I enjoyed his topics and his inclusion of science in many of the stories. I'm looking forward to reading more of him. The title story is about a scientific couple with an autistic child. The wife returnd to Israel to prevent the dismantling of one of the settlements, but is unsuccessful. I cared about many of the characters of this book.

Written in a poetic and dreamy style, I enjoyed the language and especially the characters of The Illuminated Soul. The story centers around a rare fifteenth century manuscript and a lovely, mysterious woman who enters the lives of two boys and their mother one summer. Joseph, the elder of the two boys, is obsessed with perfect readings of Torah, while the younger is going blind and depends on a strip of silk to filter the sun's light. A neuroradiologist, Stollman interweaves just a touch of science into a beautiful and mystic look at relationships and the power of the desire for beauty.½

this book started out rather slow, but i am glad i continued with it. You want to get into the mind of Alexander and he comes into himself. The references to the Holocaust and its effects on beliefs. Stollman tells a great story with a message that will linger and really make you think.

An attempt to combine science and love and Jewish mysticism that didn't quite work. It was a slight novel, and I never warmed to the characters.

I initially picked up this book (at the Salvation Army used books section) because on the back cover it had the following evaluation by Rebecca Goldstein (one of my favorite American authors): "The Far Euphrates is a beautiful book. Its radiance is not of the sun but of the moon:delicate, mournful, mysterious". And after having read the book in one sitting, I vehemently agree! I very much enjoyed it, and I felt a somewhat sweet and "fragile" connection to the characters. The main character, Alexander - or Aryeh, is the only son of a Rabbi (educated as a physicist) and a worried and embittered wife. The rest of the world is mainly composed of the Cantor and his wife Berniece, as well as the colorful and tragic figure of Hannalore - the cantor's twin ("sister"). There is also Marla, a very freaky yet strong and captivating presence in Alexander's life. We follow Alexander's narrative as he balances between sanity and mental turmoil, which is described so gently, yet vividly. I really like this "Jewish" book. I had never read much Jewish litterature before; however, after my discovery of Rebecca Goldstein and now Aryeh Lev Stollman, I find myself being drawn towards these unique writings...½