In general, I enjoyed this weeks reading from Megillat Esther by JT Waldman, at least, I should say, far more than I anticipated given that it is essentially a biblical reading which never really incites any sort of eager anticipation on my part (at least not since childhood anyway). Again, generally speaking I enjoyed the artwork, I enjoyed the story and I came to care about the characters, all essential building blocks when it comes to enjoying a novel. I did not find the Hebrew writings to be overly distracting and throughout the course of the reading came to found them quite beautiful. (As a side note, however, I have found myself many times throughout the semester wishing I could learn Hebrew, it seems quite beautiful to me).
There were parts of the story however, that I did not care for. These were the interludes and are my only real complaint about the novel. While the drawings were great and the dialogue and writing fine, I was unable to make any sense of them. Thankfully we discussed them a little in class which helped. However, their inclusion in this novel, I feel, limits the audience of the novel as a whole. Understanding what the author is attempting to tell through the interludes requires far more understanding of the subject matter than, I think, the average reader would possess.
The first interlude, beginning on Page 30, makes use of a dated game show reference that many readers will not recognize as well as biblical references that again, require far more understanding to interpret them as relevant to the novel than the average reader would possess. While I thoroughly enjoyed the artwork, the story in the interlude itself, left me completely confused.
The second interlude, occurs on page 59 in its entirety. Again, I really enjoy the artwork here, and the actual passage from Deuteronomy is really quite beautiful. I believe the person being depicted is the king, although, I'm not sure that I believe, as he is depicted, that he would "hide his face...because of the evil people have done," as the passage states, because I did not see any real evidence thus far that the king puts much thought into his decision making. However, I love that the image of him is encompassed by the passage in English and then again in Hebrew in the form of a tear drop. So, while I didn't completely understand the reason for the interlude, I thoroughly enjoyed its beauty and I wasn't as distracted by the question of its purpose.
The third interlude, which appears on pages 71-73, was again, very confusing. At least with this one however, I was able to deduce that it was attempting to tell a story from the bible, and the names were at least somewhat recognizable to me. The artwork was fine, intricate and finely done, however, not as compelling as the first two.
Ultimately, beauty of the artwork aside, the interludes, the first and third in particular, left me completely and utterly confused. They succeeded only in distracted me from the story and I found myself continually going back trying to figure out if I was missing something important in them, but unable to reach any conclusion. If the author intended to reach a wide audience, these interludes detract from that goal. However, if the author intended to provide a piece of work for the entertainment of those who possess a fount of knowledge on the subject matter, then it was quite successful.
Lastly, (and unrelated to the Interludes) as far as the artwork goes, my favorite part was the ending of Part I of Megillat Esther, on pages 92-93, in which the author depicts the king's dreams, which was in my opinion incredible. The idea of illustrating a dream is quite a commendable undertaking itself, but that Waldman does it so well inspires awe. I particularly like it because it seems to have an almost "Alice in Wonderland meets the Bible" aspect to it.
I can't wait to finish the story.
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