Synopsis
New Year's Eve. Almost 1992. Two very different women have come to Spain for two very different reasons. Holland, a six-foot British beauty, has collected her considerable forces to film a documentary about an elusive violin virtuoso who has cloistered himself in a Moorish villa high above the Mediterranean. Sixty-five-year-old Hanni has flown in from Miami Beach in search of a wayward ancient family document of major historical significance.
They have nothing in common except a travel agent. Stranded by a wildcat airport strike, Hanni and Holland wander in search of this man, through the night time streets of magical, mystical Mariposa, from bar to beach, from flamenco hall to bordello. Slowly they discover that they are connected by a strange web of history and happenstance--a common labyrinth that stretches back to World War II, the Spanish Inquisition, and beyond.
A Guide for the Perplexed is a collection of the letters these women write to their mysterious, unseen travel agent--a long night' worth of confessions, a tapestry of tales chasing tales, including an untold saga of Columbus's voyage to the New World, stories of war and lost loves, lost children, lost Jews, and the true origins of baseball.
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About the Author
Jonathan Levi is an American writer and producer. A founding editor of Granta magazine, Levi is author of two novels, A Guide for the Perplexed and Septimania. His short stories and articles have appeared in many publications including Granta, Condé Nast Traveler, GQ, Terra Nova, The Nation, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times Book Review, and his plays and opera libretti have been performed all over the world. Born in New York, he currently lives in Rome, Italy.
From Kirkus Reviews
A debut novel from the American co-founder of Granta that, appropriating its title from the work by the great Talmudic scholar Maimonides, provides an ingenious if metaphorical twist to the events of 1492. When a strike delays their flight out of Mariposa, Spain, two women--Holland, an English filmmaker; and Hanni, an aging American searching for her family's treasured ``Letters from Esau,'' as well as for a son she hasn't seen since his birth in war-torn Berlin- -find they have the same travel agent, Ben. Ben is the author of a travel book called A Guide for the Perplexed, which offers ``no itineraries, no routes touristique'' but only help for those who no longer know where or how to go. In a series of set pieces, the narrative--interspersed with letters, historical lore, excerpts from the guide--moves back and forth from the 15th century to the present, from Inca kingdoms to Berlin, as the women while away the wait for the delayed flight. They wander from a bordello bar to an adult-movie house, from the home of the mysterious violinist Sandor to the richly symbolic Cave of Esau. On these wanderings, lugging a mysterious trunk Ben has entrusted to Hanni, the two women meet a host of characters, including Holland's long-lost daughter Isabella; a Peruvian descendant of Maimonides; and a British rock band. Connections and coincidences multiply as life histories are told, and family legends of famous Jewish ancestors are recalled. In a climatic scene in the Cave of Esau, from which Esau had sailed with Columbus to found a Jewish nation in the Americas, all is made clear. Destinies are linked, and the real purpose of the centuries of wanderings by Hanni's ancestors is revealed: ``Esau said it best--we are all Jews. Our survival is in our motion.'' Conceptually quite brilliant--but with too many tricks, too many mirrors, and too little really at the center of it. Promising but flawed. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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