A Guide for the Perplexed

Stranded by a strike at an airport in Spain, two women--Hanni, in Spain to locate important family documents, and Holland, a documentary filmmaker--discover that they are related by ties that reach back to the Spanish Inquisition

Levi dazzles and provokes with this audacious debut, a playful, postmodern novel that rings changes on the themes of personal survival, the healing power of music, Jewish identity forged in exile, the discovery of the New World and the metaphoric underpinnings of religion. Two very different women visiting Spain slowly discover their common bonds. Hanni, a Miami widow descended from Moses Maimonides, the great Jewish medieval philosopher, is searching for a document written by another of her Spanish ancestors, who sailed with Columbus and who may have been the first European to set foot on North America. The other woman, Holland, an English documentary filmmaker, is making a movie about Sandor, an aged, reclusive Russian violinist who may have been Hanni's lover in Nazi Europe. Splicing tales within tales, the two women's letters and passages from a travel guidebook, Levi dances a wild flamenco on the grave of the Inquisition as his characters delve into whether Columbus was Jewish and uncover family secrets that link their entwined destinies to the madness of history. A co-founder of Granta, Levi is the editor of the U.S. edition.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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.

Brilliantly conceived, flawlessly executed, this extraordinary first novel uses magic realism and travelers' tales to achieve a startlingly unique revisionist history of the discovery of America. Like a Chagall painting, Levi's novel weaves together Jewish folk tales, dreams, violins, flamenco, and even Led Zeppelin into a rich, constantly evolving tapestry. Two women--Holland, a documentary filmmaker, and Hanni, who is searching for an ancient family letter--are stranded overnight in Spain. Holland and Hanni find a connection in the same mysterious travel agent, Ben, and in young Isabella, who might be Holland's daughter and Hanni's granddaughter. As Hanni's successfully located letter is read aloud, it reveals the history of the Jewish people, ending with their expulsion from Spain and the discovery of America by Esau, Hanni's ancestor. It may all be a grand cosmic joke engineered by Ben, but Levi, a cofounder of Granta, has accomplished a stunning tour de force that shouldn't be missed. Highly recommended for most collections.
- Patricia Ross, Westerville P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.