Eva Laquedem, a scientist who has fled Prague at the outbreak of World War II, arrives, by accident, in Windsor, Canada, at the home of a devout widow and her two sons. Within her purse she carries the renowned Augsburg Miscellany, a magnificent 15th-century illuminated Hebrew manuscript, which gives them all a new experience of the world and its possibilities.
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Eva Laquedem, a scientist who has fled Prague at the outbreak of World War II, arrives, by accident, in Windsor, Canada, at the home of a devout widow and her two sons. Within her purse she carries the renowned Augsburg Miscellany, a magnificent 15th-century illuminated Hebrew manuscript, which gives them all a new experience of the world and its possibilities.
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Seller's Description:
Good in Very Good jacket. Book Octavo, hardcover, VG ex library copy in near fine brown pictorial dj. Eva Laquedem, a scientist who has fled Prague at the outbreak of World War II, settled briefly in Japan, and then traveled rootlessly like the legendary Wandering Jew, arrives, by accident, in Windsor, Canada, at the home of a devout widow and her two sons. Within her purse she carries the renowned Augsburg Miscellany, a magnificent fifteenth-century illuminated Hebrew manuscript, for which she has risked her life. Eva's physical beauty, the dazzling tales she tells, and, above all, the magnificent Augsburg Miscellany powerfully affect Adele and her sons, giving them a new experience of the world and its possibilities. 274 pp.
In Aryeh Stollman's outstanding short novel, "The Illuminated Soul", I found particularly revealing a scene past the mid-point of the story. The main characters, the widowed Adele Ivri, her two children, Joseph and Asa, and their mysterious houseguest Eva Higashi, are returning home from synagogue in Windsor, Canada. Adele Ivri remarks upon the beauty of an old gnarled elm tree she had not noticed before. Eva remarks that there is much to be learned from a fresh sighting of a beautiful object. And she explains that "in the end, neither knowledge nor wisdom makes a person good".
I found this passage striking in a book which describes eloquently the love of learning, both secular and religious, the attractions of beauty, and the power of the imagination. The passage also illuminates the theme of the book in which the values of learning, beauty and imagination are juxtaposed against the realities of loss, suffering and guilt.
This novel is set in Winsdor, Canada following WW II with the recently widowed Adele raising her two sons Joseph and Asa. Joseph is the narrator of the book. He is physically unattractive but possessed of great intellect and of the drive to study. The younger son, Asa, is possessed of great physical beauty and of artistic talent. Unfortunately, he is slowly but inexorably going blind.
During the summer when Joseph is 14, the Ivri family takes in a mysterious boarder, Eva Higashi (nee Laquedem), a beautiful young woman possessed of great knowledge. Her father had been a scholar in Prague, and Eva is trying to complete his final manuscript, "Clouds of Glory". Eva brings with her a priceless illuminated manuscript, the "Augsburg Miscellany" dating from the fifteenth century. Eva soon leaves the Ivri's home as mysteriously as she arrived. Joseph's and Asa's experiences with her during these few short summer months become the formative moments of their lives.
Joseph, the narrator of the story, ultimately becomes a famous research neuroanatomist who, following his retirement, enjoys great popular acclaim upon the publication of his short philosophical and mystical meditation, "The Illuminated Soul". This short book, in turn, is based upon Joseph's recollections of his family's few summer months with Eva.
This short book is filled with discussions of Torah study, of biblical archaeology, Japanese literature, neuro-anatomy, and much else. (The author is himself a neuro-radiologist.) I was much taken with the discussions of birds and their intelligence, (the story features a pet parrot named Nebucadnezzer) because it reminded me of my own pet bird. There are also many beautifully allusive stories and themes of unicorns and giraffes, of early Japanese novels, and of changing and shimmering colors in the sky that deeply influence the young boys and are captured in the mysticism of Joseph's "Illuminated Soul".
Each of the characters in the story have their own secrets, their own tragedy, and their own guilt. The reader is encourage to see into them in this beautifully-paced and told book. For all its appeal to learning, imagination, and even religious faith, for me the story speaks most strongly of the inevitability of change and of the overriding importance of cultivating goodness of heart. "The Illuminated Soul" is a fine book.