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Were they truly a family of utter evil? This fascinating fictional account of Lucrezia Borgia begs to differ.

THE Borgias. Ah, those delicious vowel and consonant sounds that roll around the mouth, full of an initial opulence only to end with a sibilant "s" like the hissing of a very sinister and dangerous snake. If the world is in the name, the name of Borgia with all its connotations of luxury, depravity and skulduggery is the Renaissance in a word.

And if what we remember most about the Renaissance is the beauty of its art and the genius of its figurehead, Leonardo da Vinci, then not far behind follow the brutality of its politics and the corruption of its church. These were, to put it mildly, turbulent times and turbulent times breed wheelers and dealers and power mongers and the Borgias were all of these things. There is nothing surprising there; what is more difficult to come to terms with is that they were the leaders of the greatest religious body on earth.

Sarah Dunant opens her more than accomplished account of their reign with the ascendancy of Rodrigo Borgia to the papal throne as Pope Alexander VI in 1492. He has four illegitimate children, one of whom at least, Lucrezia, has gone down in history as the epitome of cruel treachery. Dunant begs to differ. "Because they lose, the victors write the history about them. That means that all the things about them that were seen as gossip and scandalous when they were alive suddenly become history," she has said.

Blood & Beauty is a novel, not a revisionist piece of history, but we do well to bear in mind her point. According to history she adds, "Rodrigo, the Pope, had four children. True. He slept with his daughter. Not true. We discover that she is also supposed to have slept with her brother. Not true. You discover that she was a poisoner. Not true.... The Borgias have become representative of all that was wrong with the Renaissance but partly because the people who wrote the history were the people who beat them."

Whatever the exact truth of what Lucrezia went on to do in later life, in Blood & Beauty she is far more victim than ruthless killer. As a young unmarried beauty, and a Borgia to boot, she is a powerful piece of political capital. Her arranged marriages are strategic. There is little love in the first one but a great deal in the second and if her first husband remains unmourned when the marriage is annulled, her tears at the murder of the second, on her brother's orders, are genuine and prolonged.

Italy at this stage is not Italy as we now know it. It is a series of city states vying for territory and power. Throw into the mix the ambitions of the kings of Spain and France and the need for political alliances forged through marriages becomes clearer. Lucrezia, though greatly loved, is very much a pawn on the chessboard of her father and brother's ambition and is simply married off in accordance with their strategic plans.

History has seen much speculation on the nature of the relationship between Lucrezia and her brother, Cesare, with outright incest the most scandalous option. Dunant's portrayal of their relationship is far more turbulent, and certainly hints at Cesare's rather stiflingly unhealthy love for his sister, but draws a line at incest.

And if there is an outright villain in the Borgia family it is surely Cesare. Made a cardinal as a teenager, he cannot wait to throw off his religious robes and replace them with armour, rampaging over Italian soil, bullying rival city states into submission and eliminating rivals with callous indifference. Cesare glories in battle for its own sake and much of the blood in the book's title is shed by him.

It will come as no surprise that Dunant handles this mass of contentious material with skill and elegance. Admirers of The Birth Of Venus (of whom I am very much one) will know her ability to capture a sense of time and history. As always, her eye for detail conveys the sumptuous fabrics and jewellery of the period, its sensual love of fine things and the luxury that the artistic flowering of the Renaissance was able to bring to the lives of the rich. But behind this is the drive of a powerful story with some great central protagonists, be they the Borgias themselves or their foes and allies.

Dunant knows how to tell a story and how to keep her readers turning the pages. And the Borgias is such a great story to tell: "I think if the Borgias hadn't existed, history would have had to invent them because they are the perfect bad guys," she has said. You might like to remember that when you watch with gleeful horror the ruthless machinations of the Lannisters in TV's Game Of Thrones.

The Golem And The Jinni

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Can two opposing elements combine harmoniously? Can two very different, even hostile, cultures, thrown together in a New World, learn to live together?

EARTH and fire are two opposing forces, with earth being able to put out fire, and fire able to scorch the earth. How then do two creatures of such contrary elements become friends?

In 1899 New York, a golem formed from clay, and a jinni, a being of fire, form an unlikely friendship, fuelled by the fundamental loneliness of being the only supernatural creatures of their kind in the teeming, crowded city of humans. Not only are they singular in nature, but each must also hide their true traits, for fear that humans might turn against them.

However, while Chava the golem takes the stricture of having to hide her real self to heart, Ahmad the jinni chaffs at not being able to use his natural abilities.

Created by a dabbler in the darker Kabbalistic arts, Chava was made to be the "wife" of Otto Rotfeld, a rich businessman's son from Danzig (now known as Gdansk in Poland), who squandered the family fortune and now wants to start anew in America.

While she has the traditional qualities of a golem – unquestioning obedience and loyalty to her master, as well as Hulk-like strength and the Hulk's tendency to go into a blind rage when adequately provoked – Rotfeld also requests for her to be curious and intelligent. These two qualities are what help her to survive the early death of her master (and purpose for being), when he dies of a ruptured appendix soon after he brings her to life on board the ship from Danzig to New York. In the city, she catches the attention of retired rabbi Avram Meyer, who takes her under his wing despite his doubts and fears of her.

Meanwhile, we are first introduced to the jinni when he is accidentally released from an ancient copper flask – a family heirloom of coffeeshop owner Maryam Faddoul, who resides in the Little Syria neighbourhood of New York. Maryam requests local tinsmith Boutros Arbeely to refurbish the battered-looking flask, and in doing so, he accidentally breaks the seal imprisoning the jinni within it.

Like Rabbi Meyer, Arbeely also (kind of) takes the jinni, whom he names Ahmad, under his wing, as he feels responsible for him.

Still trapped in human form, Ahmad is unable to either use his powers or transform back to his original form to return home to the Syrian desert. Even worse, he cannot remember anything about how he was captured by a human wizard.

The story initially unfolds along parallel lines as we follow Chava and Ahmad on their individual journeys of self-discovery and attempts to fit in among the humans.

Chava learns to control her mind-reading abilities and her automatic empathetic response, while Ahmad reluctantly learns how to interact with humans. When their paths soon intersect accidentally, a friendship slowly develops between them.

While the stories of Chava and Ahmad are the core of the novel, author Helene Wecker also gives good space to the development of the characters around them.

From Rabbi Meyer, his nephew Michael, and Chava's creator Yehudah Schaalman to Arbeely, Maryam and Ice-Cream Salleh, each supporting character gets his or her own story heard – and this, at the same time, gives the reader a feel for the Jewish and Arabic immigrant neighbourhoods in New York at the time.

While the exposition of these characters' histories might seem tangential at times – although I have to say, Wecker writes well enough that it all feels quite organic – everything takes on a deeper significance when the threads are gathered up towards the end of the book.

I appreciated Wecker's technique in allowing the reader to follow Chava's story right from the beginning, ie her creation, while we are dropped into Ahmad's story midway, ie as a captive who can't remember how he was imprisoned, and then slowly learn how he was captured.

What elevates the story is that as disparate as their origins may seem, there is a connection between the golem and the jinni, beyond their unlikely friendship.

This final revelation is not one that many, if any, readers will see coming, while the ending is bittersweet in a way, but satisfying.

First-time author Wecker writes a well-told story with depth and originality, and well-realised characters readers will feel for.

Strongly recommended for those who appreciate stories.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Ahad, 18 Ogos 2013

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

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