Reviews for Rashi's daughters

The average rating for Rashi's daughters based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-01-26 00:00:00 Michele Galbraith I wanted to like this book, I really did. Anton seeks to bring to life a place, time and people who have been overlooked. She obviously did a lot of research, and boy does it show! The book is crammed full of information on things like 11th century agriculture, French politics, and Jewish law, and tries to faithfully render to the most minute detail (moss used for toilet paper! how to prune grape vines! a demon for every cough and bad thought! ) what it would have been like to grow up the daughter of Rashi. Every now and then there would be a glimmer of a good book – moments when the narrator shuts up long enough to take a breath and allows the characters to speak for themselves and have the “plot”, such as it is, move along with organic actions, conversations and thoughts. But mostly all we get is a plodding journey of daily Jewish life in 11th century Troyes, with Anton shoehorning in tons of awkward scenes where Character A will explain, in detail, to Character B everything from wine making to Purim to prostitution to leather tanning to local politics, with both the character explaining something and then Anton adding in extra explanations to make sure we get that wine is an important export product in France. What the book lacks is proper world building. You either have to throw reader and character straight into the deep end of the pool, or you do a slow layer by layer, build up, of what constitutes the world you are entering. Anton does neither. She grasps the reader firmly by the hand, as if expecting us to wander off like a toddler, and explains each and every detail, operation, feeling, event, and Thing of Important Historical Note, without a shred of trust that her reader can think for herself. It would have been better, plot wise, if Rashi and his family had been side characters and the story focused on an outsider who gradually learned about their world. The problem with being noted for scholastic achievement, as Rashi and his whole family were, means they spend the whole book being, well, scholarly, and having characters spend most of the time sitting and reading books does not an exciting plot make. I wanted to like this book, I really did.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-02-14 00:00:00 Federico edwards Edwards I read this whole series multiple times before joining GoodReads. Added for posterity.