Mrs. Jeffries Learns the Trade

By Emily Brightwell

Don't bother! I could barely bring myself to finish it. This is the first of a series of Victorian mysteries, where a dimwitted Scotland Yard inspector is helped by his housekeeper Mrs. Jeffries. He is so slow that he doesn't even know that she basically solves the case for him, with the help of the rest of the household staff. That may be a bit hard to swallow, but that's not why I did not care for this book. Basically, the writing isn't too great, and completely fails to capture the period. The characters simply do not ring true; they're more likely from the 1950s. There is none of the authentic setting which make the Sister Fidelma and Dame Frevisse mysteries so excellent. However, it is a nice, clean read. Otherwise, I can't say much for it.

In the Beginning

By Chaim Potok

This is the third book that I have read by this author. I was extremely impressed by The Chosen and The Promise. His prose is crisp and the stories are powerful. The protagonists are geniuses. In any other book, they would be nerds, but Potok makes their “nerdiness” into a non-issue here. It’s cool to be a scholar, to read heavy religious works like a maniac, and go out of one’s way to learn more than what is required.

I learned a lot about Judaism, and I was not exactly ignorant before, having studied the subject in college. I had not known much about Hasidic Jews – quite interesting. Anyway, I recommend all three books heartily, but don’t start with In the Beginning. The others were a little better in my opinion, and besides, this one is a bit depressing, at least in the first half. Oddly enough, the second half, as the Holocaust approaches, seemed less dark to me.