The Books of Jacob is likely to stymie my goal of reading 100 books in 2022. Not only is Olga Tokarczuk’s novel 965 pages (numbered in reverse order, incidentally), I’m compelled to take regular pauses to contemplate the theological constructs it poses. The previously unfamiliar tenets of Jewish mysticism- along with the cross-pollination of Christian and Moslem doctrines- demand quiet reflection.
Opening, the latest ECM Records release by the trio led by Tord Gustavensen, matches the somber speculative musings of Tokarczuk’s characters. Only the pastoral “Shepherd Song” possesses a defined structure and conventional resolution. The remainder of Opening evokes the novel’s depiction of catechistic uncertainty in eighteenth-century Istanbul.
Gustavsen spooked me at a concert in London in 2012. The Norwegian pianist bears a striking resemblance to Nosferatu. Opening is correspondingly otherworldly. A character in The Books of Jacob suggests “those of us who think God addresses us by means of external events are wrong, as naive as children. For He whispers directly into our innermost souls.” Opening is one such divine whisper.