What do readers think of The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish? Write your own review.

This somewhat disturbing tale is the story of a young Jewish girl living in exile in Holland (Amterdam) in 1660 when tragedy forces her to live with an aging Rabbi in England. Ester’s own father, also a rabbi, had encouraged Ester’s education in defiance of community norms. In England, Ester continues her education and is employed as scribe to her protector rabbi. Unbeknown to her employer, she embarks on a philosophical correspondence with a number of renowned philosophers including Benedict Spinoza. The interwoven twentieth century tale concerns an aging professor who finds her letters and is determined to publish them.
The characters are skillfully defined and brought to life on the pages. The political climates of Jewish diaspora and England between Cromwell and the renewed monarchy are clear. The tension between the rival philosophies is palpable. Although VERY long, the well-researched story holds one’s attention. Ester is a likable, although obstinate and often misguided, personage. Her plight will resonant with today’s feminist sympathizers.
4 of 5 stars because of the 600 page length.

This is a well written book with well developed characters, a commanding story thread and an interesting presentation of the 2 time lines.

It's a book that challenged my knowledge of this time in the history of Jewish people & traditions. I always thoroughly appreciate a book that offers more than a "story" but one that encourages deeper endeavors into its subject matter.
IMO this would be a great book for book club discussion - I think it would be fun for half the club to discuss the "modern" story line and half to talk about the ancient history story.

It's a dense story - one that needs the readers full attention. It's rich & rewarding; not a quick read. Unfortunately this month's outside forces detracted me from serious reading - my short bursts of reading attention spans didn't do justice to this book. I've become more engaged with each chapter and look forward to the last quarter yet to be finished.

In The Weight of Ink two unlikely characters who are struggling with issues of love are brought together through the discovery of documents found as a result of a house renovation. Helen is an historian called by a former student whose wife inherited a 17th century house to take a look at papers found behind a staircase panel. Aaron Levy is hired to assist Helen against her wishes and together they enter into the life of a Jewish scribe to find the truth behind the valuable 17th century papers. The story alternates between the 1600's and present day and although it took me a while to fully understand where the author was headed I became completely engaged in the lives of the characters. This is not a quick read and I felt it was a little too wordy at times but historically interesting and beautifully written.

Often I've found that books get compared to another and they are nothing alike. The Weight of Ink was compared to AS Byatt's Possession and it was very similar. This will be one of my favorite books of the year I'm sure. It has a bit of everything, love, dual time periods, and mystery.

There are parts I wish had been trimmed, and a bit more concise, but I would recommend this to anyone that I know loves to read about history.

The author succeeds in putting a human face on the fascinating cultural events of 17th century England and Europe. This entertaining story piqued my already active interest in ancient manuscripts, philosophy and the changing thought of this period of history. The story develops much like a British murder mystery with well developed surprises along the way. The answers to the mysteries are satisfyingly developed in a 21st century academic setting. Research in ancient manuscripts is closely related to genealogical research which has been a very interesting pastime for me.The juxtaposition of the two time periods emphasize the immense cultural shift in our world, something we can only try to imagine.

The book is ultimately about love, all kinds of love; romantic, fraternal, intellectual, paternal, carnal, but this is not a romance in any sense of the word. Many of the love connections are not fully developed, but they do add texture to the story.

This book was a fun read and a good story, maybe two stories. I recommend it to readers who are interested in the changes in culture and can be tantalized by discoveries by artifacts from the past.

The book was long! Take out at least 100 pages! The characters and story line were fine, but too drawn out. I forced myself to read the whole book and regret doing so. I would not recommend this book.

The book has two interesting main characters and a good story line. However, it needed to be shortened. I often felt the story was dragging on. It would have been better with 100 less pages, which wouldn't have hurt the story line at all. I saw that someone had written that it was a "page-turner". I found it slow. I wouldn't recommend it to others.

I couldn't get through the language to experience the story. I simply didn't connect. The story seemed written from the intellect, not the heart, and I could not accept the premises of the story. It all seemed wooden to me and I couldn't finish this book.