Reading 1001 discussion

Finished this one like a week ago, I ended up giving it 3 stars. I did find the execution quite a bit drier than I was hoping for, but I thought the structure and idea were novel, so I settled on 3 instead of 2.

The fact that the book largely fictionalized everything about the historical Khazars didn’t really bother me, because the book was really about how different cultures see the same events and other cultures through entirely different lenses. The structure of having a Christian, Muslim, and Jewish account of their history was a cool idea. I’m not sure about the “male” vs “female” version though. I’ve read the changed passage in both, and I get that it serves the purpose about how one changed decision can change the outcome of the future. The actual change didn’t seem that significant to the book though and makes me feel like this was largely done as a marketing ploy for novelty points.

Overall I’d say it was fine: cool structure idea, little boring in experience.

****

If you're a fan of Borges or Eco, then this is your territory. And the territory here is the medieval trading empire of Khazaria, nestled between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and extending in southern Ukraine, parts of Russia and Kazakhstan. Not a whole lot is known about the Khazar culture (there are no existing documents in their language) or the details of their history. It is in this speculative environment that Pavic weaves his dictionary from three sources that would have contributed to the development of the Khazars history: the Greek (or christianity), the Islamic and the Jewish. But the dictionary becomes embued with fiction as we see the evolution through time of the theories about the Khazars from the repeated contacts of semi-evil characters, up to the 20th century. There is a bit of mystery à la Eco, some poetic passages; the story and the overall picture builds up gradually as you go through each of the sections. I've only read the feminine version (my copy didn't have both versions), but I take Amanda's word for the meaning of the changed section.