#rumpusbookclub

[therumpus]

Sabrina Orah Mark, Happily; "Ghost People"

[Text ID: In late sixteenth-century Prague, when waves of hatred rose against the Jews again, a story brewed about Rabbi Loew, who made a golem out of prayers and clay, a golem whose job it was to guard the Jews from harm. There are two versions of how the rabbi brought the golem to life. The first is that he inserted the shem, a parchment with God’s name, into the golem’s mouth; the second is that he inscribed the word emet, or “truth,” on the golem’s forehead. Unlike Pinocchio, the golem doesn’t speak. Unlike Pinocchio, the golem doesn’t lie. But he can hear and he can understand. [...] I don’t know how to protect my sons. I wear their names around my neck on a thin gold chain. Sometimes I lie to them. Sometimes I say nothing. Sometimes I have to tell them that people do terrible things. Every day I send them out into the world, and they come home with rocks and twigs and wood chips and acorns and dead bugs in their pockets. It’s been getting colder and colder here. If I could, would I have a golem sit in the corner of my kitchen, follow my boys to school, accompany us to synagogue, and stand at the door? I look around my house. Maybe the golem is already here. “Hello, hello?” More silence.]

An excerpt from The Rumpus Book Club‘s March selection, Happily by Sabrina Orah Mark forthcoming from Random House on March 13, 2023.

Subscribe by February 15th to the Book Club to receive an early copy of Happily and an invitation to an exclusive Crowdcast with Mark.

#Happily #Sabrina Orah Mark #Ghost People #prose #therumpus #indielit #indiemagazine #rumpusbookclub #amreading #excerpt #literature #words #quotes #nonfiction #creative nonfiction #motherhood #judaism #love #folklore #fairy tale #fairy tale retelling