The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon by Richard Zimler
Busy day all round today. The bookshop has been humming with plenty of readers and booklovers around. And we've had the decorators in - our perhaps I should say out, as they are working on the outside of the house. By this time next week we should have a shiny renewed railings, nice bright doors and windows, a rejuvenated orange wall (I really ought to post a picture of the orange wall) and gutterting that actually works rather than creating various small and noisy waterfalls.
I did however find the time to finish reading Richard Zimler's The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon. I don't really know whether I'm delighted with it or not. It is an excellent read: pacy, vibrant, intricate and compelling but it's nowhere near as stylish, or sophisticated, as the other two books in the trilogy - Hunting Midnight and The Guardian of the Dawn. The Last Kabbalist is the first in the series and of course I read them the wrong way round. But I can't help wondering if I had read The Last Kabbalist first whether I would have gone on to read the other two. The Guardian of the Dawn in particular is one of the finest novels I've in years (and I do read quite a few), so it's sad to think that others may not find there way to it because the first in the series is not on par either in scope or quality. And the last page of The Last Kabbalist really, really annoyed me with its bitchy, unrealistic and anachronistic attack upon christianity.
