Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Tundra Books
Pages
243
Description
A fictionalized account of the last blood libel trial in Hungary in 1882 is told through the eyes of Julie, a friend of the murdered servant girl Esther and a servant at the jail where Morris Scharf, the accused, is imprisoned.
Collection
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2009
Physical description
243 p.; 7.9 inches
ISBN
9780887768286
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User reviews
LibraryThing member meggyweg
I got this book free from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
An excellent Jewish historical fiction, centered around a "blood libel" trial which occurred in Hungary in the 1880s. A local village girl, Esther, disappeared and the Jewish community was accused of killing her to use her blood for matzoh. One
The story is told from the point of view of a poor gentile girl named Julie, a friend of both Morris and the missing girl. As the housekeeper at the jail where all the accused Jewish people are locked up, she witnesses a great deal, and goes on to testify at the trial.
This book was very well done, especially in its characterization. Morris betrayed his entire community when life and death were at stake, but through Julie's eyes you see what pressure he was under and I think very few people would have had the courage to behave any differently. Even the accusers, most of them, are not demons, but only people deeply traumatized by Esther's disappearance and looking for someone to blame. There are heroes in the story, but they aren't perfect; they're scared, they're flawed, they have problems.
My only issue with the book is a fairly minor one: I think the foreshadowing as to Esther's true fate was a little too heavy. I knew at once what had become of her.
Highly recommended, especially for those interested in Jewish history and stories about prejudice.
An excellent Jewish historical fiction, centered around a "blood libel" trial which occurred in Hungary in the 1880s. A local village girl, Esther, disappeared and the Jewish community was accused of killing her to use her blood for matzoh. One
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teenage Jewish boy, Morris Scharf (actually Moric; most of the names in the novel have been Anglicized), was suborned into falsely testifying against everyone else, including his own father.The story is told from the point of view of a poor gentile girl named Julie, a friend of both Morris and the missing girl. As the housekeeper at the jail where all the accused Jewish people are locked up, she witnesses a great deal, and goes on to testify at the trial.
This book was very well done, especially in its characterization. Morris betrayed his entire community when life and death were at stake, but through Julie's eyes you see what pressure he was under and I think very few people would have had the courage to behave any differently. Even the accusers, most of them, are not demons, but only people deeply traumatized by Esther's disappearance and looking for someone to blame. There are heroes in the story, but they aren't perfect; they're scared, they're flawed, they have problems.
My only issue with the book is a fairly minor one: I think the foreshadowing as to Esther's true fate was a little too heavy. I knew at once what had become of her.
Highly recommended, especially for those interested in Jewish history and stories about prejudice.
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LibraryThing member SusieBookworm
After reading Puppet and one of Wiseman's other historical novels, The Last Song, within a fairly close time period, I think I just have a love/hate relationship with the author's books. The hate part: there's often a lot of time that gets skipped that could instead have been fleshed out more. In
The love part: Wiseman takes horrific events from Jewish history and turns them into novels that teach younger readers (and some of us older ones, too) about things that are often neglected in history books. I think I'd run across a mention of the blood libel trials once in all of my other readings. It's a tough subject to read about; I was upset for most of the book at the injustices of the characters' lives, from the prejudices that scapegoat the Jews to the abuse and hard lives of Julie, her sister, and her friends. The last third of the book is absolutely gripping as the actual blood libel trial is covered. Readers are in suspense as we hear the (mostly coerced) lies told by some witnesses, the outrage of the falsely accused, and the internal conflicts of those torn between protecting themselves and doing what's right for others.
Final consensus: If I was a younger reader, I likely wouldn't notice all the things that I "hated" about the initial development of Puppet. Instead, I would have been thrilled because I was reading about a period of history previously unknown to me and felt righteously indignant over the injustices portrayed in the novel. In this regards, Puppet is perhaps better for a younger audience, though it is still an informative - and quick - read for the older set.
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Puppet, especially, there's a lot of jumping around without much development. The Jews are suddenly blamed for Esther's death (never mind that there's absolutely no sign of foul play at that point), Morris is suddenly completely indoctrinated by the Christian Hungarians, and Julie is, for some reason, traveling back to her hometown from the county capital to buy simple sewing supplies. There's occasional plot holes, lots of underdevelopment, and flat characterizations.The love part: Wiseman takes horrific events from Jewish history and turns them into novels that teach younger readers (and some of us older ones, too) about things that are often neglected in history books. I think I'd run across a mention of the blood libel trials once in all of my other readings. It's a tough subject to read about; I was upset for most of the book at the injustices of the characters' lives, from the prejudices that scapegoat the Jews to the abuse and hard lives of Julie, her sister, and her friends. The last third of the book is absolutely gripping as the actual blood libel trial is covered. Readers are in suspense as we hear the (mostly coerced) lies told by some witnesses, the outrage of the falsely accused, and the internal conflicts of those torn between protecting themselves and doing what's right for others.
Final consensus: If I was a younger reader, I likely wouldn't notice all the things that I "hated" about the initial development of Puppet. Instead, I would have been thrilled because I was reading about a period of history previously unknown to me and felt righteously indignant over the injustices portrayed in the novel. In this regards, Puppet is perhaps better for a younger audience, though it is still an informative - and quick - read for the older set.
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LibraryThing member JulieBenolken
While I love historical fiction, I wasn't sure after the first few chapters whether or not I wanted to finish the book. The book takes place around an actual event where a number of Jews were arrested for killing a young girl. There was so much antisemitic conversation that it became almost
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unbearable. In the end, this was obviously a conscious effort to recreate the very charged atmosphere. It wasn't an easy book and it wouldn't be for all YA readers, but it was well written and worth the effort. Show Less
LibraryThing member InfoQuest
I requested this novel from Early Reviewers because I'd heard about the last "blood libel" trial in the late 1800s and had always been rather curious about what had happened.
As a story supplying that information, [i]Puppet[/i] works well enough: it tells how a rural Hungarian servant girl
Aside from its merits as a retelling of an important historical event, however, the novel flounders. Most if not all of the characters are flat--either cardboard cutouts of villainy or handy expendable figures just to move the plot along. The more conflicted and potentially interesting characters are given psychological profiling characteristics, rather than actually given the chance to become persons in their own right. So Morris Scharf, potentially the most fascinating character, is relegated to the sidelines and set up every so often to be the "puppet" of both the prosecutors and the author. And Esther, the eventual corpse, is a limp caricature of a depressed would-be suicide victim.
Plotwise, the story doesn't fair much better. Julie seems to trail behind the trial from pure plot necessity; her own struggles are only tangentially related and crop up seemingly just to persuade her to be more involved. This leads to some potential reader confusion as Julie becomes an important witness for the defense near the end of the trial. Although the author includes a brief acknowledgement indicating she based her novel on transcripts of the trial, it's not at all clear whether Julie's role in the trial was invented or whether there was such a figure whom the author chose to fictionalize. Actually, an afterword giving more historical context and, if possible, some knowledge of what happened after the trial would have been nice.
However, I can see why the novel did win awards: it does present a comparatively engaging account of a key incident in the history of antisemitism, one that doesn't seem to be over-fictionalized. With its simplicity of perspective and writing style, it could be used in schools quite easily. However, I think this incident deserves richer analysis, fictionally, and hope to come across such a novel at some point.
As a story supplying that information, [i]Puppet[/i] works well enough: it tells how a rural Hungarian servant girl
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disappeared one day in 1882, and how her death was somewhat randomly blamed on the new Jewish "butcher priest," thanks in no small part to the coerced testimony of Morris Scharf, a young Jewish teenager. The trial became something of a sensation nationally and internationally, and the result is a matter of historic record, but I won't discuss it for potential spoiler reasons. As far as additional plot goes, Julie, the viewpoint character, a friend of the dead girl, ends up following the trial from small town to big city, all the while seeking to gain independence from her malevolent drunkard of a father and security for herself and her young sister after their mother's death.Aside from its merits as a retelling of an important historical event, however, the novel flounders. Most if not all of the characters are flat--either cardboard cutouts of villainy or handy expendable figures just to move the plot along. The more conflicted and potentially interesting characters are given psychological profiling characteristics, rather than actually given the chance to become persons in their own right. So Morris Scharf, potentially the most fascinating character, is relegated to the sidelines and set up every so often to be the "puppet" of both the prosecutors and the author. And Esther, the eventual corpse, is a limp caricature of a depressed would-be suicide victim.
Plotwise, the story doesn't fair much better. Julie seems to trail behind the trial from pure plot necessity; her own struggles are only tangentially related and crop up seemingly just to persuade her to be more involved. This leads to some potential reader confusion as Julie becomes an important witness for the defense near the end of the trial. Although the author includes a brief acknowledgement indicating she based her novel on transcripts of the trial, it's not at all clear whether Julie's role in the trial was invented or whether there was such a figure whom the author chose to fictionalize. Actually, an afterword giving more historical context and, if possible, some knowledge of what happened after the trial would have been nice.
However, I can see why the novel did win awards: it does present a comparatively engaging account of a key incident in the history of antisemitism, one that doesn't seem to be over-fictionalized. With its simplicity of perspective and writing style, it could be used in schools quite easily. However, I think this incident deserves richer analysis, fictionally, and hope to come across such a novel at some point.
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LibraryThing member CatheOlson
This historical fiction novel geared to teen readers recounts a horrible injustice done to Jews in a Hungarian village. When a young girl disappeared one afternoon, the local Jewish men are accused of having murdered her for a religious ritual. While I appreciate the author's intent of sharing the
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story of this heartbreaking piece of history, I thought the characters stereotypical and the dialogue mostly unreal--making this just a so-so book for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member takieya
Finally got this book, as part of Library Thing's early reviewers. I thought the story was well written, and came at the events from an interesting perspective. I would definitely recommend checking it out to anyone who likes stories about disputes and scapegoating, and the outcomes of such events.
LibraryThing member TZacek
In 1882, Julie Vamosi is a teenager living and working with her younger sister, her sick mother, and her drunk father in Tisza-Eszlar, Hungary. When her her friend, Esther goes missing one day on her way to buy paint, Esther's mother immediately blames the local Jewish population, claiming that
I very much enjoyed this story, sad as it was. The blatant racism of the townspeople bumping up against the few people defending clearly innocent men was well-written and fleshed out. My only problem was that the ending felt rushed. Sometimes I feel like I wouldn't mind another 50 pages in a book (and this one is relatively short at approximately 250 pages) in order to feel like I've had a nice conclusion to the story.
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they lured her into their synagogue and slit her throat, using her blood to make matzo. What follows is the accusation, arrest, and trial of a handful of Jewish men, with the finger pointed at them by one of their own: Morris Scharf. I very much enjoyed this story, sad as it was. The blatant racism of the townspeople bumping up against the few people defending clearly innocent men was well-written and fleshed out. My only problem was that the ending felt rushed. Sometimes I feel like I wouldn't mind another 50 pages in a book (and this one is relatively short at approximately 250 pages) in order to feel like I've had a nice conclusion to the story.
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LibraryThing member Sullywriter
A powerful fictionalized account of the the last "blood libel" trial in Europe. A revealing portrait of anti-Semitism in late 19th century eastern Europe.
Awards
Sydney Taylor Book Award (Mass Import -- Pending Differentiation)
Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award (Shortlist — 2010)
Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature (Youth Literature — 2010)
The Willow Awards (Finalist — 2011)
Call number
J4E.Wis