Probably one of my least favorite to date by Pierre Assouline, Golem is a thriller enfolding in the two-pace of the chess game, about an international chess master Gustave Meyer, running from Paris to London and Oxford and Central Europe, escaping an accusation of murder.
The prime suspect in the murder of his ex-wife, who died in unclear conditions, Gustave is set to figure out the crime himself, but meanwhile he has to clean his traces and run against the clock for saving his freedom. Alongside with him, there are two women looking for him: one is his daughter who wants to help him, another one is a policewoman who wants to catch him.
Gustave is an international chessmaster, a solitary man, caught into a game that seems to go beyond his complex capacity of grasping things. He is on the run, forced to find ways to keep his freedom, using his mind and knowledge.
I may confess that I was expecting a better balance between the thriller part and what is predictably coming along when you are calling your novel Golem - I have read the book in the original French version and I am not aware if there is any translation of the book into English. In the second part of the book, as he is ending up in the region where the story of the Golem started, the discussion is becoming more and more philosophical, with mystical accents. Although I usually appreciate such an intermezzo, I may rather be catch by a real story which is integrating high-end ideas through the interactions and dialogues of the characters.
But, as usual, when the books is beautifully written, there is always an advantage of keeping reading a book that until the end may not be completely at the highest level of literary expectations.
Golem may be my last book by Assouline in 2023, but I am sure that would be delighted to keep exploring more of his writings, as I promised myself after Sigmaringen.
Rating: 3 stars
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