World to Come, The

by Dara Horn

World to Come, The

book data

687 ratings, 3.95 average rating, 177 reviews (more data...)

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published

July 31st 2007 by Penguin

binding

Paperback, 401 pages

isbn

014103131X (isbn13: 9780141031316)

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1037)

All ratings | 5 stars (195) | 4 stars (269) | 3 stars (145) | 2 stars (39) | 1 star (10) | avg 3.95

all | this edition

Karen

Karen rated it:

(review of isbn 0393051072)

04/20/08

Read in April, 2008

By the end of the first 50 pages or so, I was pretty excited about this book - I thought it was going to be a better " History of Love". Better because the texts that bring the characters together are so much richer than the pseudo-Borgesian book-within-a-book in "The History of Love". So I was very disappointed when I realized that the stories that connect the narrative threads in "The World to Come" were ...more

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Christia

Christia rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

06/24/08

Read in June, 2008

An absolutely exquisite, beautifully written book! I loved the Yiddish folklore included throughout the book (especially the story of the already born returning to heaven to prepare the not yet born for their lives) and the ideas of the not yet borns "eating" art and "drinking" literature in heaven in preparation for their future life on earth. The author tells the story of a Chagall painting and the impact it has on all the individuals within three generations of the family...more

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Ty rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

04/22/08

This is one of those books, if you're an aspiring writer, that either inspires you to take the plunge and give birth to that novel that's been lurking in your heart since you were fifteen or (to continue the swimming pool/underwater birth analogy) intimidates you back into the dressing room, forces you to put your street clothes back on, and makes you seriously think about giving up all creative endeavors to become an accountant. At a tire store.

This book amazed me. I borrowed it from a fri...more

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Caitlyn

Caitlyn rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

07/12/07

Read in July, 2007

I loved the beginning of this book- got bored with the middle- and loved the end. Horn's writing is schizophrenic (if you will) throughout the book, which I guess made it interesting.

My english teacher in high school taught me that everything is a copy of a previous work- you learn and expand on ideas and theories from the past. Horn does exactly this. She takes previous ideas, already written stories, and historical events and makes them her own. Once I thought about it and it's signi...more

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Juliana

Juliana rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

09/07/07

Read in February, 2007

This was one of the most affecting books that I've read. The story and its themes stayed with me for months after I read it. Today, as I am pregnant, I think about one of the great ideas presented in the book about how everyone in your family before you, who has passed on, contributing something essential to the lives of those not yet born. I loved the characters---and the way the story took a piece of art work (in this case by Marc Chagall) and gave it a personal history. I would recommend t...more

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Mary

Mary added it (review of isbn 0393329062)

01/04/09

Read in December, 2008

this is a fascinating booik on two levels. the story involves an interlocking set of characters, originating in the Russian Jewish community before and after the first world wr, when many died and suffered , and some escaped to Europe or the US. The painter, Marc Chagall is one who escaped and became highly successful in New York. Many of the writers stayed, tried to fight Fascism, and were swept up in Stalin's purges after WW II. We meet the contemporary family of Ziskind's, Daniel and Rosa...more

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Shanna

Shanna rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

07/27/07

Read in July, 2007

One of my friends said that she didn't like Jonathan Safran Foer because he threw in so many heart-breaking images without ever really explaining them, just kind of jamming them together.
This was like that, except a lot of the imagery wasn't particularly heart-breaking, the writing wasn't particularly good, and there were a lot of loose ties left at the end of the novel.
More than anything, I didn't end up caring about any of these characters.

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Christi

Christi rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

01/24/08

Read in January, 2008

overall i really enjoyed this book, but there were parts that dragged a bit. also one part of the ending left me unsatisfied. despite those things, the subjects dealt with in the book are unique and thought provoking. the influence of horn's background and her historical and religious studies are also highlights.

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Liana

Liana rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

05/02/08

Read in April, 2008

By far THE BEST book I've read all year. Perhaps one of the best and most beautifully written books in recent literary memory. Please read this book if you appreciate history, art, and love.

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3 comments

Leslie

Leslie rated it:

(review of isbn 0393051072)

12/08/08

bookshelves: novel

Read in November, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Walker

Walker rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

03/17/08

Read in March, 2008

What a fertile imagination Dara Horn has! This book was amazing, beautifully written, and extremely thought-provoking. Read it!

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Ron

Ron rated it:

(review of isbn 0393051072)

08/01/08

Read in May, 2008

Benjamin Ziskind is a former child prodigy who now spends his time writing questions for television quiz shows. When his twin sister Sara convinces him to attend a cocktail party at the Museum of Hebraic Art in New York, he sees there a painting by Marc Chagall which used to hang in their childhood home.

Convinced that the painting has been stolen from his family, Benjamin decides to "liberate" it from the museum. Following the theft we are told the history of the painting and those...more

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Yosafbridg

Yosafbridg rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

05/25/08

bookshelves: own-and-read

Read in May, 2007

With The World to Come Dara Horn has created a novel with the lyrical heart of a poem. Her words flow through the mind, through the soul, like a song, with repeated choruses and melodies that both soothe and haunt. Horn also uses her way with words to evoke a marvelous kind of synesthesia throughout the book which is extended even beyond my own imagination (and a wonderful paradise where exists, among other things, library/bars where

"librarian-sommeliers bring up the requested bottle carefully. Some are meant to be drunk warm heated with love; others are plunged into icy buckets of hatred or chilled slightly in anger before drinking. Most are served at room temperature, objectively tasted while some are served lust hot. Wary drinkers usually ask to see the label before opening he bottle, inspecting the title and the author's name to make sure it matches what they ordered.
Most of the visitors to the paradise bar drink cheap pints of newspapers and magazines, microbrewed advertising copy, and, lately, Internet screeds on tap. Some like fancy anthology cocktails, readers' digests of different works that make them seem more sophisticated than they are. Others prefer the hard stuff that needs no particular vintage, tossing back murder mystery shots and swilling down romances and thrillers that leave them plastered on the floor for days. . . .But others--are drawn to the bar, believing that behind the crowd swallowing cheap words, there might be something worthy of their not-yet lips. And those are the ones who meet the librarian-sommeliers." ...more With The World to Come Dara Horn has created a novel with the lyrical heart of a poem. Her words flow through the mind, through the soul, like a song, with repeated choruses and melodies that both soothe and haunt. Horn also uses her way with words to evoke a marvelous kind of synesthesia throughout the book which is extended even beyond my own imagination (and a wonderful paradise where exists, among other things, library/bars where

"librarian-sommeliers bring up the requested bottle carefully. Some are meant to be drunk warm heated with love; others are plunged into icy buckets of hatred or chilled slightly in anger before drinking. Most are served at room temperature, objectively tasted while some are served lust hot. Wary drinkers usually ask to see the label before opening he bottle, inspecting the title and the author's name to make sure it matches what they ordered.
Most of the visitors to the paradise bar drink cheap pints of newspapers and magazines, microbrewed advertising copy, and, lately, Internet screeds on tap. Some like fancy anthology cocktails, readers' digests of different works that make them seem more sophisticated than they are. Others prefer the hard stuff that needs no particular vintage, tossing back murder mystery shots and swilling down romances and thrillers that leave them plastered on the floor for days. . . .But others--are drawn to the bar, believing that behind the crowd swallowing cheap words, there might be something worthy of their not-yet lips. And those are the ones who meet the librarian-sommeliers."

(I so want to be a librarian-sommelier after i die!!!~sounds like heaven to me~and i know this quote and the one following makes this book sound not very fictioniony/novelly, but i assure you it is and these quotes fit in very well i just provide them because i love them so...) The main plot line was inspired by a real life event when a million-dollar Chagall painting was stolen from a museum during a singles cocktail hour. What follows is a beautiful meditation on the meaning of life, death, birth and the afterlife. The "World to Come" of the title refers mainly to the afterlife but also takes on many more meanings as the story weaves it spell. Horn invents the thief in one Benjamin Ziskind, a former child prodigy (a title he takes great comfort in until he realizes he has never heard of an adult prodigy) who believes it once hung in his living room. Benjamin provides the tapestry with which to weave in the threads of his family's history, going back to his grandparents on both sides, and his twin sister and her husband as well as his own somewhat unhappy life. The narrative travels back and forth between and among an orphanage in Soviet Russia where Chagall taught to suburban New Jersey and the jungles of New Jersey. In this novel history does indeed repeat but tragedies do not always have to be tragic. Biblical tales, Yiddish folktales, and family histories are constantly being rewritten and retold. Although this is a realistic novel there are many magnificent allegories to be found within its pages (and a touch of history to be learned as well~always a nice little addition in my ever so humble opinion)

"It is a great injustice that those who die are often people we know, while those who are born are people we don't know at all. We name children after the dead in the dim hope that they will resemble them, pretending to blunt the loss of the person we knew while struggling to make the person we don't know into less of a stranger. It's compelling, this idea that the new person is so tightly bound to the old, but most of us are afraid to believe it. But what if we are right? Not that the new person is a reincarnation of the old, but rather, more subtly, that they know each other, that the already-weres and the not-yets of our world, the mortals and the natals, are bound together somewhere just past where we can see, in a knot of eternal life?"

Though both themes and words may repeat themselves in The World to Come they never feel repetitive, just comforting. All the tales feel familiar, even the ones not heard before~though the telling is always fresh and beautiful. I noticed many reviewers were left feeling unsatisfied with the ending and the last chapter of the book, but i thought the last chapter was beautiful and that if you took the time to read it carefully (come on~just suck up that beautiful metaphysical poetry~you'll be better off for it) the answers you were seeking about the characters you had come to love could be found there, but maybe that was just my own wishful, wistful thinking~anyway i found it in no way detracting. If you happen to be looking for a book group read this one offers many, many topics for discussion. This is one of the best books i have read this year and i have added it to my list of all-time favorites (believe me, that's something)~i already can't wait to read it again! A very rewarding read.
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Irene

Irene rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

08/04/08

bookshelves: favorites, russian-jewish--or-both

Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: jeanie

Ahhhhh.

Have you ever met a person who you thought was odd, weird, just a bit off, and then, when you get to know this person--really get to know someone, you realize you found a true friend--someone that you feel like you've known for eternity? That was this book for me. I wasn't into it for the first third of the book, and then something special happened. I understood it. I understood every single last frustration of being born in the Soviet Union, escaping those Jewish-hating fascists ...more

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Kristen

Kristen rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

03/15/08

bookshelves: fiction

Read in March, 2008

I can't believe I almost passed on this book. The first thirty or so pages didn't really connect with me, so I went over here and checked out the reviews. Easily, 90% of them were 4 or 5 starts. Okay. I continued.

And couldn't put the book down.

It focuses mainly on Ben, but also explores his family's history, be it in a Jewish orphanage in Moscow, to his father's experiences in Vietnam, and to his own twin sister, Sara. And it also focuses, briefly, upon the Russian artist Chagall and the...more

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laura

laura rated it:

(review of isbn 0393051072)

03/13/08

Read in March, 2008

recommended to laura by: Pendragon Bookstore

An engaging story with decent style. I really got into the intergenerational stories and the time-switching was only a little tricky to follow (it wasn't on the scale of Marquez, for example). The "pointy" aspects of the novel ("meaningful, thematic") were intriguing, and often moving, as death of close family members was a constant thread. However, I found myself mainly reading for the plot, which leads me to...

...the last segment, describing the World to Come where ...more

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Hannah

Hannah rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

01/15/08

Read in January, 2008

recommended to Hannah by: The cover is alluring!
recommends it for: people interested in family histories, tragedies, and spirituality

It took me a while to get through this book; I got lost along the way, enduring tragedy after loss after war after injustice. But like the Kite Runner, I do feel it's important to read narratives that bring to life the histories we only experience quantitatively otherwise. Dara Horn ultimately paints a picture of faith, something rare in "hot" fiction, and I ultimately was impressed with her bravery. Like Vonnegut's work, I expect this book may slightly tweak the way I see the unive...more

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Jennifer

Jennifer rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

12/17/07

bookshelves: staben-memorial-library

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: anyone who is missing the dead this time of year

Wow! Last night I cried at the end of The House Theatre's production of The Nutcracker in Chicago* and this morning I cried as I read the end of The World to Come by Dara Horn. This book was complex, powerful, funny/sad and made me think about family members who are no longer here (but aren't truly gone) and the ones to come. So, what's the story about? It starts off simply enough--Daniel, newly divorced, goes to a singles cocktail hour at a local museum and ends up stealing...more

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Amos

Amos rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

04/02/07

Read in March, 2007

This was a delightful read spanning three generations in the lives of a Russian Jewish family. The book begins with the theft of a Chagall painting from a museum during a single's night cocktail hour. (Horn got this idea from the actual theft of a Chagall painting from the Jewish Museum in New York in June 2001. The painting was ultimately recovered a few months later in Topeka, Kansas.) In Horn's novel, Ben Ziskind, the man who stole the painting, did so because he believed that it belonged...more This was a delightful read spanning three generations in the lives of a Russian Jewish family. The book begins with the theft of a Chagall painting from a museum during a single's night cocktail hour. (Horn got this idea from the actual theft of a Chagall painting from the Jewish Museum in New York in June 2001. The painting was ultimately recovered a few months later in Topeka, Kansas.) In Horn's novel, Ben Ziskind, the man who stole the painting, did so because he believed that it belonged to his family and once hung in his living room.

The novel then proceeds to take us backwards and forwards in time through the lives of Ben's grandfather (who was a student of Chagall's at an orphanage in Soveit Russia), his father (who lost a leg in Vietnam), his mother (who was an inadvertent plagiarist and rescuer of lost Yiddish tales), his twin sister (an artist married to Ben's childhood Soviet bar mitzvah twin), him (a former child prodigy who makes a living writing questions for a television quiz show called American Genius, and of course, Ben's love interest (the museum administrator who discovers the theft). Horn is apparently a student of Yiddish literature and incorporates some really wonderful stories into the narrative. She also does a good drop of weaving the various global-historical backdrops (e.g. Soviet Russia in the 1920s) with the personal-historical backdrops (e.g. suburban New Jersey in the late 1980s-early 1990s).

The ending did feel rushed, and I don't think she did as good a job as she could have of tying all the loose ends together at the end. I was left feeling that she had somehow left out an intended chapter or two that should have gone in before the final chapter, and I felt somewhat put-out that they were missing. Part of me also wonders if maybe Horn wrote this book a little too early -- her characters are so wonderful, but at times it almost feels like they can't quite sustain the themes and the story elements she is trying to make them carry. As a result, the narrative becomes overly dramatic and kitschy. But even given its faults, it is a great book, and one of the best reads I've had in a long while.

(Also, I should admit that I bought this book in large part because I liked the cover. This has actually worked for me in the past -- I found Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin the same way -- and I guess the technique didn't let me down this time, either. Maybe I should make it a habit.)...less

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Cjasper

Cjasper rated it:

(review of isbn 0393329062)

02/21/08

bookshelves: my-books

Read in March, 2008

First, I have admit that I don't like too much magic or dream elements in books. I was expecting that in this book, and made it most of the way through being pleasantly surprised that most of the unreal bits were played off as altered states of consciousness. I liked the plots, I liked (didn't love) the characters, I liked the history and culture references, and I loved how the imagery throughout the book - ladders, bridges, slime, mud, flight. And then I got to the end, and felt so let down....more

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