Sfar, Joann - The Rabbi's Cat 2

[oyceter]

Sadly, this is not quite as charming as its predecessor, but then, I think that may be an impossible task. Still, it's a worthwhile read, although the last story is somewhat awkward, as it tries to Teach Us About Racism.

The first story is about the cat and his journeys with the rabbi's cousin Malka and his lion; I love how you can't quite tell what's fact and what's fiction as Malka tells his tales. And! As bonus, there is a hilarious talking snake, although this snake is more sinister and less amusing than Koh of Silver Diamond. Even so, the conversations among the cat, the lion, and the snake are priceless.

The second story is the One About Racism, and I was poised to like it until the ending. The rabbi, a Russian Jew, and several other people, decide to go find the Ethiopian Jews and encounter many adventures along the way. Unfortunately, Sfar seems to be espousing the typical viewpoint that judging people based on race is bad (which I agree with) and leaving it at that (which I don't agree with); he ends by showing that the Ethiopian Jews are just as prejudiced as the Jews who refused to marry the Russian Jew and his black sweetheart. Which, okay, I'm sure it's true, but not the point!

I still think it's worth reading, but had I known the ending of the second story, I might have skipped the last few pages so I could keep an untarnished memory of the series.

Comments

[swanjun.livejournal.com]

I had the first one checked out from the library and then kept reading other stuff until I couldn't renew it any longer and had to turn it back in. Bad me. The idea of a talking snake is pretty compelling though, since I heart Koh to pieces.

[oyceter]

The first one is awesome and I love it to pieces. I do not mean to damn this one with faint praise and I would probably like it a lot had I never read the first one, but the first one is just SO AWESOME! The cat!

[cychi.livejournal.com]

"I might have skipped the last few pages so I could keep an untarnished memory of the series."

Man, that takes will power. I don't think i can ever do that. EVER. I think i would literally explode first.

[oyceter]

Haha, I know, I doubt I could really do that!

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I don't think that's what the ending was, exactly. I'll have to reread to be more precise, but my recollection was that they went into Africa (the Middle East) to find Jerusalem, and found giants -- mythic Jews who were not anything like the Jews living in Jerusalem at the time -- who were still blinded by their prejudices. I took it as a rebuke to Israel/Israel's defenders/Israeli racists for not living up to their ideals -- for being giants in some ways (founding the new state, surviving the Holocaust, etc.), but still flawed. It was ... a very intra-Jewish discussion, in a very Jewish mode of storytelling, somewhere between magic realism and allegory. I'm not sure the switch in tone worked, after the more straightforward wry magic realism of the earlier book and the earlier parts of this one, but. Hmm. For me, Jews criticizing other Jews for failing to recognize a common humanity and a common Jewishness feels really different than white people criticizing people of color for the same, even if it's white Jews criticizing POC Jews. Which I realize sounds really sketchy, and in some cases it *wouldn't* work for me. But it did here at least partly because the "stone Jews" aren't historical Jews.

[oyceter]

Wow, this is embarrassing! I missed the entire thing about the Ethiopian Jews they found being the giants/stone Jews (am I still getting it wrong? or reading it too literally now? I returned the book so I can't check, sigh) and thought they had just found a normal Jewish community that was marked by being isolated from the others and being more prejudiced. Hrm. I suspect the reading would still work better for me had it not been the blond-haired-blue-eyed Russian Jew who had found them and had it been the rabbi & co. instead, but yeah, the magical realism changes it a bit.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm misremembering something? I'll check when I get home.

I remember it is as the Russian Jew relating his story to the rabbi, adding another layer of unreliability, instead of the comics directly reporting his experience, which is why I thought it was important neither the rabbi nor the cat saw it directly -- but maybe I am making all this up? I should reread. I don't remember it as well as the first book even though I've read it more recently.

I also don't want to say that your reaction was invalid! These comics are so strange for me, they read as so exactly speaking to my subculture even though I distrust universalisms and there are all these reasons Sfar's Judaism wouldn't be so much like mine and yet -- it feels like it is! But I don't know if that feeling is trustworthy.

[oyceter]

No no! I'm pretty sure I am; I do remember the Russian Jew relaying the story and the point that the rabbi and company could never find the city. Also, I was already having a hard time figuring out what was story and what was not in the first half...