Keeping the faith

It's tempting to use the word "sprawling" to describe "People of the Book," but it's more tightly focused than that. It's kaleidoscopic, the layers of mystery deftly and tightly interlocked, shifting and realigning to reveal new patterns. The complex structure requires that alternating chapters explain the clues that Hannah discovers as she works on the haggadah, and it's satisfying to watch the mystery get solved again and again - exactly what sort of insect wing is it that Hannah finds, we wonder, and how did it get there, and what does it tell us about the haggadah's journey through time and the people who safeguarded its passage? In a way, though, Brooks is such a good writer that it's almost a shame she found herself quite so obligated to the complicated layers of plot she's woven. The chapters that imagine the haggadah's history are powerfully persuasive, but Brooks dips into the past only long enough to satisfy the requirements of her novel. The haggadah is always at the center of these chapters, but it's a peripheral character to the often compelling human stories Brooks wants to tell. Because they serve the somewhat artificial purpose of explaining the clues uncovered by Hannah, the chapters lack the organic whole of short stories, but it is a compliment to Brooks to say that they are more like incomplete novels.