I’ve been a fan of Frankenstein since I read it for school and love seeing different adaptations and interpretations. Learning of a Jewish golem interpretation, I knew I needed to get my hands on it, and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to read Odessa.
In many ways this is a tragic story, but in the end it’s full of hope and love. I loved getting Mordechai, Frieda, and Yetta’s perspectives, because even though they’re one family living in the city of Odessa in Russia, their experiences are vastly different. Mordechai is building weapons to keep the Jewish shtetl safe from Cassocks, but it also makes things dangerous. Frieda is Mordechai’s wife and Miriam is her best friend, and together they do the quiet work of resistance by feeding Jewish women and children, as well as smuggling women and children out of Russia. Yetta is their daughter and in some ways, despite the experiences of hiding in the wall, she is naive and sheltered. When the Cassocks attack the town, Yetta tries to intervene when her father is being beat, but instead it leads to her own death. Mordechai cannot let his daughter die, and he’s been secretly learning Kabbalist knowledge, and he coerces the Rabbi to help him save his daughter by turning her into a golem. Things don’t go as expected, though, and a dybbuk possesses the unguarded body after the golem rises.
There is so much internal happenings, and I loved how Yetta especially was portrayed. Seeing how she is changed and how she wants to save her people while struggling with what happened to her. Freida was my other favorite because of how she works so hard at being a mother while also working for her community.
I can see a lot of the messiness from Shelley’s Frankenstein influencing Odessa and how Mordechai in particular interacts with Yetta.
