by Rachel Kadish – 2017
A Review
The Weight of Ink is a beautifully written, thoroughly researched study of an ageless struggle.
Helen Watt, a historian coming to the end of her career and what she considers her useful life due to the onset of Parkinsons Disease and Aaron Levy, a doctoral student looking for purpose and not finding it in Shakespeare minutiae, turn their attention to a trove of precious documents discovered in an ancient British house. They combine their talents and passion to pick out Ester Valesquez’s story as ‘Aleph’, the scribe of an immigrant Rabbi in London, England in the 1600’s.
The weight of history and societal expectations conspired, in the 17th century, to constrain Ester, an intellectually questing woman, to scribe in secrecy. In order to be herself, she deceived and manipulated even those she loved best. She could not openly have both a life of the mind and a life of the body.
This is the story of a particular time and a particular woman of that time. It is also a timeless story. Any woman who has ever had to choose between motherhood and career, whether to have one or the other, or how to compromise to make one succeed in the presence of the other will recognize themselves in Ester. Any girl who has had to squelch her intellect to be ‘acceptable’ to a beloved boy will get this.
A beautiful, touching read in language that often soars – a writer’s treasure.
Canadian Stories 