The Jewel Trader of Pegu: A Novel

Jeffrey Hantover’s The Jewel Trader of Pegu is a beautiful story engagingly written. This might be the first “JewBu” novel, a step beyond Rodger Kamenetz’s The Jew In The Lotus, in which Kamenetz detailed his experience accompanying a group of American Jews who traveled to India to meet the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhists. Here, Hantover’s fictional construct allows him to create fresh insights into the challenges of human growth and cross-cultural understanding, using an epistolary form that enhances the strength of the story and the clarity of the characters’ voices. Exploring simultaneously the values and world-views of Judaism and Buddhism, Hantover uses the historical lens of foreign trade and travel to express show more the wondrousness of spiritual and physical freedom.

The outline of the story is as follows: in 1598, a widowed Venetian Jewish trader named Abraham makes the long journey to the city of Pegu, in lower Burma, to sell cloth and other wares, and to buy gemstones to take back to his uncle in Venice. Orphaned at a young age, and generally confined to the Jewish Ghetto by Christian society, this trip is more than eye-opening for Abraham, as he enters a world that does not care about his religion or the limitations placed on him by the anti-Semitic traditions of Europe. Writing letters to his cousin Joseph back home, Abraham reveals new aspects of himself as he discovers them, as his experiences in Pegu shift from those of a trader-tourist to someone who starts to feel more like a native. One poignant early moment finds Abraham looking in his trunk and discovering that the yellow hat he is forced to wear in Venice has become moldy and decrepit in the humidity – and he throws it away, “...with the fish bones and coconut husks.” [P. 45] In Pegu, he does not need the hat; he is as foreign as every other trader from abroad, no more and no less.

Maung Win is the royal gems broker assigned by the king to assist Abraham, to facilitate his transactions, show him around the city, and safeguard his belongings. Win speaks a little Italian (much to Abraham’s surprise) and in turn teaches Abraham a bit of the local language. Together, they conduct Abraham’s business and, in their social time, discuss and explore their different perspectives in the world, as driven by religion and by their life experiences. As the result of a complicated local ritual, Win introduces Abraham to Mya, a young Burmese woman who is about to get married. Mya is the third protagonist and the second of the book’s two key voices, presented in the form of her inner monologues, fashioned much like diary entries.

“All I know is what the Buddha teaches – we live, we suffer, we die, and we are reborn. All of us. Not you or me alone. All of us.” [P. 104] So says Win in one of his discussions with Abraham, who struggles to understand the logic in such a straightforward and unsentimental religion, because it seems to deny the kind of higher purpose he has been raised, as a Jew, to believe central to life. Eventually – as he witnesses an execution, as he sees small slights and larger affronts in the world around him – Abraham begins to realize that Win’s Buddhism is not nihilistic but life-affirming, just as Win concedes (eventually) that suffering for suffering’s sake is not always noble or desirable. Life can be complicated, more complicated than the devotions of any religion can necessarily explain.

Ultimately, Abraham learns that freedom is “something real that exists in the world. Not just an ideal. Not just a prayer at Passover.” [P. 26] In discovering freedom of movement, he starts to allow himself to explore his soul, his beliefs and his passions, and thus finds freedom of thought – and a free life. He becomes liberated in a way that he had not previously acknowledged as a possibility, and with that liberation he seems to achieve the kind of enlightenment that Buddhists themselves strive for.

At times, Hantover’s story crosses over into the saccharine, and reminded me at a few points of Paul Coelho’s The Alchemist, a tale of self-discovery that also involves dreams, travel, cross-cultural religious understanding. What can be frustrating about Coelho (and surely what makes his books such big sellers) is his simplicity, that sense of an author wanting the reader to get the message, to make sure we don’t miss the point. But where Coelho traffics in the ethereal and mysterious, Hantover is grounded: what he writes about Judaism and Buddhism rings true, and his characters are not just archetypes, but people to whom the reader develops an emotional connection because of their complexity and idiosyncrasies. Moreover, where Coelho’s book is a parable addressed to the reader, Hantover’s is a literary expression of the beauty of life, even amid challenge and tragedy, and the many ways in which we humans can learn to understand ourselves and others. I highly recommend The Jewel Trader of Pegu.

(For a slightly extended version of this review, including links to other books referenced, see: http://www.thetruthasiseeit.com/2007/11/fiction-then-reality-now.html) show less

I swooned, I wept, I am pierced to the heart by this novel of love and exotic lands. It took my breath, but let me stop enthusing to perhaps give some real reviewing.
The plot is well metered and handled deftly, building towards its end with the inevitability of a roller-coaster. You see it coming, but crave the trail there. I can't say enough, and I admit to being more emotional than cerebral, because it tugged at my heart and my recent wounds, and made me feel my heart open again for these people.
I would recommend this without any reservation. It's a beautiful book, and well worth the reading. It is a jewel as much as the pigeon-blood ruby Abraham purchases. As beautiful as any dark blood right out of the heart.

Scheduled for publication in early 2008, The Jewel Trader of Pegu is the story of Abraham, a Jewish gem merchant from Venice who travels to the Burmese kingdom of Pegu and becomes immersed in a culture quite different from his own. He is schocked to find that local custom requires him to "perform" with all brides to be, just prior to their marriage.

This is an interesting premise, and Hantover writes beautiful descriptive prose that helps the reader immerse themselves in the Peguan landscape: "The last two days I have taken walks at sunset, when the palms come alive with the sound of birds, high and shrill like the chatter of Peguan women in the market. Without plan I ended by the river sparkling in starlight. I had no destination. The show more simple act of walking drew me through the quiet streets in the growing darkness. ... I felt for the fist time freedom as a presence, as something real that exists in the world."

Unfortunately, setting the scene is only one part of a successful novel. In The Jewel Trader of Pegu , the plot and character development are weak. The novel is written primarily in the form of letters from Abraham to his cousin. He writes about one letter a week, with astonishingly little to report. The story moves along very slowly. Every so often, a small chapter is written from the point of view of a young woman. Again, the pace is glacial. And the characters felt superficial to me.

By page 95, Abraham and the woman still had not met, I was finding it increasingly difficult to care about Abraham's "fish out of water" circumstances, and I had had my fill of the Peguan scenery. It is extremely rare for me to abandon a book, but I just couldn't get through this one. show less

*A Gem of a Masterpiece*
Jeffrey Hantover is what I call a Word Weaver. He has the incredible rare talent of blending words and phrases, creating sentences and paragraphs so beautiful it almost makes you weep for the experience of reading his work. This novel is beyond beautiful, a book as shining as the jewels he writes about. The reader immediately gets pulled in with evocative descriptions of the lush and exotic world of Pegu, its flora and fauna, its people and culture. Our main character Abraham is a quiet and solemn soul, and is a man of few words because of the unfortunate life he lives as a Jew amongst Christians in his home land of Venice.

The author offers informative and vivid portrayals of how the Jews were cruelly treated show more and ostracized in 16th century Italy. When Abraham sets his feet on Burmese soil, his sense of craved freedom breathes life into his heart and into his story. Lost and uncertain in a strange land, alien to these new surroundings and odd cultural ways, Abraham soon finds peace and serenity among beautiful people of Buddhist faith. Again his religion clashes against another, but here he is treated with respect and love and feels freedom unbound. I felt while reading this story that I WAS Abraham, instead of the usual reader experience of watching the story unfold as an outsider on the sidelines. I saw what he saw, felt what he felt, smelled what he smelled. This style of writing reeks of talent so rare. Our Abraham soon meets Mya, a young Burmese woman, under peculiar circumstances that challenge Abraham's faith, views of life and love, and his beliefs of what is right and wrong. But, as he and Mya learn about each other's worlds, obstacles are easily overcome and their love prevails. This novel is like a masterpiece of art, one you will read more than once just to experience again and again the exquisite blend of the alluring and mysterious setting, with the deep sensual characters, both so rich in life. There is great wisdom, philosophy and love here in this tale, dont' miss this literary gem. It truly sparkles! show less

Abraham is a devout Italian Jew of the sixteenth century. He travels to strange and exotic places as a jewel trader for his uncle's business. No matter how far from the eyes of fellow worshippers or in what circumstances he find himself, he continues his morning prayers and religious rituals. He deals honestly in business and tries to be kind and tolerant even in unusual circumstances. When he reaches the Burmese port city of Pegu in 1598 he expects to remain the man he is. But a shocking stumbling block to his faith will be put squarely in his path and how he handles it will affect his being tolerated in this strange kingdom and how well he will do in business. He struggles fiercely against compromise for some time.

Told entirely show more through the daily letters home to his beloved cousin Joseph, it is at once an adventure and a compelling story about what is really important to us. How far would we would go to experience and keep true love? When the pressure to follow the local custom of deflowering young brides to bring luck to the families becomes intolerable he reasons with himself "The law and my heart must be one. How could I follow my heart and betray the law and still call myself a Jew? But how could the law demand I betray my heart? I would be lost if I had to do either." The Jewel Trader of Pegu is not about sex as some have imagined. It's about the moral dilemma of a man who wants to do the right thing. The choice Abraham makes will change his life forever.

This is sensitive story telling, often with profound philosophical or spiritual insights into the differences of religion, culture and social customs. Abraham slowly realizes that it's not really his place to judge these people who tattoo their legs with grotesques images, or scar their faces and blacken their teeth. He is surprised to find himself beginning to view their customs and Buddhist thinking in a different light. Though he will be happy to finish his uncle's business and leave for home. Then war, along with looting and reprisals threaten the town. All other foreigners have reasonably fled for home but Abraham has suddenly and unexpectedly found, in a young widow named Mya, a reason for staying and risking everything.

This is one of the best novels I've read this year. A gem of a story, I give it five stars and my highest recommendation.

http://freshinkbooks.blogspot.com/2009/07/jewel-trader-of-pegu-by-jeffrey.html show less

This is a sweet story of a broken man, Abraham who becomes whole again with the new found love of Mya, a Peguan peasant girl. She comes to his home to be 'deflowered' by a foreigner before her wedding night, a great honor for these people. As luck would have it her husband to be is killed and she ends up just staying on with Abraham, and eventually falling in love with him.
I enjoyed learning about the history of this tumultuous time, the vicious, insane King, the jewel trade of the times and all the characters whom Abrahams life touched. He rose to a higher level and became a free and happy man due to the influence of his new found friends and wife.

I enjoyed this book very much - Mr. Hantover is a good storyteller, recommended.

Like other reviewers my interest in this novel was piqued by the exotic locale and also like other reviewers I was disappointed that setting provided nothing more than a convenient context for the author to explore his larger themes of "belonging" and "otherness". For as much as it mattered this book could have been set in Lilliput. A shame to waste all the potential that a more substantive treatment of 16th century Burma could have offered.

While this book may appeal to some on basis of the storyline, it is likely to leave fans of historical fiction a bit cold.