Author: Greg Vilk

ISBN: 0977218902

When I picked up Greg Vilk's debut novel Golem, I immediately had a vivid recollection of my first encounter with the phenomenon of a Golem while as a child attending a Hebrew parochial school. It was here where I first learned of how an animated being was crafted from inanimate material such as clay. Its life was derived from some divine intervention or Cabbalistic magic.

The legend narrated was about Rabbi Loew from Prague, Czechoslovakia, who created a Golem from clay in order help the Jews in their daily tasks and also to protect them from persecution. In order to activate the Golem, it was necessary to place a piece of paper in its mouth that would dictate to the Golem his daily chores. Unfortunately, what eventually resulted was a creature that went out of control and fled the city never to be seen again.

Later on in my life I came across another variation of this same theme that was authored by Nobel Prize winner, Isaac Bashevis Singer, where a certain Rabbi Leib once again had created a Golem in order to protect the Jews. However, in the Bashevis tale greed takes over, in that the Golem's creator attempts to use it for a less than noble cause. As a result, the Rabbi looses control over the beast causing a great deal of havoc.

Now along comes Greg Vilk's Golem take of the same theme. His narrative is set in 1942, when a Yale professor is kidnapped by the Germans. According to Section Chief Ramsay from the American War Department, Enemy Weapons Research, the professor