When I first read the book title “The Weight of Ink,” by Rachel Kadish (2017), that was enough to make me want to read the book. Those four words resonated deeply with the writer in me and I couldn’t help but think of the thought-filled books that I’ve read over the years – that writing that digs deep into the human condition and asks the big questions that people have thought about since the beginning of time.
For those who have not read the book, I have asked CoPilot to provide a summary. This book review will include spoilers, so give it a pass if that is a concern.
Me:
Before we dig into the book, The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish, I would like you to provide a summary, something a bit more than the brief one I usually request, but one with enough to outline the storylines within. After you do that, I will offer some of my insights and ask for your thoughts – much like we have done in the past.
CoPilot:
Here’s a clear, layered summary of The Weight of Ink — substantial enough to map the intertwined storylines, but not so long that it steals the pleasure of your own reflections. I’ve shaped it with the kind of narrative contour you tend to enjoy — parallel arcs, emotional stakes, and the quiet philosophical undercurrents that Kadish threads through the novel.
The Weight of Ink — A Structured, Storyline Focused Summary
The Frame Narrative (London, 2000): Helen Watt & Aaron Levy
The novel opens with Helen Watt, an aging, sharp minded but physically frail historian nearing retirement. She’s summoned to a London house where a cache of 17th-century Jewish documents has been discovered behind a staircase — letters, philosophical treatises, and rabbinic writings, all written in a mysterious hand.
Helen, who once lived in Israel and carries her own private griefs, recognizes the potential importance of the find. She recruits Aaron Levy, a brash American graduate student, to help her decipher and catalog the manuscripts. Their relationship is prickly, competitive, and ultimately transformative for both.
As they translate the documents, they begin to uncover the life of an extraordinary, hidden figure: a woman who should not have been able to write these texts at all.
This storyline follows:
• Helen’s race against time — her illness, her fear of being overshadowed by younger scholars, her longing for intellectual legacy.
• Aaron’s ambition, insecurity, and gradual awakening to the ethical weight of scholarship.
• The academic politics swirling around the discovery — rival scholars, institutional pressures, and the question of who gets to “own” history.
The frame narrative is ultimately about the cost of knowledge, and the way the past chooses its inheritors.
The Historical Narrative (London & Amsterdam, 1650s): Ester Velasquez
The documents lead us into the life of Ester Velasquez, a young Jewish woman who fled the Inquisition in Portugal with her brother and their blind rabbi, Rabbi HaCoen Mendes. They settle in the Jewish community of Amsterdam, and later Ester is sent to London as the rabbi’s scribe.
This is the heart of the novel.
Ester’s Secret Intellectual Life
Ester is brilliant, curious, and hungry for philosophical inquiry — Spinoza, Descartes, the nature of God, the meaning of suffering. But as a woman in the 17th century, she is forbidden from formal study. Acting as the rabbi’s scribe gives her a rare loophole, and she begins corresponding — sometimes secretly — with philosophers and thinkers of the day.
Her writings explore:
• The tension between faith and reason
• The trauma of exile and persecution
• The ethics of freedom
• The role of women in intellectual life
• The possibility of a world without divine intervention
Ester’s voice is bold, questioning, and often dangerous.
Although CoPilot expanded much more, I have kept only a small portion to help paint the picture of what else the book looks at. I have edited it largely so it made sense in this much-shortened context. Looked at are the plague and the limits of freedom, the newly found manuscripts as a bridge between lives. Other themes woven through both storylines include exile and belonging, the cost of knowledge, secrecy, mortality, and keeping the stories alive for future generations. The characters are explored in detail and they become very real to one engaged in the book.
Having read the book, I will now present my typical book review. This will include my thoughts and comments and a discussion with CoPilot about it.
Although I have enjoyed both storylines within the book, my favorite was the one that followed Ester in the mid to late 1600s. Right away I was reminded of the 1983 movie Yentl, starring Barbara Streisand. This is the story of a Jewish girl who decides to disguise herself as a man named Anshel so that she can receive an education in Talmudic law. Unlike Yentl, Ester wants to explore the forbidden realm of philosophy that, in her era, is for men only. Ester doesn’t disguise herself to partake but she does so by writing letters and signing them with a man’s name – actually several names over the course of the book, depending on who she was writing to or corresponding with.
Much of her discourse touched on religion, and when you get right down to it, religion is much the same as philosophy. One group believes this and another group believes that. They can get so worked up over trying to convince the other that wars break out because of it, or something like the Inquisition takes root and runs ramped.
And yet, I think it is important to have philosophical views and to write about them – those books and documents to be left for the people in the future as a legacy of sorts. As I have found, one can often find comfort in those philosophies and that can make all the difference to one’s sense of belonging.
We don’t even have to believe in all philosophies, it is enough to see opposing views to help us sort out what we, as individuals, believe. As written works, one can always choose whether to read them or not. As I learned in Al-Anon, it’s okay to take what you like and leave the rest – and some you can even avoid like the plague! 😊
As I read the many letters presented in the story, I was struck by what felt like the absurdity of philosophers – how they hold differing views and continually try to convince others that they are right. Quite often, the subjects they debate offer no proof at all, so what they write are opinions, plain and simple. In the book, this ranges from debates about the nature of God to arguments over the role of women. As much as I love philosophy – the search for answers and the desire to think deeply about the order of things – I could never, and would never want to, compete or debate with others in this way, especially as it plays out through written exchanges and philosophical correspondence.
While reading the book, I identified so much with the need to put my thoughts down on paper – how writing holds the “weight” of my soul, leaving a permanent mark. The CoPilot summary at the beginning mentioned the stash of documents that had been found, and what was the basis of the story in the book. That stash reminded me of my own writing and art and how I brought it all together in my collected works project, which I had presented in one of my Design Talks, and have physically on hand as part of my legacy.
The Collected Works of Donald B. Cheke – Flash Drive Box – Created by Don Cheke
So much of what Ester did, with her letter writing, is exactly what I’ve been trying to do my whole life – to put down in writing all the things that I have come to believe. I find it beneficial to do so, and perhaps my readers do too. Perhaps, my grandchildren, when they come of age, will appreciate it too.
At this point, I will break from the book review to share the birth story of my first book, “Along the Way: A Journey of One” (1997).
The feature image of this blog post, seen again below, was created by me with this blog post in mind. The text on the page is part of the preface of the book. I feel that it sums up nicely so much of what went into making it a reality.
Ink, Pen & Paper – Modeled & Rendered by Don Cheke
For the past fourteen years I have been on an intense journey in search of the truth. I have searched for the truth about my life, my existence and our existence as a human race. This journey has been a wonderfully worthwhile experience thus far in that what I have discovered has made all the difference in the world to me. The further and deeper I have travelled the broader that truth has become and I have discovered that this truth is the hallmark of my existence. Little else has much meaning any more except for my spiritual journey and how it relates to me, my family and to my place in the world at this time.
As I have journeyed, I have, at times, felt compelled to share my experiences with others; sharing not as someone with the answers for all but, at least, as someone with some of the answers for myself. I never before imagined that I could make a book a reality, although I have thought that such an endeavour would be a fulfilling experience. Alas, that thought was always followed with feelings of doubt that I would have something to say that others would be interested in reading. Well, now I believe that although this is only my journey and these are my findings, I have an obligation to share what I have learned so that others may benefit just as I have benefited from reading about what others have experienced on their journeys.
During my years of spiritual growth, which I will define in Chapter II, I have almost always learned one of life’s particular lessons and then found reassurance in different books that others have felt compelled to write. This has thus given me a continued desire to probe still deeper into the mysteries of this human existence. The reading I have done has at times broadened my field of vision, and time and time again has reassured me that I am on the right road, even when I have felt like the only person on the road.
I remember quite vividly the feelings of joy, peace and fear when I knew that I must write this book and share what I have discovered thus far. I had been reading the book “Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis” by D.T. Suzuki, Erich Fromm and Richard De Martino where I read about a particular abbot of a Zen monastery who wanted to have an artist paint a picture of a dragon on the ceiling of their hall. The artist accepted the task but replied that he had never seen a real dragon before so he was unsure as to how to proceed. The abbot replied, “Don’t mind your not having seen the creature. You become one, you be transformed into a living dragon, and paint it. Don’t try to follow the conventional pattern.”
The artist, feeling confused, asked how he could become the dragon and again the abbot spoke and told him to go away for a time and think deeply about it and the time would come when he would feel the need to paint one. “That is the moment when you have become the dragon, and the dragon urges you to give it form.” I have become this book and it has urged me to give it form.
225,000 words later, my first book was written.
Below are some interesting details about the process of getting the book onto paper.
I wrote this book longhand on paper. I remember being surprised at how many pens I drained while doing so. I don’t recall the exact number but it was certainly more than four. I had never used that much ink in all the thirty-six previous years of my life, including my years at school.
The paper stack, when done, was 6 or 7 inches thick. It was quite a sight!
At some point, Denise and I invested in a typewriter and Denise began to type the whole thing out. As she worked her way through, we invested in a different typewriter that had a little screen where you could type 2 or 3 lines before it would type them on the paper. It was a kind of delay function that would allow the typist to catch typos before they were printed onto the paper.
Somewhere along the way we decided to buy a word processor and Denise had to start over once again. The word processor had a small six-inch monitor with green or orange text – I forget which – on a black background. The word processor also had the ability to save the data to a 3.5” floppy disk, which began our foray into the digital world.
Once the data was on the disk it could be moved to other computers as we moved forward with our technology. We eventually bought our first computer, an Acer, which came with Windows 95, and well, that was the start of the computer age for me and the start of a long love affair – of the technological kind.
A big cheer goes out to Denise, who took all this typing in stride, and has been my editor ever since. She has been the best support through all my years of writing – and with everything else too. Hip-Hip-Hooray! Thanks Dee! 💖
Thinking back on the book, I am reminded that we are the only species that can write. It is one of those gifts that make us human. We can hurt others with those words, or we can help to make the world a better place with our words. We can share our deepest feelings. We can share our discoveries, our joys, our sorrows, and our fears. As is said in Al-Anon, we can share our experience, strength, and hope. We can even entertain – and boy, do we ever do that well!
Our words, laid down on paper, in the broad sense of the word, allow our wisdom to be available for those who come in the future. Let’s try to leave something positive.
Writing, much like journaling, is a powerful way to be active in one’s search for meaning – laying it bare in black and white, as opposed to just having thoughts that come and flitter away without thinking about them too much.
In the end, I did not engage further with CoPilot, though I did ask it to review what I had written and to suggest aspects of The Weight of Ink that might invite deeper reflection. I offer them here simply as an enticement – an invitation, perhaps, to read the book for yourself.
What follows are some of its suggestions – some framed as questions, others as ideas worth lingering over.
• Is intellectual debate an act of discovery, or one of self assertion?
• Should we think of writing as refuge, or as risk?
• Who is history really written for?
• Silence as a historical force.
• The moral responsibility of leaving words behind.
I do recommend the book if you are a writer yourself or enjoy history and a good story. Let me know in the comments if you have read it and what you thought about it.
Donald B. Cheke – Saskatoon, SK