Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67911 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 362 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In 1980 a curious discovery was made above a disused synagogue at 19 Princelet Street in the East End of London. A room, summarily abandoned years before, was found with everything more or less in its original state, even down to porridge on the stove and the imprint of a head on a pillow. The room's occupant, David Rodinsky, was a reclusive cabbalistic Jewish scholar who had, one day in the late 60s, simply vanished from his home; what became of him no one knew. The mystery of Rodinsky caused a mild flurry of excitement; writer and East-End chronicler Iain Sinclair wrote an essay for The London Review of Books entitled "The Man Who Became A Room" and subsequently expanded this as a chapter in his book Downriver but it was not until artist Rachel Lichtenstein became involved with the story that the true quest for David Rodinsky began. Lichtenstein's search paralleled her desire to investigate her own Jewish roots; the bond she felt with this elusive man whom no one could describe, of whom not one photograph seemed to exist, was incredible. The resulting book is a unique and fascinating collaboration between Lichtenstein and Sinclair and uses interweaving narratives to recreate the history of Rodinsky, "The Man Who Never Was". Sinclair's speculating, mythology-rich essays on Jewish culture, folklore and history blend skilfully with Lichtenstein's breathless detective story, which becomes as much autobiography as biography as the story gathers pace.--Catherine Taylor

Synopsis
Rodinsky's world was that of the East European Jewry, cabbalistic speculation, an obsession with language as code and terrible loss. He touched the imagination of artist Rachel Lichtenstein, whose grandparents had left Poland in the thirties. This text weaves together Lichtenstein's quest for Rodinsky -which took her to Poland, to Israel and around Jewish London -with Iain Sinclair's meditations on her journey into her own past, and on the Whitechapel he has reinvented.

From the Author
Searching more Rodinsky sightings & other Jewish stories
I am always interested to hear more stories from the Jewish East End including any further information about David Rodinsky. Another area of London I am currently researching is Clerkenwell. My specific interest is the Jewish jewellery trade in Hatton Garden.If you have any information you would like to share please e-mail me.

Customer Reviews

A bit disappointed.
This type of search after the past always attracts me, and it starts well. But there should have been a warning about the extreme density of Iain Sinclair's prose. He's pretty well known as a writer, so maybe it's my fault that I didn't know.
His prose is dense, with lots of random name-dropping, and to my taste, tedious. Not all the time. He has, for me, flashes of brilliance, but like a previous reviewer says, too much of it is like a sendup of "Pseud's corner".

Madman or Visionary
David Rodinsky, madman and/or visionary disappeared from his room above a disused East London synagogue, never to be seen again. His room - for that was all that was left -remained locked and lost until it was "rediscovered" in the early 1980's. Is there anything about this room that that makes it special? Stories emerge continually about the reclusive, too confused or too intelligent to deal with the modern world, who are found surrounded by the detritus of their lives. What makes Rodinsky's room different is the absence of a body, we cannot be shown "this is why this is", no pathetic creature stumbling ranting and mumbling to whoever their god is, no closure. It becomes a locked room mystery, the type of fiction made famous by another man more myth than reality, Edgar Allen Poe. The room becomes a cipher, for Rachel Lichtenstein, as she unravels her Jewish heritage, becomes reconciled with it and moves to her future. As for Iain Sinclair - ever the well connected London chancer - the room gives him another pretext for a walk across the pages of the London A - Z. For once his visionary view of London is left flat footed by Litchtenstein's near obsessional quest for Rodinsky and the Jews of East London. Rodinsky's Room is also about time. A room frozen as if on the event horizon of a Black Hole, it also defined the instant of it's rediscovery . Old London was disappearing, the political strife and rubbish filled streets of the late 1970's were swept away under the tide of the new Tory Government .Peter Ackroyd states in his brilliant London The Biography , strife and filth have been central to London for centuries, and some of this past was about to disappear. Margaret Thatcher declaimed "there is no such thing as society" as waves of yuppies started their surge across the city. Hunter S Thompson once said with the right eyes you could see where the wave of the Hippy ideals broke and rolled back. In the 1980's with eyes filled with fear and loathing you could watch a false moneyed, self obsessed wave, break across London. From the East End to Notting Hill in the West, filling and surging down the Northern line to Tooting Bec in the South. The Liberal Left, the Intelligentsia, the "chattering classes" battened down their hatches and readied themselves to ride out the storm. Many looked backwards, to a time of community. The GLC parties and concerts of the time brought people together. Some marched for CND and the Coal Miners. Others looked further back, Georgian Houses squatted in Spitalfields, an attempt to forget the 20th Century for a while. Central to this was the publication of Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor, taking all to an arcane, mythic London, to older horrors away from present terrors. London gripped by material greed developed an ethereal edge. At this time writer Joe Cushley was convinced he was confronted by Cerberus the dog guardian of Hades. Late one night in a park by the Thames he was confronted by two Rottweiller's and a black Alsatian , as quickly as they materialised they were called away by their unseen master . The worst thing he said was not the fear, but his fear was controlled not by the dogs but by something he could not see. I cannot think of a less subtle metaphor for London in the 80's. Rodinsky's Room, a place out of time, ripe for rediscovery, an anchor to a lost community, to all lost communities. The book is a fascinating and compelling read, although we learn little about it's subject , we learn much about Rachel Lichtchstein, who, while discovering herself , seems to create a Golem out of the dust in Rodinsky's attic. Once she is secure, her Golem, Rodinsky, and as we all eventually will, return to nothing but dust in a room.

Very interesting topic, could have been written better
Initially, I was very excited to read this book, as I had read the existing reviews and found the topic fascinating. Moreso as a student interested in Jewish history. However upon reading the book, i was disapointed to find it disjointed and difficult to follow in parts. In my opinion the problem stems from the sequence of chapters, which were written by Lichtenstein and Sinclair consecutively. I found Lichtensteins chapters the most interesting, as she concentrated on her search for information about David Rodinsky, whereas Sinclair, seemed to write about other East End figures, which I could not connect with Rodinsky. In this respect I struggled to see the relevance of a whole chapter dedicated to these people. Personally I find it unfortunate as it is truly a unique topic for a book, and it could have been written far better had Rachel Lichtenstein undergone to task of writing alone.