Jacob's Folly (1773)

About this item

Jacob is a Jewish peddler living in eighteenth-century France; Leslie and Deirdre Senzatimore are a settled American couple; and Masha is an alluring young ultra-Orthodox Jew who is gravely ill. In Jacob' s Folly , these four individuals will find their fates intertwined and the courses of their lives irrevocably altered when Jacob is reincarnated as a house fly in contemporary Long Island. Through the unique lens of Jacob' s consciousness, Miller explores transformation in all its guises-- personal, spiritual and literal. As she considers the hold of the past on the present, the power of private hopes and dreams, and the collision of fate and free will, Miller' s world-- which is our own, transfigured by her startlingly clear gaze and by her sharp, surprising wit-- comes to vibrant life. Leslie' s desire to act as hero and rescuer, Jacob' s disastrous marriage to the childlike Hodle and his intense obsession with Masha-- Miller sketches her