The Golem and the Jinni Themes

If we were to think of confining settings for a novel, we could dream up a few. A tiny apartment, say, or a room full of coffins. We would not pick New York City. But the Big Apple is a big prison...

You wouldn't think that the Golem and the Jinni would have trouble with their identities in a book called The Golem and the Jinni. But they can't just walk about New York saying, "Hello, I'm a Jinn...

Barbara Eden never seemed unhappy in her bottle. (Who would, with that groovy interior?) But the Jinni isn't happy in his flask. Frankly, he's not happy anywhere. It's difficult to make a home for...

New York City is a great place to make new friends—just look at the tight friendship foursomes in Sex and the City or Girls. There's no way to survive in the Big Apple on your own, so you have to...

New York City seems great, but sometimes we wonder why anyone lives there. People complain that it's expensive, the subways are crowded, the line for cronuts is too long… It can be easy to focus...

How many stories about supernatural creatures have you read in which the creatures in question were totally open and honest about who they were? Dracula doesn't have a sign in his front yard a...

Pop culture has moved beyond supernatural staples like ghosts, vampires, and zombies. Modern TV shows include clones, cyborgs, and succubi (succubuses?). Fantasy literature is moving along with the...

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away (i.e. the United States) everyone was an immigrant. (Except, of course, for the Native Americans, a.k.a. the people who'd done been living here and were...

There are dozens of ways for a person who is new to the city to find a role to fit into. People organize themselves by culture, by religion, by profession, and within all of these, people fit into...

Religion is just as much a part of people's cultures as food and customs, and as a cultural melting pot, New York is home to many different ethno-cultural neighborhoods, restaurants of every origin...