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Book of Hats
Hats and fashion. Ida Velikowsky's family has been in the business since biblical times—for so long, they've created their own holy book. Centuries of lore carried from continent to continent. An ancient home and a springboard for new beginnings. When Ida studies the book with her father, its magic draws all her worries away. But being a transmasculine kid in a small town in the 1930s puts pressure on Ida, a crushing weight, and she feels responsible as her parents withdraw into themselves and into a room so dark and mysterious, it's a distant galaxy, a void.
When home life becomes unbearable, Ida escapes to New York where she finds a community of people who accept her as she is. And yet, she often feels a stranger to herself. Her struggles with intimacy will not vanish no matter who she meets or where she travels.
Things take a turn for the surreal after the phone rings late one night in the middle of a dream of hats. Ida dissolves at the sound of her long-lost brother’s voice and emerges wondering if she should agree to take part in a dubious reunion.
When home life becomes unbearable, Ida escapes to New York where she finds a community of people who accept her as she is. And yet, she often feels a stranger to herself. Her struggles with intimacy will not vanish no matter who she meets or where she travels.
Things take a turn for the surreal after the phone rings late one night in the middle of a dream of hats. Ida dissolves at the sound of her long-lost brother’s voice and emerges wondering if she should agree to take part in a dubious reunion.
461 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2018
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June 12, 2019
“To hats!” Gluck said.
“To hats!” They drank.
“Ida Velikowsky came from a long line of hat makers. It might be said of her that she was raised by hats the way some are raised by wolves. But not only that: there were shoemakers and clothiers; designers of belts, holsters, and military uniforms; makers of retro garments and cloth for tents; dye-brewers who dug up roots, bled sap, soaked husks, crushed and boiled seeds and berries, peeled and scraped the bark off trees”—Dov Zeller
“Hats! Hats! Hats!” The Book of Hats is a coming-of-age story set about a century ago, and The Big Book of Hats, a book central to the novel, is a kind of multi-generational family record of a hat-making and fashion, a story of Jewish family, tradition, culture, and history. And a detailed guide to the history of hats, among other things. A book that Nathan hands down to Ida, and which inhabits her dreams. The book begins as a kind of comedy, a joyful relationship between father and daughter, but becomes sadder and sadder as things proceed.
Two years ago I bought hats from a small, improbable hat store in my village, that seemed like a celebration of a former time. I had never worn hats, but now that my hair grows and grows, I have a fine and growing collection of hats. The store is now closed, alas.
Here’s the idea: What was it like to be a Jew in the world 100 years ago? Well, we know of several places Jews lived in the US, of course, such as the lower east side of Manhattan, places of poverty and love and hilarity and rich Jewish life. Jews came here like so many immigrants to escape greater oppression elsewhere, but still faced trouble being accepted here. In one way this historical fiction creates continuity with the great Jewish/Yiddish American novels of Sholom Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Times were hard, but things also seemed good, people sticking together when other people oppressed them.
But in this book we up the ante, we add another ingredient to the stew of Jewish oppression. So today we live in a world where we learn about transgender through novels and the media in a way we never have before. Trans folks experience discrimination, but there seems to be a kind of willingness to acknowledge today that some people may not identify with their birth sex. Still oppression, but a little progress? But what if you were a girl of seven 100 years ago who knew a “mistake” had been made, that she, born a girl, was really a boy? Would it have been harder on her 100 years ago than it was today? It may be for many (straight) people today an assumption that there were fewer trans folks a century ago, but as Zeller has it, when Ida goes to Manhattan to live within a community of Jews, she also finds “people like her,” forming a queer community. Yes, there is violence and abuse, and such violence happens to Ida, but there is also joy and love and laughter. Yes, being a trans Jew was even harder then than it is today.
Ida’s mother in particular rejected her own daughter from the beginning:
“Something about her isn’t right, she [Rokhl, Ida;s mother] said.
“There’s nothing wrong.” [Nathan]
“I’m telling you, she’s an it.”
Gluck, to Rokhl: “what never ceases to amaze me is the smallness of your heart.”
In truth, this is more a sad novel than a joyous one, filled with losses for Ida; there are many people that oppose her life style (most of her opposition begins, as it probably still does today, for one born a girl, about the requirement for girls to wear dresses)—Rokhl (her mother), Lettie (her cousin), Miller (one of Lettie’s boyfriends), a guy who works with her at the button factory, brother Benny (who blames her gender struggles on the break-up and depression of Rokhl and Nathan). Ida also has supporters, including Neta (who invites her to NYC), Nathan, Gluck and many like-minded folks in NYC.
“To the miracle of hats,” Nathan said, and drank.
This is a big (more than 450 pages) “sprawling” story of Ida, a terrific character, who at some points wants to be called Isadore (or Izzy), whose relationship to her body shifts constantly. She identifies as masculine—today we would say transmasculine. There are many great characters in this book, including Nathan, Gluck, Neta, but Ida stands foremost in the book.
“There is more than one way to weave a hat.”
The basic point here is to celebrate and support diversity. There are as many different kinds of hats as there are people. Renee Coleman, Clem, and Ida are all women one might describe as transmasculine, but they all exist very differently on a continuum of gender/sexuality. Not “born this way,” not exactly, maybe there’s some gender fluidity in there for some of them, a way of finding or even exploring one’s sexual/gender identity, but, certainly these humans born girls are different, various, which is the larger point in the book about identity.
Some things I like:
*That René Magritte iconic bowler hat cover, which points to some of the surrealism that is woven through the book, which both opens and closes it. The ending is a little wild and confusing to me, but I like it that it moves in a more open direction. Others felt differently, I know.
*Zeller has an interest in the relationship between dancing and boxing, two complementary/contradictory yin/yang stances.
*Ida discovers her first true love, nature, on a road trip west, falling in love with birds and plants.
*There’s an affinity in this book with Carson McCuller’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, both sad, sad books with central suffering characters. Zeller’s book has more moments of sweetness and laughter in it than Heart, but both have bitterness and brutality.
*There’s a touch in the book of the surreal and sadness and isolation and craziness of Kafka and Pessoa and Singer, just a dollop, 3 tablespoons.
*The idea of a Book of Hats; I wanted more of this book, references to actual passages from it.
I liked this book a lot. It’s not perfect; I wish the balance tipped a little more to ecstasy than bitterness, but see above, it was a tough life for Ida, a tough time to be trans.
I am on vacation, and will buy a hat tomorrow in honor of Nathan and Dov and this book!
Dov is a Goodreads friend (who became an actual friend in the process) who sent me this book to review, as I also reviewed his first book. Congrats on the sailing of this heartfelt ship of a book, Dov!!
“To hats!” They drank.
“Ida Velikowsky came from a long line of hat makers. It might be said of her that she was raised by hats the way some are raised by wolves. But not only that: there were shoemakers and clothiers; designers of belts, holsters, and military uniforms; makers of retro garments and cloth for tents; dye-brewers who dug up roots, bled sap, soaked husks, crushed and boiled seeds and berries, peeled and scraped the bark off trees”—Dov Zeller
“Hats! Hats! Hats!” The Book of Hats is a coming-of-age story set about a century ago, and The Big Book of Hats, a book central to the novel, is a kind of multi-generational family record of a hat-making and fashion, a story of Jewish family, tradition, culture, and history. And a detailed guide to the history of hats, among other things. A book that Nathan hands down to Ida, and which inhabits her dreams. The book begins as a kind of comedy, a joyful relationship between father and daughter, but becomes sadder and sadder as things proceed.
Two years ago I bought hats from a small, improbable hat store in my village, that seemed like a celebration of a former time. I had never worn hats, but now that my hair grows and grows, I have a fine and growing collection of hats. The store is now closed, alas.
Here’s the idea: What was it like to be a Jew in the world 100 years ago? Well, we know of several places Jews lived in the US, of course, such as the lower east side of Manhattan, places of poverty and love and hilarity and rich Jewish life. Jews came here like so many immigrants to escape greater oppression elsewhere, but still faced trouble being accepted here. In one way this historical fiction creates continuity with the great Jewish/Yiddish American novels of Sholom Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Times were hard, but things also seemed good, people sticking together when other people oppressed them.
But in this book we up the ante, we add another ingredient to the stew of Jewish oppression. So today we live in a world where we learn about transgender through novels and the media in a way we never have before. Trans folks experience discrimination, but there seems to be a kind of willingness to acknowledge today that some people may not identify with their birth sex. Still oppression, but a little progress? But what if you were a girl of seven 100 years ago who knew a “mistake” had been made, that she, born a girl, was really a boy? Would it have been harder on her 100 years ago than it was today? It may be for many (straight) people today an assumption that there were fewer trans folks a century ago, but as Zeller has it, when Ida goes to Manhattan to live within a community of Jews, she also finds “people like her,” forming a queer community. Yes, there is violence and abuse, and such violence happens to Ida, but there is also joy and love and laughter. Yes, being a trans Jew was even harder then than it is today.
Ida’s mother in particular rejected her own daughter from the beginning:
“Something about her isn’t right, she [Rokhl, Ida;s mother] said.
“There’s nothing wrong.” [Nathan]
“I’m telling you, she’s an it.”
Gluck, to Rokhl: “what never ceases to amaze me is the smallness of your heart.”
In truth, this is more a sad novel than a joyous one, filled with losses for Ida; there are many people that oppose her life style (most of her opposition begins, as it probably still does today, for one born a girl, about the requirement for girls to wear dresses)—Rokhl (her mother), Lettie (her cousin), Miller (one of Lettie’s boyfriends), a guy who works with her at the button factory, brother Benny (who blames her gender struggles on the break-up and depression of Rokhl and Nathan). Ida also has supporters, including Neta (who invites her to NYC), Nathan, Gluck and many like-minded folks in NYC.
“To the miracle of hats,” Nathan said, and drank.
This is a big (more than 450 pages) “sprawling” story of Ida, a terrific character, who at some points wants to be called Isadore (or Izzy), whose relationship to her body shifts constantly. She identifies as masculine—today we would say transmasculine. There are many great characters in this book, including Nathan, Gluck, Neta, but Ida stands foremost in the book.
“There is more than one way to weave a hat.”
The basic point here is to celebrate and support diversity. There are as many different kinds of hats as there are people. Renee Coleman, Clem, and Ida are all women one might describe as transmasculine, but they all exist very differently on a continuum of gender/sexuality. Not “born this way,” not exactly, maybe there’s some gender fluidity in there for some of them, a way of finding or even exploring one’s sexual/gender identity, but, certainly these humans born girls are different, various, which is the larger point in the book about identity.
Some things I like:
*That René Magritte iconic bowler hat cover, which points to some of the surrealism that is woven through the book, which both opens and closes it. The ending is a little wild and confusing to me, but I like it that it moves in a more open direction. Others felt differently, I know.
*Zeller has an interest in the relationship between dancing and boxing, two complementary/contradictory yin/yang stances.
*Ida discovers her first true love, nature, on a road trip west, falling in love with birds and plants.
*There’s an affinity in this book with Carson McCuller’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, both sad, sad books with central suffering characters. Zeller’s book has more moments of sweetness and laughter in it than Heart, but both have bitterness and brutality.
*There’s a touch in the book of the surreal and sadness and isolation and craziness of Kafka and Pessoa and Singer, just a dollop, 3 tablespoons.
*The idea of a Book of Hats; I wanted more of this book, references to actual passages from it.
I liked this book a lot. It’s not perfect; I wish the balance tipped a little more to ecstasy than bitterness, but see above, it was a tough life for Ida, a tough time to be trans.
I am on vacation, and will buy a hat tomorrow in honor of Nathan and Dov and this book!
Dov is a Goodreads friend (who became an actual friend in the process) who sent me this book to review, as I also reviewed his first book. Congrats on the sailing of this heartfelt ship of a book, Dov!!
March 1, 2019
“Book of Hats”..... is MARVELOUS!
It’s bursting with richness....gorgeously written....heartbreaking....
often hilarious.
It’s a superb intimate, coming of age story about Ira. She’s trans-masculine.
The Velikowsky family has been in the hat & fashion business for many generations.
This a life story centered around Ida Velikowsky - ( coming of age ) - during the 1930’s - when little girls were expected to wear dresses - pretty clothes - not Pith helmets and over size boys clothes.
Author, Dov Zeller, explores serious themes - (family trials and tribulations - Jewish themes - abuse, neglect, hopelessness, illnesses, love, loss, loyalty, desires, birth, death, forgiveness and redemption).
“Ida Velikowsky came from a long line of hat makers. It might be said of her that she was raised by hats the way some are raised by wolves. But not only that: there were shoemakers and clothiers; designers of belts, holsters, and military uniforms; makers of retro garments and cloth for tents; dye-brewers who dug up roots, bled sap, soaked husks, crushed and boiled seeds and berries, peeled and scraped the bark off trees”.
“The Great Book of Hats and Fashion”, contained many important and dangerous ideas about ink and dye.
Nathan Velikowsky- Ida’s father - inherited the “Book of Hats’, from his maternal uncle, who owned a small hat factory in Warsaw. Later- Nathan sold the factory to pay his debts. Then he moved in with distant cousins who treated him like a son, and sometimes a brother, and sometimes the lover.
Eventually Nathan married Rokhl.....And because they were worried about the future for Jewish people in Eastern Europe, they packed up and moved to America… Living in Philadelphia for a brief time....before moving to Boston and then New York. Finally - they ended up moving to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
In Wilkes Barre.....
“The public Square was buzzing with life. There was a hat shop, a bookshop, clothiers, cigars, dry good stores, and people always standing on the street corner selling fruit and dried meats. The smell of roasting peanuts drifted through the air from the planters factory”.
Nathan and Rokhl’s marriage was filled with strife - deep and troubling.
Rokhl was a child’s ‘nightmare-mother’. Rokhl couldn’t accept the way her daughter was, the way she dressed, the way she talked, the way she thought.
Rokhl couldn’t stand sight of her own daughter. Gut wrenching sad!!!
Thank god - for a few refugees and guardian angels looking after Ira’s self worth. Father and friends were a blessing next to Ira’s mother.
Ira’s father, Nathan, compensated as much as possible. He adored Ira.
Ira adored him back. They took as many ‘escape’ days from Rokhl as possible - going to the movies - walks in town....an ice cream run... etc.
Ira learned the hat business from
watching her father -and reading the great book. Nathan never cared what clothes Ira wore.
Teachers at school were as bad as mom at home.
Ira was ‘smart’. But, teachers would have preferred Ira to sit still like a blow up doll....( no thinking was required of such a ‘doll’)
Her teacher wanted Ira to remove her favorite pith helmet. No way Jose!
This is a long book - close to 500 pages....
I can’t begin to review it all....but it’s such an experiential read. It reads reads smoothly.
Much more happens later with the birth of a baby -and when Ira is reunited with her brother.
In the ‘very’ beginning - I was concerned about remembering the characters who were quickly introduced. I was worried I wouldn’t retain the family history. I did go back and re-read the first part again later. Much more clear on the second reading.
By 8% into this story - I was instantly hooked with *Ira*
The story took off like a jet plane from then on.
After Ira is born, and we begin to see the family troubles - another baby is born.
Brother Benny is cherished by Ira’s mother..... the opposite from when Ira was born.
A cousin named Letty comes to live with them.
Letty and Rokhl create a friendship ......both caring for baby Benny. Both are MEAN UGLY PEOPLE to *Ira*.
Ira is a tough cookie..... sweet... & strong. Sensitive and forgiving. It’s quite admirable and sad all at the same time.
By age 15 - Ira bolts and moves to New York.
She’s free but alone with no family support. It’s still a struggle for her - coming to grips with her own identity......it’s a lifelong process.
You’ll meet many other characters.....
you’ll remember them all - it all makes sense while reading .....
I’m just a turd trying to explain this story.....
Forgive me!
Oh my gosh.... and I haven’t even started to share the dreamlike qualities when Ira has dreams about hats....
The dreams felt symbolic to me - as a way of working out her inner struggles.
This is a treasure of a novel.
Intelligent dialogue - enjoyable dialogue-
Yummy Jewish foods mentioned -
Great visuals of the culture and time period.
Textured characters making us feel as if we know the clan well.
Neta, Gluck, Doris, Clem.....( even Letty’s boyfriends)....
great characters.
I enjoyed learning about the YOSSI STORIES.....
Yosseph Ghinsberg was an Israeli adventurer -humanitarian and motivational speaker in Australia.
The Yossi stories were inspiration to Ira. They sounded like great books to grow up with.
Ida was sometimes called Idy, or I, or eye, or Idelah) - cute! charming!
Ida wanted to grow up and become an explorer like Yossi.
Loved her spunky optimism!!!
Insightful messages - - while examining psychological and moral inquiries about humanity.
“There is more than one way to weave a hat”. 🎩
“Trying to love life for what it was. Imperfect, but alive”
Tidbit information... this book can be read as a Amazon Kindle unlimited.
Highly recommend!
Kudos to Dov Zeller!!!!
Beautiful book!!!!
It’s bursting with richness....gorgeously written....heartbreaking....
often hilarious.
It’s a superb intimate, coming of age story about Ira. She’s trans-masculine.
The Velikowsky family has been in the hat & fashion business for many generations.
This a life story centered around Ida Velikowsky - ( coming of age ) - during the 1930’s - when little girls were expected to wear dresses - pretty clothes - not Pith helmets and over size boys clothes.
Author, Dov Zeller, explores serious themes - (family trials and tribulations - Jewish themes - abuse, neglect, hopelessness, illnesses, love, loss, loyalty, desires, birth, death, forgiveness and redemption).
“Ida Velikowsky came from a long line of hat makers. It might be said of her that she was raised by hats the way some are raised by wolves. But not only that: there were shoemakers and clothiers; designers of belts, holsters, and military uniforms; makers of retro garments and cloth for tents; dye-brewers who dug up roots, bled sap, soaked husks, crushed and boiled seeds and berries, peeled and scraped the bark off trees”.
“The Great Book of Hats and Fashion”, contained many important and dangerous ideas about ink and dye.
Nathan Velikowsky- Ida’s father - inherited the “Book of Hats’, from his maternal uncle, who owned a small hat factory in Warsaw. Later- Nathan sold the factory to pay his debts. Then he moved in with distant cousins who treated him like a son, and sometimes a brother, and sometimes the lover.
Eventually Nathan married Rokhl.....And because they were worried about the future for Jewish people in Eastern Europe, they packed up and moved to America… Living in Philadelphia for a brief time....before moving to Boston and then New York. Finally - they ended up moving to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
In Wilkes Barre.....
“The public Square was buzzing with life. There was a hat shop, a bookshop, clothiers, cigars, dry good stores, and people always standing on the street corner selling fruit and dried meats. The smell of roasting peanuts drifted through the air from the planters factory”.
Nathan and Rokhl’s marriage was filled with strife - deep and troubling.
Rokhl was a child’s ‘nightmare-mother’. Rokhl couldn’t accept the way her daughter was, the way she dressed, the way she talked, the way she thought.
Rokhl couldn’t stand sight of her own daughter. Gut wrenching sad!!!
Thank god - for a few refugees and guardian angels looking after Ira’s self worth. Father and friends were a blessing next to Ira’s mother.
Ira’s father, Nathan, compensated as much as possible. He adored Ira.
Ira adored him back. They took as many ‘escape’ days from Rokhl as possible - going to the movies - walks in town....an ice cream run... etc.
Ira learned the hat business from
watching her father -and reading the great book. Nathan never cared what clothes Ira wore.
Teachers at school were as bad as mom at home.
Ira was ‘smart’. But, teachers would have preferred Ira to sit still like a blow up doll....( no thinking was required of such a ‘doll’)
Her teacher wanted Ira to remove her favorite pith helmet. No way Jose!
This is a long book - close to 500 pages....
I can’t begin to review it all....but it’s such an experiential read. It reads reads smoothly.
Much more happens later with the birth of a baby -and when Ira is reunited with her brother.
In the ‘very’ beginning - I was concerned about remembering the characters who were quickly introduced. I was worried I wouldn’t retain the family history. I did go back and re-read the first part again later. Much more clear on the second reading.
By 8% into this story - I was instantly hooked with *Ira*
The story took off like a jet plane from then on.
After Ira is born, and we begin to see the family troubles - another baby is born.
Brother Benny is cherished by Ira’s mother..... the opposite from when Ira was born.
A cousin named Letty comes to live with them.
Letty and Rokhl create a friendship ......both caring for baby Benny. Both are MEAN UGLY PEOPLE to *Ira*.
Ira is a tough cookie..... sweet... & strong. Sensitive and forgiving. It’s quite admirable and sad all at the same time.
By age 15 - Ira bolts and moves to New York.
She’s free but alone with no family support. It’s still a struggle for her - coming to grips with her own identity......it’s a lifelong process.
You’ll meet many other characters.....
you’ll remember them all - it all makes sense while reading .....
I’m just a turd trying to explain this story.....
Forgive me!
Oh my gosh.... and I haven’t even started to share the dreamlike qualities when Ira has dreams about hats....
The dreams felt symbolic to me - as a way of working out her inner struggles.
This is a treasure of a novel.
Intelligent dialogue - enjoyable dialogue-
Yummy Jewish foods mentioned -
Great visuals of the culture and time period.
Textured characters making us feel as if we know the clan well.
Neta, Gluck, Doris, Clem.....( even Letty’s boyfriends)....
great characters.
I enjoyed learning about the YOSSI STORIES.....
Yosseph Ghinsberg was an Israeli adventurer -humanitarian and motivational speaker in Australia.
The Yossi stories were inspiration to Ira. They sounded like great books to grow up with.
Ida was sometimes called Idy, or I, or eye, or Idelah) - cute! charming!
Ida wanted to grow up and become an explorer like Yossi.
Loved her spunky optimism!!!
Insightful messages - - while examining psychological and moral inquiries about humanity.
“There is more than one way to weave a hat”. 🎩
“Trying to love life for what it was. Imperfect, but alive”
Tidbit information... this book can be read as a Amazon Kindle unlimited.
Highly recommend!
Kudos to Dov Zeller!!!!
Beautiful book!!!!
December 28, 2023
this is an intimidating review to write, because this book has literally ten reviews on this website and i feel like that gives my opinion some weight. i am honestly shocked by that number; i have my critiques, but this book should absolutely be read and beloved by many many more people, and if you’re at all interested in “what if stone butch blues, but somewhat less bleak and a lot more intertwined with jewishness,” you should 100% give it a try.
so i'll start with the things i loved about this! first of all, obviously: gender! i really love not just the exploration of ida’s gender, but also the fact that at no point does zeller cave to making it fit modern ideas of transness. ida describes herself as feeling like she should have been a man, and sometimes like she is a man, but at the same time, she doesn’t want to call herself a he or give up the name her father gave her. she refers to herself as she, but she wishes there were a third option (ida please come to 2023 i need to introduce you to they/them and neopronouns please please hello please). she seeks no medical transition, but often does the equivalent of going stealth as a man. i really love reading trans characters’ perceptions of their own gender, especially in times and places other than my own, and it’s beautifully done here. and there’s also a BUTCH CHARACTER!!! self-described as such! clem i love you <3
also, hats! hats as a way for people to connect with one another! hats sometimes literally as people—the moment of ida's birth is conflated with the birth of a hat, described in those terms. hats sometimes as genders, too—ida's pith helmet definitely is, and ida's mother calls ida's father a hat in a moment i swear is a degendering. i am definitely going to think about hats differently after this book. especially because most of the time, when it's about hats, it's really about bodies: bodies and how they interact with each other and how you dress them up and how they fail you and how you can become separated from them.
unfortunately, the hats decrease after part one, and so does some of the intimacy. the first part chronicles ida's childhood in detail, but then the book starts to get... skimmier. and i get why, on both counts: personally-crafted hats are falling increasingly out of fashion as the book leaves the 1930s, and ida's adult life involves a lot of timeskips. but when we're given her childhood in so much detail, there's stuff in her adulthood i'm disappointed not to see, like ida's first time with a woman, or .
overall, there's an aimlessness to the book. there's no real plot; it's more of an epic journey through ida's life (and the lives of some of her ancestors). and i love plotless books, so i'm all for that! and i get why ida's usually stagnating instead of growing—that's ida's entire problem. but at some point, in a 460-page book, i find myself wanting at least some throughline, some kind of growth, instead of just drifting around. the ending reminded me of casey plett's little fish, in that it felt real but not satisfying. conclusivity is hard to come by in real life. especially when you're trans. oftentimes the closure never comes. still, the end didn't feel like an end, just a stop.
still, i enjoyed it a lot. a lot of people in the reviews comment on the wrenching sadness of this book. which might make one wonder why i described it as less bleak than stone butch blues. well, that’s because stone butch blues is dedicated to unrelentingly kicking you in the ribs every other page, and this book isn’t. it is really sad, though. holy shit, that part in the middle surrounding . but it isn’t gratuitously sad; it can be hard to read at times, because it’s clear ida is mired in pain, or in a numbness that protects her from the pain. but there are glimmers of hope. there is so much love between these pages. and zeller has a delightfully wry narrative voice that keeps things from getting too grim. (also, i will admit i will always defend a trans book from charges of being Too Sad. especially historical fiction. sometimes shit was sad as hell! sensationalism is bad, but writing realistically difficult stuff about grief and pain and antisemitism and transphobia isn’t!)
i also ought to note, at least once, that there are some basic issues here typical of books published by small indie presses—some easily fixable typos, some easily fixable indentation issues, the fact that none of the text was justified. it's a testament to this book's power that none of those things really bothered me. despite my critiques, i found book of hats an incredibly successful endeavor, and one that's going to stay with me. i'll say it again: i am shocked that this book has only—well, eleven reviews, now. come on, guys. get on this with me. we can still bring the book of hats renaissance about in 2024.
🎵Graveyard Parade—Matthew and the Atlas🎵
so i'll start with the things i loved about this! first of all, obviously: gender! i really love not just the exploration of ida’s gender, but also the fact that at no point does zeller cave to making it fit modern ideas of transness. ida describes herself as feeling like she should have been a man, and sometimes like she is a man, but at the same time, she doesn’t want to call herself a he or give up the name her father gave her. she refers to herself as she, but she wishes there were a third option (ida please come to 2023 i need to introduce you to they/them and neopronouns please please hello please). she seeks no medical transition, but often does the equivalent of going stealth as a man. i really love reading trans characters’ perceptions of their own gender, especially in times and places other than my own, and it’s beautifully done here. and there’s also a BUTCH CHARACTER!!! self-described as such! clem i love you <3
also, hats! hats as a way for people to connect with one another! hats sometimes literally as people—the moment of ida's birth is conflated with the birth of a hat, described in those terms. hats sometimes as genders, too—ida's pith helmet definitely is, and ida's mother calls ida's father a hat in a moment i swear is a degendering. i am definitely going to think about hats differently after this book. especially because most of the time, when it's about hats, it's really about bodies: bodies and how they interact with each other and how you dress them up and how they fail you and how you can become separated from them.
unfortunately, the hats decrease after part one, and so does some of the intimacy. the first part chronicles ida's childhood in detail, but then the book starts to get... skimmier. and i get why, on both counts: personally-crafted hats are falling increasingly out of fashion as the book leaves the 1930s, and ida's adult life involves a lot of timeskips. but when we're given her childhood in so much detail, there's stuff in her adulthood i'm disappointed not to see, like ida's first time with a woman, or .
overall, there's an aimlessness to the book. there's no real plot; it's more of an epic journey through ida's life (and the lives of some of her ancestors). and i love plotless books, so i'm all for that! and i get why ida's usually stagnating instead of growing—that's ida's entire problem. but at some point, in a 460-page book, i find myself wanting at least some throughline, some kind of growth, instead of just drifting around. the ending reminded me of casey plett's little fish, in that it felt real but not satisfying. conclusivity is hard to come by in real life. especially when you're trans. oftentimes the closure never comes. still, the end didn't feel like an end, just a stop.
still, i enjoyed it a lot. a lot of people in the reviews comment on the wrenching sadness of this book. which might make one wonder why i described it as less bleak than stone butch blues. well, that’s because stone butch blues is dedicated to unrelentingly kicking you in the ribs every other page, and this book isn’t. it is really sad, though. holy shit, that part in the middle surrounding . but it isn’t gratuitously sad; it can be hard to read at times, because it’s clear ida is mired in pain, or in a numbness that protects her from the pain. but there are glimmers of hope. there is so much love between these pages. and zeller has a delightfully wry narrative voice that keeps things from getting too grim. (also, i will admit i will always defend a trans book from charges of being Too Sad. especially historical fiction. sometimes shit was sad as hell! sensationalism is bad, but writing realistically difficult stuff about grief and pain and antisemitism and transphobia isn’t!)
i also ought to note, at least once, that there are some basic issues here typical of books published by small indie presses—some easily fixable typos, some easily fixable indentation issues, the fact that none of the text was justified. it's a testament to this book's power that none of those things really bothered me. despite my critiques, i found book of hats an incredibly successful endeavor, and one that's going to stay with me. i'll say it again: i am shocked that this book has only—well, eleven reviews, now. come on, guys. get on this with me. we can still bring the book of hats renaissance about in 2024.
🎵Graveyard Parade—Matthew and the Atlas🎵
May 28, 2018
This is a dream-like immersion into the world of Ida Velikowsky who, as a transmasculine child growing up in the 1930s, is rejected by her mother for being different. Ida flees to New York City where she is befriended by people like herself. She finds work in a factory during the war and is on the cusp of falling in love when life deals a staggering blow. She retreats further into herself and the reader experiences the world as Ida experiences it: disconnected from the body, but not entirely from pleasure. She reemerges slowly and then all at once when she is forced to contend with an upstairs neighbor in crisis.
April 2, 2018
A must read!
‘Book Of Hats’, is an entrancing, funny, heartbreaking, frightening, beautifully written novel! Tracing the life of Ida, a boy born into a girl’s body in the 1920’s, in a time before transgender was even a word, how does Ida become part of a world that doesn’t acknowledge the very core of her being? Shunned by even her mother, how do you not feel for someone so rejected for only being honest about who they are?
Ida finds escape within the pages of books; the ‘The Book Of Hats’, containing the extensive history and knowledge of hats, and the ‘Yossi’ book series with consistently applicable titles to Ida’s daily existence ranging from hysterical, moving, disturbing and prophetic.
As the iconic bowler hats in René Magritte’s surrealistic masterpieces, ‘Book Of Hats’ begins with an equally splendid surrealism. But as Ida grows, as perhaps in real life, the surrealism lessens for the reader to experience the full extent of Ida’s pain and feeling of being different. But, as with “Life of Pi”, the surrealism helps Ida’s heartbreaking story to be more palatable.
This is a must read for anyone who has ever felt different, and especially for those who never have.
‘Book Of Hats’, is an entrancing, funny, heartbreaking, frightening, beautifully written novel! Tracing the life of Ida, a boy born into a girl’s body in the 1920’s, in a time before transgender was even a word, how does Ida become part of a world that doesn’t acknowledge the very core of her being? Shunned by even her mother, how do you not feel for someone so rejected for only being honest about who they are?
Ida finds escape within the pages of books; the ‘The Book Of Hats’, containing the extensive history and knowledge of hats, and the ‘Yossi’ book series with consistently applicable titles to Ida’s daily existence ranging from hysterical, moving, disturbing and prophetic.
As the iconic bowler hats in René Magritte’s surrealistic masterpieces, ‘Book Of Hats’ begins with an equally splendid surrealism. But as Ida grows, as perhaps in real life, the surrealism lessens for the reader to experience the full extent of Ida’s pain and feeling of being different. But, as with “Life of Pi”, the surrealism helps Ida’s heartbreaking story to be more palatable.
This is a must read for anyone who has ever felt different, and especially for those who never have.
February 5, 2019
I loved this book - I discovered it at my library, and decided to give it a try. I'm so glad I did. Ida was born female, but always felt more like a boy. (although she did not want to use the male pronoun, she is just "Ida"). Her family has a long history of making hats, and the family history is captured in "The Great Book of Hats and Fashion".
Her mother never accepted her, even as an infant, and always wanted her to be something she was not. I think that many of us can relate to that feeling, whether connected to gender or not. There are bright spots- her father always loved Ida, and she had other adults that loved her and supported her. However, the rejection of her mother, and of her cousin who helped raise her younger brother, made it hard for her to open up to people.
Despite that, she finds a wonderful community of people in New York, where she moves when she is 15.
Things I love about this book:
The dialogue- it's colorful, and spot on for old New York. "The Roths of this world are a strange lot. They turn you upside down and shake you for whatever you're worth. As far as the Roths of this world go, he's not so bad. Some Roths shake you more than others. This one has at least a heart. On certain days of the week."
And - "Enough of nothing, " Doris said..."The world is made of nothing. If it were up to you, you'd paint the world with nothing-colored nothing. Don't give me nothing."
The characters - they feel real, and I fell in love with them. I love Clem, a self-described "butch", who is unapologetically a "ladies man". And Doris, described this way: "She was on the thin side and shorted all the time but she made up for it with might and with hair."
The imagery - dreams and reality are very fluid, and the descriptions of nature and of people are gorgeous.
This is a book about a trans person, but it is a book about all people, about anyone who has ever had trouble figuring out where they can live as themselves in the world. If you are a person, and you like good stories, you should read this book. Thank you, Dov, for sharing it with the world.
Her mother never accepted her, even as an infant, and always wanted her to be something she was not. I think that many of us can relate to that feeling, whether connected to gender or not. There are bright spots- her father always loved Ida, and she had other adults that loved her and supported her. However, the rejection of her mother, and of her cousin who helped raise her younger brother, made it hard for her to open up to people.
Despite that, she finds a wonderful community of people in New York, where she moves when she is 15.
Things I love about this book:
The dialogue- it's colorful, and spot on for old New York. "The Roths of this world are a strange lot. They turn you upside down and shake you for whatever you're worth. As far as the Roths of this world go, he's not so bad. Some Roths shake you more than others. This one has at least a heart. On certain days of the week."
And - "Enough of nothing, " Doris said..."The world is made of nothing. If it were up to you, you'd paint the world with nothing-colored nothing. Don't give me nothing."
The characters - they feel real, and I fell in love with them. I love Clem, a self-described "butch", who is unapologetically a "ladies man". And Doris, described this way: "She was on the thin side and shorted all the time but she made up for it with might and with hair."
The imagery - dreams and reality are very fluid, and the descriptions of nature and of people are gorgeous.
This is a book about a trans person, but it is a book about all people, about anyone who has ever had trouble figuring out where they can live as themselves in the world. If you are a person, and you like good stories, you should read this book. Thank you, Dov, for sharing it with the world.
June 6, 2018
I do not know if I liked Book of Hats. It has all the flaws you would expect of a self-published work and a few of them make it difficult to keep track of the story, especially when you think you've reached a break in the text but no, the page just ends higher for no apparent reason. Still, I've forgiven books for worse flaws.
What Book of Hats holds for me, however, is a genuine emotional connection that I did not expect. Oh, I felt for Ida and her hunger for her inheritance, the book of the same title that her father taught her out of. I felt that more strongly than I did her questioning of gender and identity. But what really got me wasn't Ida's plight but how her difficulties made me examine my own.
I tell people I'm asexual. And, if necessary, I tell them that I'm aromantic. But gender has always been more of a question mark for me. Not that I identify as agender or nonbinary, but because I've never found a comfortable way to identify it. Ida is transmasculine, feels she was born with the wrong body, and uses female pronouns throughout the entire book. I've used such pronouns my entire life, experience a similar bodily dysphoria, and am really not certain what I want to be seen as. Mostly I want to not be seen as a sex object just because I'm female, but media assures me this is a lost cause.
Still, I went through most of Book of Hats wondering if I could make the choices any of its characters has made, how I feel about my own identification, etc. Regardless of the actual story, this book brought me to very real tears as I try to wrestle with the issues it raised for me as a person, and that is remarkable.
So I cannot and will not judge if this is a "good" book. I will say that it's powerful in a way that I haven't quite experienced before, and that's not a bad thing.
What Book of Hats holds for me, however, is a genuine emotional connection that I did not expect. Oh, I felt for Ida and her hunger for her inheritance, the book of the same title that her father taught her out of. I felt that more strongly than I did her questioning of gender and identity. But what really got me wasn't Ida's plight but how her difficulties made me examine my own.
I tell people I'm asexual. And, if necessary, I tell them that I'm aromantic. But gender has always been more of a question mark for me. Not that I identify as agender or nonbinary, but because I've never found a comfortable way to identify it. Ida is transmasculine, feels she was born with the wrong body, and uses female pronouns throughout the entire book. I've used such pronouns my entire life, experience a similar bodily dysphoria, and am really not certain what I want to be seen as. Mostly I want to not be seen as a sex object just because I'm female, but media assures me this is a lost cause.
Still, I went through most of Book of Hats wondering if I could make the choices any of its characters has made, how I feel about my own identification, etc. Regardless of the actual story, this book brought me to very real tears as I try to wrestle with the issues it raised for me as a person, and that is remarkable.
So I cannot and will not judge if this is a "good" book. I will say that it's powerful in a way that I haven't quite experienced before, and that's not a bad thing.
July 1, 2018
This is a very well written book and felt like an experience rather than just reading a book. - Matt
I could see things were happening, but I wasn’t invested in either the events or the characters. - Laura
Read our full review here
I could see things were happening, but I wasn’t invested in either the events or the characters. - Laura
Read our full review here
August 17, 2018
Sometimes a book just doesn't work for you but it doesn't necessarily mean the book is bad, it just wasn't right for you. I just never felt like I connected with any of the characters or their story lines. Indifference is a worse feeling to have than hating the characters because unlikable characters can be entertaining. I never felt invested in the story, even from the beginning. It's a shame though because it did have elements I normally enjoy in books but for whatever reason as a whole the book didn't work. Hopefully others will have a better reading experience with it.
I won a free copy of this book from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. All views expressed are my honest opinion.
I won a free copy of this book from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. All views expressed are my honest opinion.
July 4, 2018
While a lot went wrong for me (which I'll get into below), I think that the absolute greatest part of the book was the prose - that in itself earned Book of Hats an extra star. Dov Zeller has a way with words -- the pages simply bleed with the despair that Ida feels, the spiral that she falls into. There is a line blurred between poetry and prose, and it feels like sheer heaven to read something so well crafted.
However, this is also what made this such a hard read. I felt so dark and helpless journeying through these pages. At times, I felt as if I was physically sick and about to throw up. I love being able to feel a character's despair, but when the character is despaired for about 400 out of 450 pages, I can't help but get exhausted. Its like running a marathon without being allowed to breathe. Suffocating. I felt that way much of the time, particularly once Ida (the MC) went through some of her more difficult losses. I was exasperated by the constant probing from other characters to get her to open up, and at times felt like hurling the book against the wall. Perhaps this was the point, but once again, it felt too heavy for me.
Along with the dark and depressing mood of the main character, Ida, there were her dreams mixed in with reality. Dreamland, reality and fantasy were often blurred to the point where the convoluted mixture made me give up trying to understand and read the page just to get through it. The beginning was particularly convoluted - A history of the family that I felt did nothing to add to the book - as well as was the end. In fact, I struggle to understand what exactly the ending meant to convey. Dream or reality? Is Ida alive or dead? I had so many questions at the end, and after journeying with this character for nearly 500 pages, I was honestly very irritated to not be able to understand what exactly happened to her. Once again, perhaps someone else might be able to puzzle it out, but after the grueling ride, I simply did not have it in me to dissect every sentence and tease apart dreams from reality.
For me, this book got a 2 star review. I understand that perhaps I did not fully grasp what was going on, and there were a lot of great things in it, but at the end of the day, it is not worth reading almost 500 pages to have no closure. Perhaps someone else would understand the abstract, the darkness, the despair, but I know that if I had known in advance, Book of Hats would have been a hard pass for me.
However, this is also what made this such a hard read. I felt so dark and helpless journeying through these pages. At times, I felt as if I was physically sick and about to throw up. I love being able to feel a character's despair, but when the character is despaired for about 400 out of 450 pages, I can't help but get exhausted. Its like running a marathon without being allowed to breathe. Suffocating. I felt that way much of the time, particularly once Ida (the MC) went through some of her more difficult losses. I was exasperated by the constant probing from other characters to get her to open up, and at times felt like hurling the book against the wall. Perhaps this was the point, but once again, it felt too heavy for me.
Along with the dark and depressing mood of the main character, Ida, there were her dreams mixed in with reality. Dreamland, reality and fantasy were often blurred to the point where the convoluted mixture made me give up trying to understand and read the page just to get through it. The beginning was particularly convoluted - A history of the family that I felt did nothing to add to the book - as well as was the end. In fact, I struggle to understand what exactly the ending meant to convey. Dream or reality? Is Ida alive or dead? I had so many questions at the end, and after journeying with this character for nearly 500 pages, I was honestly very irritated to not be able to understand what exactly happened to her. Once again, perhaps someone else might be able to puzzle it out, but after the grueling ride, I simply did not have it in me to dissect every sentence and tease apart dreams from reality.
For me, this book got a 2 star review. I understand that perhaps I did not fully grasp what was going on, and there were a lot of great things in it, but at the end of the day, it is not worth reading almost 500 pages to have no closure. Perhaps someone else would understand the abstract, the darkness, the despair, but I know that if I had known in advance, Book of Hats would have been a hard pass for me.
July 25, 2018
It was fantastic until the last six chapters or so. The author completely lost me.
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