Gosh, I love these books so much. This had less of a traditional plot structure than the first (which introduced an antagonist and culminated with his final defeat), but that still worked, because what makes this world so engrossing is seeing how these magical creatures navigate an early 20th century New York that is so well portrayed: The Jewish community of the East Side, Little Syria in the south, a touch (but only a touch) of the high society, and the reactions of everyone to the developments as the city grew: Penn Station, the subway, the rise of skyscrapers. This is a very personal tale, of how the golem and the jinni got on when their immediate struggles of arrival in the first book are over, and they must live in the after world. How do they deal with aging and death of the humans around them? How does their own relationship change, as the years pass and the city changes and yet they are the only two people who can know the full truth of each other, entirely alone? And what happens, then, when other members of their own kind arrive in the city? 

The character work is superb: golem and jinni, for sure, but also the humans. A little girl, Kreindel, is sharp-pointed and arrogant and difficult, which turns her from a pathetic orphan (and isn't that harrowing) into someone much more interesting. Toby, a tiny baby introduced in the first book grows to become a Western Union messenger boy, which is convenient as far as the plot is concerned, but his own adventures in the city show that he's a fundamentally good kid, who's going to do his best to do the right thing in a tough situation, which is a good companion to his independence. Sophia, who was left in something of a bad way in the first book, takes herself off to Turkey where she spends fifteen years wandering the middle east looking for djinns and learning five languages, which is rather bad-ass. The stories of these people---golem, jinni, Sophia, Kreindel, Toby---intersect in elegant ways, none of them laboured or forced. They just weave around each other, coming to a final point with the grace of the jinni's wrought iron masterpiece that is the title of this book.