I sometimes peruse Goodreads reviews, especially for books like Fifty Shades of Grey, because there are some hilarious “ZOMG this book is hottt!!!!” reviews followed by vitriol like you never would believe (well. I totally can). Never have I been so surprised to read vehement responses against John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. The anger is almost hilarious–“kids don’t really talk like that!!!” “How stupid were these people??? They HAD to know about the Holocaust!!!” etc. I like to call this response a […]
War Is Never Over
Primo Levi’s memoir The Reawakening begins where his Survival in Auschwitz ended. It’s the last days of the WWII, and Levi is trying to stay alive in what passes for a hospital or sick bay in concentration camp. Levi, who committed suicide in 1987, was an Italian Jewish writer and a chemist. He was arrested in as a part of the Italian resistance in 1943, and to escape being shot as a partisan, he confessed to being Jewish, and after a short interment in Italy, […]
“War has many unexpected casualties”
I almost hate to make this statement, but I like Holocaust literature. Now, I’m not talking Mein Kampf or anything that glorifies the atrocities of Hitler and his Nazi goons. I’m talking stories of heroism and survival like Night by Elie Wiesel, Ashes by Kathryn Lasky, Number the Stars by Lois Lowery, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Now add to that list The Klipfish Code by Mary Casonova. I’m not a big history person, so it often amazes me just how many places […]
A love story wedded to a tale of horror
Novels on the Holocaust are always difficult reading on an emotional level, and this one was no exception. Richman’s writing is simple and evocative, intimate and universal, and I got lost in the world of her two tragic lovers while sobbing at the horrors she depicted in the Nazi concentration camps Terezin and Auschwitz. Although told as a love story, Richman gives us a tale of genuine heroes, Jewish artists and musicians who struggled to keep their humanity amidst inhumanity, and who fought to […]