rlk7m's review against another edition
4.0
3.5...I wanted to like this book more, but I found the protagonist too apathetic to even care about him (and it's a book about orphans in WWII-Poland, so I should've cared about him more). But the writing was so good I finished it in two days.
kellyroberson's review against another edition
5.0
Horrifying and magnificent, exquisitely composed.
shereadsshedrinks's review against another edition
5.0
Some reviews of this book say that it's not emotional enough - too detached in the writing -for something that's about the Holocaust, in particular the Warsaw Ghetto. I disagree entirely - readers in 2016 have the benefit of looking back and understanding the breadth and depth of the atrocities visited upon Jews and others by Nazi Germany and so anything that isn't sweeping in its horror and emotion is looked at as lacking, or not bringing the proper gravitas.
I actually found this book to be chilling in that it was from a young boy's perspective - a young boy who yes, knew the world was at war, but was unable to process how his daily life of starvation, disease, and death in a small part of Warsaw fit in to the larger picture of what the Germans were doing, let alone the Axis powers in totality. In watching his life get progressively worse, as the narrative moves forward, more and more people are stripped from his life, more and more vanishes until the reader's stomach actually hurts from the descriptions of hunger and skin itches from imagining typhus-carrying lice crawling on your body. The Old Doctor, an actual person who lived (and died) with his orphans, will make you question what you have done lately that serves humanity.
The last 10 pages gutted me and the last paragraph finished the job. My brain was literally putting up a fight reading the words because I knew how heavy they were. I cried, and then went on to fitfully sleep with nightmares of Aron's life. But would I recommend it? Absolutely. It's worth reading if only to remember the truth in the cliche - that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it - when we see the rhetoric of the chipping away of civil rights or the Othering of groups of people play out today.
I actually found this book to be chilling in that it was from a young boy's perspective - a young boy who yes, knew the world was at war, but was unable to process how his daily life of starvation, disease, and death in a small part of Warsaw fit in to the larger picture of what the Germans were doing, let alone the Axis powers in totality. In watching his life get progressively worse, as the narrative moves forward, more and more people are stripped from his life, more and more vanishes until the reader's stomach actually hurts from the descriptions of hunger and skin itches from imagining typhus-carrying lice crawling on your body. The Old Doctor, an actual person who lived (and died) with his orphans, will make you question what you have done lately that serves humanity.
The last 10 pages gutted me and the last paragraph finished the job. My brain was literally putting up a fight reading the words because I knew how heavy they were. I cried, and then went on to fitfully sleep with nightmares of Aron's life. But would I recommend it? Absolutely. It's worth reading if only to remember the truth in the cliche - that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it - when we see the rhetoric of the chipping away of civil rights or the Othering of groups of people play out today.
roksyreads's review against another edition
2.25
After recently reading The Librarian of Auschwitz and The Tattooist of Auschwitz, I was looking forward to this book and the story it offered. It follows the life of Aron, a young Polish Jew, and his experiences in the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw during World War II. I was expecting it to be a difficult read due to the topic, but soon found the main hurdle was the writing - I simply didn't enjoy the stream of consciousness style and how it developed through the book. Despite having direct access to Aron's thoughts, I couldn't relate to him; the writing was too stagnant and, in the latter half, it was often difficult to follow. Perhaps this was designed to enhance the POV - Aron is, after all, a scared, starved boy/teenager - but mostly it made it frustrating. Even the inclusion of Janusz Korczak's story, which should certainly be acknowledged, felt awkward. I learnt very little and the style made it difficult to develop anything beyond a brief, shallow connection with a character apparently central to the narrative.
real_life_reading's review against another edition
3.0
Really interesting story told from the point of view of a child smuggler in the Warsaw Ghetto.
mark_lm's review against another edition
5.0
The stories of the holocaust have been recounted in at least a few different ways. I've found those with the most objective narrators, e.g. Primo Levi's If This is a Man, to be the most moving and most literarily satisfying. As humans, it's only necessary to be shown hell, we all have enough experience with nightmares to make any author's pathos superfluous. That is why horror stories are so universally appreciated. Mr. Shepard tells us an historical story that we already know in detail. He tells the story through the eyes of a boy who says, "Whether I was happy or unhappy, I took things as I found them.", and who is the target of psychological projection by everyone around him. His constantly complaining mother and his callous smuggler friends all, in a philosophically absurd fashion, accuse him of being self-centered. The overall effect is that we seem to have been given an honest vision of these events, and the result is devastating.
sbernad08's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
lcolechin1711's review against another edition
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75