sarah_dietrich's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. Its divided into four parts, each of which are very different: in the first part, the protagonist is a child who is trying to understand his post-WW2 family. In the second part, the protagonist is an adult and a guy turns into a fish? Confusing, but its heaps of fun so that's ok. In the third part, the protagonist's grandfather (or is it uncle?) is in a concentration camp in WW2, telling a story to one of the Nazis who run the camp (story within a story!). The fourth part of the story is the complete encyclopedia of a character from the Grandfather's story, who lives his full life from birth to adulthood to death in one day. Writing it out like this, it sounds like this book would be a bit much, but I love it! The fourth part is my favourite by far, I loved the structure. There are also a number of self referential moments in the third part where the author breaks the fourth wall and talks to/wrestles with his Grandfather, which was awesome and done just right.
hanjeanwat's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely blew me away. Heartbreaking, surreal, wonderful writing.
jmiae's review against another edition
3.0
I'm at a bit of a loss when it comes to reviewing this book. It is an inherently sad book, for obvious reasons, but there is a strange kind of vitality to it as well, which can't exactly be called joy. There are four sections in this book, each in a completely different narrative style, but one of the underlying themes -- in addition to collective memory, the Holocaust, and the experience of the Writer -- is a tenacious desire to understand what it means to be human and also to compel others to their humanity. Each section deals with the loss of humanity, on the part of both the Jewish community and the Nazis, as a result of the Holocaust.
This is a book about experiencing the Holocaust through the memory of its survivors. In this sense, I'm guessing it is highly autobiographical, and as a result I can only understand it to a point. It's also a book that is written in Hebrew, and the English translation probably does great injustice to the reader. In particular, the decision to leave the last section (written as an encyclopedia) in the Hebrew alphabetical order detracted severely from the English reader's ability to refer back to previous entries, even though certain entries suggested they do so. That is mostly an issue with the translation, rather than with the book itself.
So the last section was an encyclopedia, the first section was written like the ramblings of a child's inner thoughts, the second section was basically an abstract, stream-of-consciousness experiment, and the third section was my favourite because it was more digestible as a frame narrative (cf. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness) about a story being told to an SS officer. The extent to which you enjoy each section, and how long it takes you to get through each one, will depend on your preference for each of these narrative styles. I personally enjoyed the last two sections the most.
In summary, this is not an easy book to read. The themes are dark, the writing is often time abstract. But it leaves quite an impression, and while I doubt I will reread this (at least any time soon), it is not a book you will easily forget.
This is a book about experiencing the Holocaust through the memory of its survivors. In this sense, I'm guessing it is highly autobiographical, and as a result I can only understand it to a point. It's also a book that is written in Hebrew, and the English translation probably does great injustice to the reader. In particular, the decision to leave the last section (written as an encyclopedia) in the Hebrew alphabetical order detracted severely from the English reader's ability to refer back to previous entries, even though certain entries suggested they do so. That is mostly an issue with the translation, rather than with the book itself.
So the last section was an encyclopedia, the first section was written like the ramblings of a child's inner thoughts, the second section was basically an abstract, stream-of-consciousness experiment, and the third section was my favourite because it was more digestible as a frame narrative (cf. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness) about a story being told to an SS officer. The extent to which you enjoy each section, and how long it takes you to get through each one, will depend on your preference for each of these narrative styles. I personally enjoyed the last two sections the most.
In summary, this is not an easy book to read. The themes are dark, the writing is often time abstract. But it leaves quite an impression, and while I doubt I will reread this (at least any time soon), it is not a book you will easily forget.
cliobemuzedbookworm's review against another edition
3.0
Some of the great lines I took note of while reading this book:
-He fears only the great searchlights that converge inside and chstise him to be-like-everybody-else, to live the gray life he can never redeem with a touch of his pen.
- in the books he read he sought the one phrase, the pearl, which launched the writer on a voyage hundreds of pages long.
-I want to write, but I can't get rid of my blocks and inhibitions. Every step becomes impossible because of the half step that must precede it.
-A poem is like a love affair ... a novel is more like marriage: you stay with your characters long after the initial passion has worn off.
- They're human beings all, and therefore creators. They're doomed to be. They're compelled to be by virtue of their origins - to create their own life, their love and hatred and freedom and poetry; we are all artists ... only some of us have forgotten that, and others prefer to ignore it out of some enigmatic fear and there are those who understand it only on their deathbed, while others... don't understand it even then.
-all stories are cut from the same cloth except that sometimes you have to push the stone uphill and other times you yourself are the cumbersome stone.
-He felt this way because he had a great respect for life and refused to believe in the drafts his own life constantly tried to push into his hands.
-The written pages in his hands are like a fresh leaf sprouting from a withered tree.
-...said humor was the sole means to understand God and His Creation and to go on worshipping Him in gladness.
-In Wasserman's view we are all duty-bound to renew the moral validity of our decisions for as long as we act upon them.
-You stole my story! You stole my life!
-He fears only the great searchlights that converge inside and chstise him to be-like-everybody-else, to live the gray life he can never redeem with a touch of his pen.
- in the books he read he sought the one phrase, the pearl, which launched the writer on a voyage hundreds of pages long.
-I want to write, but I can't get rid of my blocks and inhibitions. Every step becomes impossible because of the half step that must precede it.
-A poem is like a love affair ... a novel is more like marriage: you stay with your characters long after the initial passion has worn off.
- They're human beings all, and therefore creators. They're doomed to be. They're compelled to be by virtue of their origins - to create their own life, their love and hatred and freedom and poetry; we are all artists ... only some of us have forgotten that, and others prefer to ignore it out of some enigmatic fear and there are those who understand it only on their deathbed, while others... don't understand it even then.
-all stories are cut from the same cloth except that sometimes you have to push the stone uphill and other times you yourself are the cumbersome stone.
-He felt this way because he had a great respect for life and refused to believe in the drafts his own life constantly tried to push into his hands.
-The written pages in his hands are like a fresh leaf sprouting from a withered tree.
-...said humor was the sole means to understand God and His Creation and to go on worshipping Him in gladness.
-In Wasserman's view we are all duty-bound to renew the moral validity of our decisions for as long as we act upon them.
-You stole my story! You stole my life!
morbid_swither's review against another edition
The first 100 (roughly) pages of this book constitute an sublime tale, gorgeously written.; but eventually things get a little grainy. This relatively short book by a master starting out is worth reading twice. I’m going to start again from the top.
avitalgadcykman's review against another edition
5.0
A tough book to read, divided in a few parts, each different from the rest. The isuue is one that interests me personally as well: the first generation in Israel, second to the holocaust.
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