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zcc's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
katjabookdragon's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
leah_alexandra's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
The kind of book you have to let yourself be swept away by in order to enjoy. Beautiful and strange, although the ending was not my favorite.
casee_h's review against another edition
2.0
Just couldn't get into this. Decided to put it down for now.
amy_korba's review against another edition
1.0
I am not smart enough to read this book. I gave up after a few chapters.
idroplungs's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-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? Yes
2.0
The book was dense, slow, and disconnected. I did learn some new things since it did have such a focus on religion and history, but I almost would've rather learned them from a nonfic book. the ending was not worth it and frankly hard to believe and a bit unsettling
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Genocide, Antisemitism, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment
Minor: Child death, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
marshellanoella's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This was a good book to read once, but likely won't be reading again.
Although it'd be great for a psychology essay.
Although it'd be great for a psychology essay.
kirstiecat's review against another edition
4.0
I will always remember seeing Elie Wiesel speak in person when I was at university. For a Holocaust survivor, he was remarkably filled with the essence of hope in the human spirit. He had a sense of the world that was baffling from where I sat after what he had been through but there was a definite wholehearted wisdom there that I wanted to believe in.
The main character of this novel, Doriel, is not a Holocaust survivor himself but was a child and lived through being hid and then after having to cope with the death of siblings and parents. He carries a tumultuous weight and most of his inner soul is explored through sessions with his psychiatrist, whose parents also survived the Holocaust but don't want to talk about it. More than anything, the book explores madness and also interestingly enough missed chances in love. Though I am not Jewish, I found myself relating quite a bit to Doriel's musings on madness and the state of the world. He feels he is possessed by a Dybbuk and he fights against a true healing. Or course, Wiesel wouldn't be himself if he couldn't interject his own sense of philosophy in.
This book is rich with riddle and story, of life choices and memories examined and re-examined. It is interesting in its examination of religion and the soul, of it's relationship with God and the human language.
Favorite Quotes:
pg 5 "But who is to say whether guilt and madness are compatible or incompatible? And who decided that I'm not entitled to both madness and despair? That madmen are beyond redemption, thus hopelessly condemned, except in the privileged area of art? Van Gogh before dying, whispered "Sadness will last forever." Sadness. No. Madness lasts much longer."
pg 7 "And the heavy breasted woman said to him: 'It is not you we are taking away, but years off your life; we';; sell them at the market." ... "We're in a theater, we're putting on a play about madness. It's a world overrun by madness. Everyone has a part. And so do you. You can choose: you can be the executioner or the condemned man."
pg 12 "The truth is there is no truth."
pg 43 "Sometimes, always unexpectedly, a word vanishes; it's impossible to recapture it, for it has already become a face. And this face, stunningly beautiful and fascinatingly ugly, at once young and decrepit, coarse and majestic, enjoys attracting and repelling me, and I say to myself, laughing and crying: it is the face of a god struck by the madness of demons and the madman is me."
pg 54 "Is e just suffering from a pathological nostalgia for a lost paradise, filched by strangers?"
pg 78 "You live only your life, whereas I inhabit the lives of others. Like a novelist, a madman is embodied in several characters simultaneously. He is Caesar and Cicero, Socrates and Plato, Moses and Joshua. True, you have to allow for consciousness and the imaginary. Don't bring it up , please. I have both. But between yours and mine, there is an abyss"
pg. 135 "You and your stories...You know too many of them; you become attached to them; they've already imprisoned you. Eventually, they'll be the ruin of you. Stories are dangerous; even the most beautiful come with arrows, and you don't know that you're the target."
pg. 163 "When a soul is involved, one should be able to break into it gently. With the proper word. A gesture, a sign, a look. A handshake. A silent pause, why not?"
pg. 181 "What meaning can be drawn from a sentence that is necessarily devoid of meaning? But, on the other hand, could the absence of meaning have some other meaning? And what about the ever-changing layout of words? Sometimes a comma travels: it runs, runs between the words, and is impossible to catch. Is the comma insane too?"
pg. 216 : "...human beings have migraines, whereas history undergoes convulsions."
pg, 235 "But writing has an animus towards me. To write, though you have to love words, they also have to love you. Mine scoff at me. As soon as I choose one, ten others spring up and chase it away."
The poet smiled and said, "The opposite happens to me. Ten words turn up before me, because of the richness of my language but I just want one. And that one often stays hidden."
pg. 237 "Admittedly, more than once, on many occasions, upon meeting a young woman with a voice I liked, I could have started a family. Each time, almost at the last minute, I retreated in fear. U said to myself: I;m not ready, not yet ready to express my trust in man and his humaneness. Not ready to say to the world: I believe in you and in those who mold you: I want to participate in your undertaking and be included in your future. Not ready to give the world my children doomed beforehand."
The main character of this novel, Doriel, is not a Holocaust survivor himself but was a child and lived through being hid and then after having to cope with the death of siblings and parents. He carries a tumultuous weight and most of his inner soul is explored through sessions with his psychiatrist, whose parents also survived the Holocaust but don't want to talk about it. More than anything, the book explores madness and also interestingly enough missed chances in love. Though I am not Jewish, I found myself relating quite a bit to Doriel's musings on madness and the state of the world. He feels he is possessed by a Dybbuk and he fights against a true healing. Or course, Wiesel wouldn't be himself if he couldn't interject his own sense of philosophy in.
This book is rich with riddle and story, of life choices and memories examined and re-examined. It is interesting in its examination of religion and the soul, of it's relationship with God and the human language.
Favorite Quotes:
pg 5 "But who is to say whether guilt and madness are compatible or incompatible? And who decided that I'm not entitled to both madness and despair? That madmen are beyond redemption, thus hopelessly condemned, except in the privileged area of art? Van Gogh before dying, whispered "Sadness will last forever." Sadness. No. Madness lasts much longer."
pg 7 "And the heavy breasted woman said to him: 'It is not you we are taking away, but years off your life; we';; sell them at the market." ... "We're in a theater, we're putting on a play about madness. It's a world overrun by madness. Everyone has a part. And so do you. You can choose: you can be the executioner or the condemned man."
pg 12 "The truth is there is no truth."
pg 43 "Sometimes, always unexpectedly, a word vanishes; it's impossible to recapture it, for it has already become a face. And this face, stunningly beautiful and fascinatingly ugly, at once young and decrepit, coarse and majestic, enjoys attracting and repelling me, and I say to myself, laughing and crying: it is the face of a god struck by the madness of demons and the madman is me."
pg 54 "Is e just suffering from a pathological nostalgia for a lost paradise, filched by strangers?"
pg 78 "You live only your life, whereas I inhabit the lives of others. Like a novelist, a madman is embodied in several characters simultaneously. He is Caesar and Cicero, Socrates and Plato, Moses and Joshua. True, you have to allow for consciousness and the imaginary. Don't bring it up , please. I have both. But between yours and mine, there is an abyss"
pg. 135 "You and your stories...You know too many of them; you become attached to them; they've already imprisoned you. Eventually, they'll be the ruin of you. Stories are dangerous; even the most beautiful come with arrows, and you don't know that you're the target."
pg. 163 "When a soul is involved, one should be able to break into it gently. With the proper word. A gesture, a sign, a look. A handshake. A silent pause, why not?"
pg. 181 "What meaning can be drawn from a sentence that is necessarily devoid of meaning? But, on the other hand, could the absence of meaning have some other meaning? And what about the ever-changing layout of words? Sometimes a comma travels: it runs, runs between the words, and is impossible to catch. Is the comma insane too?"
pg. 216 : "...human beings have migraines, whereas history undergoes convulsions."
pg, 235 "But writing has an animus towards me. To write, though you have to love words, they also have to love you. Mine scoff at me. As soon as I choose one, ten others spring up and chase it away."
The poet smiled and said, "The opposite happens to me. Ten words turn up before me, because of the richness of my language but I just want one. And that one often stays hidden."
pg. 237 "Admittedly, more than once, on many occasions, upon meeting a young woman with a voice I liked, I could have started a family. Each time, almost at the last minute, I retreated in fear. U said to myself: I;m not ready, not yet ready to express my trust in man and his humaneness. Not ready to say to the world: I believe in you and in those who mold you: I want to participate in your undertaking and be included in your future. Not ready to give the world my children doomed beforehand."
nicoleisalwaysreading's review against another edition
4.0
Usually, I want answers. I want books with characters who ask so many questions and struggle to find something they didn't have before. Maybe they need closure, or they need happiness, or they need a cure.
This book asked so many questions. This book IS questions. It's one man asking questions that drive him to question his own existence and his own sanity. Sometimes, it's the written account of his therapist asking him questions, but really it's her asking herself questions about herself, not even about him.
This book starts as a kind of slow, dizzying turn. Then it picks up speed. It gets faster and faster, and as a reader, I stand in some kind of turmoil and hope to grasp something here and there. At the very last minute, it all comes together into some sort of wild dance. I saw where some steps were choreographed, others improvised. I saw connections to ideas of memory. This book is about the son of Holocaust survivors. In some ways, he himself is a survivor. But his own guilt and the generational trauma is too much to bear. He cannot love, because he feels like he doesn't deserve it.
But the plot follows no chronology. It's vignettes, and I never know if they're true or not. The narrator is telling a story, but he knows he has an audience.
This book left me questions, but questions that make me better.
This book asked so many questions. This book IS questions. It's one man asking questions that drive him to question his own existence and his own sanity. Sometimes, it's the written account of his therapist asking him questions, but really it's her asking herself questions about herself, not even about him.
This book starts as a kind of slow, dizzying turn. Then it picks up speed. It gets faster and faster, and as a reader, I stand in some kind of turmoil and hope to grasp something here and there. At the very last minute, it all comes together into some sort of wild dance. I saw where some steps were choreographed, others improvised. I saw connections to ideas of memory. This book is about the son of Holocaust survivors. In some ways, he himself is a survivor. But his own guilt and the generational trauma is too much to bear. He cannot love, because he feels like he doesn't deserve it.
But the plot follows no chronology. It's vignettes, and I never know if they're true or not. The narrator is telling a story, but he knows he has an audience.
This book left me questions, but questions that make me better.