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A review by bjr2022
In the Land of Armadillos: Stories by Helen Maryles Shankman
5.0
In the Land of Armadillos by Helen Maryles Shankman*
This prize-winning collection of connected Nazi occupation stories is so powerful and real that I could only process the feelings of one story a day. Helen Maryles Shankman puts you right there in 1942 Wlodawa, Poland, a small town occupied by Germans that is eventually overtaken by Russians. The people—civilians, soldiers—are so tangible and complex that it hurts. And the writing is perfect: beautiful, seamlessly combining history and folktales, prose and poetry, true stories and fiction (although I gave up googling to fact check), monsters and heroes, and realism and magic. Often, while reading, I found I had stopped breathing and had to consciously remember to exhale.
I read this stunning book as I was simultaneously reeling from the latest display of antisemitism in our U.S. of A. And in a very strange way, it was therapeutic. I felt my roots and that felt good.
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*Because GR admins have deleted authors’ names from the review titles in daily newsfeeds.
If you are bothered by having to scroll to the end of long reviews to learn whose work is being discussed, please ask GR to restore authors’ names to the tops of daily emails of reviews—attributing books to the people who provide the meat for our community’s conversation: [email protected]
This prize-winning collection of connected Nazi occupation stories is so powerful and real that I could only process the feelings of one story a day. Helen Maryles Shankman puts you right there in 1942 Wlodawa, Poland, a small town occupied by Germans that is eventually overtaken by Russians. The people—civilians, soldiers—are so tangible and complex that it hurts. And the writing is perfect: beautiful, seamlessly combining history and folktales, prose and poetry, true stories and fiction (although I gave up googling to fact check), monsters and heroes, and realism and magic. Often, while reading, I found I had stopped breathing and had to consciously remember to exhale.
I read this stunning book as I was simultaneously reeling from the latest display of antisemitism in our U.S. of A. And in a very strange way, it was therapeutic. I felt my roots and that felt good.
________
*Because GR admins have deleted authors’ names from the review titles in daily newsfeeds.
If you are bothered by having to scroll to the end of long reviews to learn whose work is being discussed, please ask GR to restore authors’ names to the tops of daily emails of reviews—attributing books to the people who provide the meat for our community’s conversation: [email protected]