Posted on August 21, 2008
The cruelty of man knows no bounds. Every now and then you find a novel that literally hurts to read. It pains your heart, it tires your brain, and in the end, it damages your faith in humanity. Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum, was that book for me. WWII was one of the darkest times in history, and those of us who weren’t there, have often wondered how the German citizens could have sat idly by and allowed the Jews to be exterminated.
The fundamental question is: “What would you do for survival?”
The story is about a mother, Anna, and daughter, Trudie, who lived in Germany during this time. Anna falls in love with a Jewish Doctor, and when it becomes clear that he is going to be sent to the concentration camp located in the hills close to their village, she hides him in her house. Unfortunately, her father finds the doctor and turns him into the SS for his own career advancement, but not before Anna discovers she is pregnant with the doctor’s child. She takes refuge with a local baker who also happens to be helping the underground resistance, and covertly providing food for the prisoners in the camp. She joins in the resistance until it becomes clear that not only is she risking her own life, but she is also risking the life of her infant daughter. In order to survive, she has to become the mistress of a high ranking SS officer. Now, I say “has to” in that if she didn’t, both her and her daughter would have been either executed or sent to the camp. So, yes, she had a choice, but it wasn’t much of one.
Flash forward, Trudie is a History Professor for the University of Minnesota. She joins a project to document the stories of survivors, both Jews and German citizens. For Trudie, its a search for identity. She doesn’t remember much about the War, and her mother will not talk about it.
Jenna Blum was one of the interviewers for Spielberg’s Shoa Foundation, and she structures the story like a mystery intermingled with accounts from other survivors. It is well written, thought provoking, and like I said earlier, difficult. But it is well worth the time and the heartbreak, because it gives us a different view point of the atrocities of WWII. This novel gets 5 stars from me.
Posted on August 12, 2008
I haven’t been writing about it, but I have been reading. Here are the reviews of the last two books:
The First Desire by Nancy Reisman. (3 stars)
30 years in the lives of a Jewish family living in Buffalo, New York starting in the 20′s. It begins slow, but the characters unfold, and before you know it they are under your skin. This almost became a book that I started but never finished. Halfway through, I realized that I NEEDED to know what happened next. Although, this book is not suspenseful, it’s not a mystery, and it’s not a romance. And it is certainly not action packed. Instead, it delves into the inner workings of family, how unconditional love can save us, but how expectations can sometimes destroy us. It’s beautifully written, giving all the characters a voice, and a chance to tell their story. I was both sad and happy when the story ended, I wanted to know more, but it was becoming more and more heartbreaking.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (4 1/2 stars)
When you are a woman, growing up in 19th Century rural China, the only true love you can rely on is that of your female friends. Your family doesn’t love you because you are a drain on their already limited resources, your husband doesn’t love you because he only needs you for one thing, to bear sons, and once that job is done you are a drain on his families resources. Luckily, every now and then you can be a blessing, you can raise your families social status through marriage. However, cases like these are rare, and even if you do manage to get married into a wealthy family, it certainly doesn’t mean your life will be any easier. The saddest part is when women who should all be supporting each other and trying to make each other’s lives more bearable, try to use and abuse any power they have just to make sure they aren’t the only ones who are miserable.
This is a story of two girls who have an arranged friendship (literally, like through a matchmaker) who end up supporting each other, teaching each other, and loving each other against all odds. Unfortunatly, like many true loves, there are betrayals, misunderstandings, and eventually regrets with a heavy dose of guilt. Oh, and a detailed discription of foot binding. (ick)
I loved this book, it was an easy read, and an emotionally wrought story. The 1/2 a star was taken away because of the simplicity of the writing. There could have been a lot more information given on Chinese culture during this time period.
Posted on July 17, 2008
When I read the premise for Middlesex, I thought it was going to be a perverse yet fascinating study in gender identity. And it was, but oh it was sooo much more. This book had it ALL! History, politics, sociology, biology, incest, homosexuality (sort of, because she was raised as a girl, but not really because she was biologically a boy), love, births, deaths, sibling rivalry…you name it, it was thrown in there. I appreciate the literary technique of skipping back and forth through time, but sometimes it got a little annoying, especially when he jumped to the present and then back to the past, then preceded to repeat what he had already told us (I hate redundancy in books, it bores me.) I also thought that there were, perhaps, too many topics covered in the book. However, I genuinely enjoy reading this book and I will give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Next, I will be reading A Queen’s Fool by Phillippa Gregory. (I’ve read the first 80 pages, but I am going to have to reread them because I don’t remember what happened.)
Posted on July 13, 2008
I have many flaws, but one of my greatest ones is I start books and I don’t finish them. I always have an excuse for not finishing them; sometimes I get distracted, sometimes I get bored, and sometimes I just find something else that I would rather read and I forget to get back to them. I just counted and I have 12 books that I started and never finished. Now, I wouldn’t want anyone to accuse me of cheating on our “50 Book Challenge” by saying that I didn’t read whole books because some of these I am half way through, so I figured I would use the average page count that Pink Asparagus came up with: an average of 500 pages a week. I will write the reviews on the books I finish, but I will only count it as a completed book once I have read at least 500 pages. That way, if there is only 300 pages left in the book, I won’t count it as a full book, I will just add the count to the next book. Is this copacetic? (If it helps, one of the books is Anna Karenina, and that book is HUGE and has WAY more than 500 pages!)
Posted on July 10, 2008
Pink Asparagus just gave me a purpose in life, so thanks for that! Just in case you don’t follow the link, she posted a quote from Steve Jobs basically saying the Amazon Kindle (a reader you can get from Amazon where you can download books right onto it) will fail because people don’t read anymore. I would LOVE to prove him wrong and am willing to set aside a large chunk of my time to do it. Please join us in the 50 Book Challenge, for which we will read 50 books in one year. The only thing I wasn’t clear on was if we should start from today, or count the books we have already read this year? Either way, I wanted to also challenge all of you bloggers to post reviews of the books you are reading (they don’t have to be long, just a star system or a loved it, liked it, hated it kind of thing.) Also, both pink asparagus and I are on Shelfari, you can join us there for discussions on the book. I am going to start (if we are starting from today) with Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, mostly because I am already reading it for my book club.
Update: Pink Asparagus and I have decided to start the count as of July 1st. Also, if you feel that 50 is too many, we can reduce it to 20-30 and just see how we do. The ultimate goal is just to READ, and we’ll see where we can go from there.
« Previous Page