$28.00 $22.00

Easy but painful

Not until the afterword by the author did I really hear her style of writing. She is flowery and fluid and neither of those were apparent as I read the novel. The language and style of the book was choppy and punchy, tale after tale, episode after episode. I wondered why it was so, but then it was a collection of memories and no doubt some history which were evident. It was a transmission of the voice of Lale Eisenberg Solotov whom she interviewed in her Melbourne home and his, with whom she shared the depth of pain and joyful hope. The final notes gave me yet one more glimpse of an impression of the Slovakian-born, Jewish tattooist from Birkenau-Auschwitz. People asked me here in Jerusalem, where I finished it, what I thought of the book. Even as they asked me, in the pub, on the train, in the buses, there was a hopefulness in their voices. Maybe that's even why I picked up the book in Sydney at the airport before I flew here. Knowing the ending, that the death camps died, and that the writing "based on an incredible true story" might give me hope, I bought it. It did not disappoint. I did mention to those who asked that I felt the story was punchy. I wondered about the detailed memory of events and names and feelings (especially the feelings) after decades and kilometres of distance, but apparently even if the data were sketchy, the meaning was apparent. The people like Baretski and Cilka who share such a big place in the novel are more than decorative. Was it a worthwhile read? You betcha. In a way I wish I hadn't known (in the beginning) that Lale survived. It might have added to the suspense. But even with that information given me from the beginning, the book is a good read. Add this to your Diary of Anne Frank and Book Thief and other significant tales of the horrors of WW2.

Bob m :: Mar 14 2018, 07:00 am