To Siberia, by Per Petterson

To Siberia, by Per Petterson is an excellent novel depicting a family within the Danish landscape.

The narrator is a sixty-year old woman who is reflecting on her past, from her childhood in Jutland through her early twenties. Her parents are seemingly uncaring, and often neglectful. Her one area of comfort is her brother Jesper. They both have each other to rely on. They often (due to Jesper) find themselves in trouble with their parents, such as when they followed their grandfather to a local pub, where he ends up in a fight inside the pub. The two are extremely close, and wander the landscape together, sharing quality moments and sharing their dreams for the future.

The narrator is enthralled with Siberia, and wants to move there when she grows up. She loves photographs she has seen of wooden houses, and for her they represent warmth, both emotional and physical. Jesper wants to move to Morocco, it is his ideal situation. The novel is set in the dark shadows of World War II. He eventually does leave Denmark, and becomes involved in the resistance, and lands in Sweden via boat. Jews are on the boat, and it is implied that he has helped them flee. This is how Jews often fled Denmark, with help from the resistance, by sailing to Sweden.

Meanwhile the narrator moves through life, relocating to Stockholm and Oslo, etc. She has a few sexual encounters. She attends the movie theaters in order to escape life’s reality. Her daily routine is humdrum and uneventful. She ends up returning to her childhood home. And, that is the theme of the book, in my opinion.

Petterson’s metaphor is strong, and demonstrates how people can go through their lives with high hopes and dreams, but in the end, their visions and goals aren’t necessarily fulfilled. His writing is strong, and poetic, bordering on a prose poem. His descriptions and images are quite vivid and we find ourselves wrapped within the pages, reading straight through until we finish the book.

Petterson’s To Siberia is a brilliantly written novel, and a masterpiece in defining family relationships and dynamics. He evokes how unreached parental goals are often forced upon the children. I believe his message is that not everything has one specific solution.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink is a frank, blunt and disturbing book on many levels. There are many questions raised within the pages, and some relate to issues of morality, ethics, dignity, love and truth. The questions all begin with the narrator, Michel Berg. He is reflecting on his past, one in which he is writing a book about.

The Reader is written in three segments, and each segment has its own chapters. The first one deals with the narrator’s youth and meeting with a woman named Hanna, and their subsequent relationship.

It is 1956 post-war Germany, and he is fifteen years old. He is on his way home, when he becomes ill on the street. He is helped by a woman (he later finds out her name is Hanna) who forcefully takes him to her apartment, washes him, and then firmly walks him home. To hear the narrator tell it, “When rescue came, it was almost an assault. The woman seized my arm and pulled me through the dark entryway into the courtyard.”

From there the plot begins to unravel, and we are led on a journey of discovery, and not necessarily a positive journey. Suffice it to say that a love affair begins between the young teenager, Michael, and a 36-year old woman named Hanna. They develop a routine, ending in his reading to her. As time moves forward, the narrator becomes curious as to Hanna’s background, but she is unwilling to talk about it, and their relationship continues on. That all ends at some point when he finds that she has abruptly left, leaving no trace of herself anywhere.

Michael never gets over the loss of Hanna, and finds it difficult to move forward without his thoughts obsessing on her. He eventually becomes indifferent in order to survive the war going on between his mind and emotions. He wanders through life in an almost robotic state.

Fast forward to 1965, and to the second segment of the book. The narrator is studying Law, and is in a courtroom with other students, studying the drama before them, and writing down, word-for-word, the verbal statements made during the trial. Hanna is one of several SS camp guard defendants on trial. During the trial, Michael realizes that Hanna is withholding information. She could possibly have had her sentence lessened or even dismissed if she admitted the truth about herself. She seemingly would rather be sentenced to prison for her Holocaust actions, than admit her “secret”. The verdict takes several hours to read, and, she is sentenced to prison for her crimes.

Hanna doesn’t want her sense of dignity demeaned, her confident mask she exudes to others diminished, and her self-respect perceived to a lesser degree by others, through the revelation of the truth of her “secret”. Although the reader may find it absurd that one would allow themselves to be convicted and sent to jail for crimes they might otherwise not be found guilty of, Hanna’s self-respect and dignity is tied up in her ability to create a superficial presentation of herself to the world. Dignity, self-respect, shame and degradation are a state of mind and state of Being, within the moral context of the pages of The Reader.

We are now in the early 1980s, and the third segment of the book, and Michael has been married, has a child, and is divorced. He is working as a legal researcher, having been disillusioned during the trial about becoming a lawyer. Through the prison warden he learns that Hanna is being released after eighteen years.

Schlink was born in Gemany in 1944, is a judge and also a professor of law. He is obviously quite knowledgeable, legally speaking, and The Reader left me wondering if any of the story line was in part based on his own experiences.

The book leaves one to ponder several issues. For me, the familial issues were a strong underlying component of the book. For those children who love their parents, family members and friends, what are their resulting and emotional consequences for loving someone who might possibly have been involved in inflicting atrocities on Holocaust victims? There is guilt if you do love them, guilt if you don’t. What are the conclusions that can be drawn from that train of thought? Is there a clear or decisive answer?

Is moral responsibility lessened through the revealing of a series of events in the trial? Is culpability diminished? Hanna eventually takes an initiative regarding her “secret”, and she eventually begins to understand how her power and her actions during the Holocaust affected the lives of others, and she becomes aware of the repercussions and severity of the crime she committed. Her “secret” is a metaphor for the lack of understanding of the depth of the events of the Holocaust, both during and after World War II.

As Michael so aptly put it, “I wanted simultaneously to understand Hanna’s crime and to condemn it. But it was too terrible for that. When I tried to understand it, I had the feeling I was failing to condemn it as it must be condemned. When I condemned it as it must be condemned, there was no room for understanding … I wanted to pose myself both tasks — understanding and condemnation. But it was impossible to do both.”

Bernhard Schlink is concise in his prose, and brings sharpness and clarity to the story line through his brilliant use of imagery, metaphors and messages. There are metaphors relating to moral and ethical responsibility, love, dignity and self-respect. He is masterful in his use of analogy, and his depicting how the human spirit chooses to hide facets of themselves and present a superficial face to the world. The novel is filled with melancholy and depression, and isn’t uplifting in the least. But, in the end, we are faced with truths and issues that must be examined. The Reader is nothing short of a masterpiece.

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Yesterday…

Yesterday – My Story, by Hadassah Rosensaft is an incredible Holocaust memoir, and one that exhibits Rosensaft’s strength and courage under the most adverse of circumstances.

Rosensaft was deported to Auschwitz, along with her husband, five-year old son and other family members. Her husband and son, and most of her family members were sent to the gas chambers and were murdered. Rosensaft survived by her mental stamina, emotional strength and will, and the fact that she was deemed useful by those in charge at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. She used her intern-doctor skills, and she saved hundreds of Jews while in Auschwitz.

She saw unspeakable horrors and acts, but speaks about them quite graphically in her memoir. She wanted to make sure the reader knew exactly what transpired, and didn’t sweeten any of the despicable and horrific acts. And, these acts didn’t just occur before liberation, but after liberation, also. Rosensaft describes the verbal and physical cruelty of the British military and British bureaucracy, and how they tried to demean the liberated individuals by treating them as less than human. Imagine undergoing and witnessing atrocities of the Holocaust, and then being treated with cruelty after liberation. I can’t conceive of such inhumane treatment.

Rosensaft’s testimony at the Belsen trials was important, and helped ee some Nazis to be convicted of war crimes. She met with world leaders, and was well-respected and well-known in the world Jewish community.

Her efforts helped to form the basis for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Hadassah Rosensaft is a role model and testament to courage, not only for survival under extremely harsh and horrendous circumstances, but she is also a role model for maintaining a positive attitude during a time of extreme duress. She acted with bravery and decisiveness, and is an inspiration, and her story will stay with me for a long time. Her strength and positive attitude encouraged those around her. Without her nurturing and acts of pure selflessness and kindness, many of those Holocaust victims she helped saved would not have been alive to see liberation. Yesterday is a must-read memoir, a compelling and intense memoir, and belongs in every school, university and home library.

A Living Lens

I am a book store lover, as most of you know. One of my recent purchase while I was away was a fantastic book of photographs and essays. A Living Lens: Photographs of Jewish Life From the Pages of the Forward is an incredible historical and photographic chronology of Jewish Life.

From the Lower East Side of Manhattan to Tel Aviv and Eastern Europe, etc., the book depicts, through vivid and emotional imagery, what Jewish life was like during the past one hundred plus years. The book features over 500 photographs of film celebrities, sports figures, photographs relating to politics, the Diaspora, Yiddish Theater, Labor, fashion, Jewish assimilation and identity, and so much more.

A Living Lens holds a wealth of visuals and prose within its pages. Life in America is depicted in one volume, as we’ve never seen it before, straight from the pages of past issues of The Forward.

A Living Lens: Photographs of Jewish Life From the Pages of the Forward, is a must have book for every household.

The Pages of Time

Once again, I found myself reading a Holocaust memoir in which a surviving parent did not want to reveal too much information, if any, about their Holocaust experience to their child/children. The Pages In Between: A Holocaust Legacy of Two Families, One Home, by Erin Einhorn, is a novel written by a daughter whose mother, Irena, survived the Holocaust, a mother who seemed indifferent as to the events and actions that kept her alive. Einhorn, who was always curious, traveled to Poland in order to find out the truth of her mother’s history, and to see if the house was still standing.

Irena was born in 1942, in Bedzin, Poland, within the walls of the Jewish ghetto. Irena’s parents were deported a year later, and while on the train, her father managed to jump off the train. He managed to make his way back to the Bedzin, and made a arrangements with a Polish woman…he would give the woman authority over his property if she would hide his daughter. He promised to return for his daughter as soon as the war was over.

True to his word, he did return for Irena (her mother died in Auschwitz). She was a frightened child, and her father was a stranger to her. The only “parents” she had memory of were the Skowronskis, the family who Irena’s father left her with. He took her to Switzerland, and from there they eventually emigrated to America.

The years pass by and the story begins with Irena’s daughter, who is a reporter, living in Krakow, with her roommates Krys and Magda. The purpose of Einhorn being there is to try to find the family “that made my life possible“, and try to locate the house that had belonged to her grandfather. She knows where to begin, how to get to Bedzin, but is hesitant, afraid of failure. She is more or less on her own, as her mother, Irena, won’t reveal much to her, and is totally uninterested in finding out about the family that saved her life. Irena’s attitude is uncaring and unconcerned. Anxiety exudes from Einhorn’s pores.

The Pages In Between is a fascinating story, taking the reader on an ominous trip back through time, and forward again to the legalities of the present. One is left to ponder several issues, such as greed and entitlement. Is it greed to want monetary compensation for helping to save a life? Doesn’t there come a point when boundaries are crossed in the expectations of those who saved others? Is an individual financially responsible to those who saved the life of their child/loved one? Does one save a life without expecting compensation or reward because it is the correct thing to do? Where does greed begin and gratitude end? Where does gratitude begin and greed end? Are those who are the living indefinitely bound to support those who helped them survive? Who owns the property left under duress and horrific conditions? Who are the victims in the process…the child who was saved, those who helped save her, the succeeding generations, or are they all victims in a sense? There are these and more questions to think about.

I recommend The Pages in Between. It is an extremely compelling memoir, and one that evokes a unique perspective on the Holocaust. It is a book of historical depth and documentation, depicting the continual after-effects of the Holocaust, and how WWII and the Holocaust affected families, in the long-range. It is a book of historical depth and documentation, depicting the continual effects of the Holocaust. Erin Einhorn writes with stark frankness, and at the same time is sensitive to the issues she confronts on her journey of discovery. Her story is an incredible psychological study on the interplay between family dynamics and the Holocaust. For those interested in Holocaust History, this is an excellent resource and a must read.

Possession, by A.S. Byatt

I read Possession, by A.S. Byatt when it first came out a few years back, on an airplane on my way to England.

The passion between the lines, in this wonderfully conceived and crafted book of both prose and poetry, had me totally possessed and engrossed in the multiple and simultaneous stories.

I like the aspect of the novel-within-a-novel, and how the stories of the past intertwine within the story of the present…in a magical and surreal fashion, at times. This is the stuff that passion is made of, and Byatt has outdone herself in this masterpiece.

Possession was a book I became wrapped up in, within the literary creativity, the historical factors, and the beautiful fairy-tale poetry and prose. The novel took me back to a time period I could visualize, and had my senses alert and eager to continue.

Possession, passion, poetry and prose, are all combined in one artful and magnificent novel, Possession, by A.S. Byatt.

Plum Wine, by Angela Davis-Gardner

The Novel, Plum Wine, turned out to be less than what I had expected. I found the story line to be slow going, and thought the characters lacked depth. It took all I could to get through the book, without putting it down and not continuing on.

Angela Davis-Gardner’s book, filled with love and loss, time and place, and a subtle bit of mystery (but more deceit than mystery), did not delve into the intensity of a story that is centered around two main characters who survived the bombing of Hiroshima.

“A chest arrived on a gray afternoon in late January, three weeks after Michi-san’s death.” The opening line is the foundation of the story. The tansu chest, left to Barbara Jefferson, by Michi-san is filled with bottles of plum wine. Each bottle is wrapped in a scroll, written in Japanese. jefferson, who is in Japan as an educator, can’t read Japanese, and ends up having a man named Seiji, who is a pottery artist, translate the scrolls for her.

The story was predictable (which is not always a negative aspect, but in this case, was), and we realize quite early on that a romantic relationship would emanate from Jefferson and Seiji. We can also see and predict why Seiji tries to exhibit control over Jefferson, regarding the documents. It is not a mystery, but rather, a situation that lets us know, immediately, what is occurriing. Deceit looms everywhere, within the sips of wine.

I won’t elaborate on Plum Wine, further. I am glad to be done with it.

~~Book Diva

People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks

People of the Book by Pulitzer Prize author Geraldine Brooks is an incredible novel. Although it is fiction, the content is filled with historical information and fact. People of the Book is based on the Jewish Religious book the Sarajevo Haggadah, and its survival through the centuries.

The Sarajevo Haggadah is a factual manuscript/volume, and was illuminated with images, and it is one of the earliest known Jewish religious books to have vibrant illuminations inside it. People of all faiths risked their own lives and their family’s lives in order to save it from destruction, as it went from family to family, hand to hand, through wars and turmoil. The volume was so revered and treasured, that those of all faiths strived to save the Sarajevo Haggadah, no matter the consequence.

The protagonist is Hanna Heath, a rare-book expert and restorer, hired in 1996 to restore the Sarajevo Haggadah. It was saved in 1996 by a Muslim, who was the head of the library at the National Museum in Sarajevo, during the time of the Sarajevo sieges, uprisings and wars. It was then hidden in a bank vault.

People of the Book is written in alternating chapters between Heath’s current life, her manuscript findings, and the time periods of the illuminated volume. The manuscript chapters work bacwards in time (1996, 1940 Sarajevo, 1894 Vienna, all the way back to 1840 Seville). We see the individuals responsible for having had contact with the Sarajevo Haggadah, through Heath’s scrutiny of the volume’s pages and her finding of items within the pages. As she looks through the illuminated pages, she finds part of an insect wing, an unusual color, a vivid illulmination that makes her wonder who the person was, a piece of silver rose, wine stains, salt crystals a hair, etc. Those individual items all hold the secrets that tell their own story. Each of the time periods in the novel, is a chapter in itself.

“My work has to do with objects, not people. I like matter, fiber, the nature of the varied stuffs that go to make a book. I know the flesh and fabrics of pages, the bright earths and lethal toxins of ancient pigments. Wheat paste — I can bore the pants off anyone about wheat paste. . . . Of course, a book is more than the sum of its materials. It is an artifact of the human mind and hand. The gold beaters, the stone grinders, the scribes, the binders, those are the people I feel most comfortable with. Sometimes, in the quiet, these people speak to me.”

People of the Book, in my opinion, is a metaphor for the diversity of our backgrounds, and the prejudices and lack of appreciation for not only cultures other than our own, but a metaphor for rare and treasured objects of antiquity. Brooks weaves a tapestry of what we will do to save those valued objects and protect them, over what we as individuals and ethnic backgrounds will endeavor to do in order to destroy human life. Life seems to hold no value in the scheme of things. There is more than one illumination in People of the Book, and Brooks weaves through the centuries to reinforce how the horrors of the past come full circle through the centuries, repeating cycles of religious and ethnic hatred, genocide, war, intolerance, etc., with each generation.

Brooks’ vivid imagery is strong, and People of the Book is entertaining. She writes with insight and gentleness, and her articulation is filled with clarity. Time and place are essential elements in the novel, and we are taken on a backwards journey through history and through the centuries. Brooks gives us much to ponder in People of the Book.

I could write more about the story line, but that would reveal too much about the content in People of the Book. Read it for yourself.

In the Image, by Dara Horn

“Accidents of fate are rarely fatal accidents, but once in a while they are.”

In The Image is one of those books that evolves through the characters’ coming of age, journeying towards peace and acceptance, and sojourning towards spiritual identity. One young girl (Leora)l learns to accept the death of her best friend, through the slide images of her best friend’s grandfather. Leora learns to overcome her fear of loss and allows herself to fall in love.

The grandfather (Bill Landsmann) learns to accept his own life, which is built frame by frame, upon his slides, through the images he has photographed during his travels. His life has been preserved on film slides. Landsmann has to learn to leave his past behind, including his childhood and his abusive father. He must learn to accept, and to let go, and not just assimilate within the fabrics of New York City. For him the images represent his life, concrete proof of his childhood in Europe, and proof he existed. Landsmann has to learn to move forward, in order to find the spiritual identity and peace he is searching for.

Leora and Landsmann lean on each other, each one helping the other to overcome their fears, each one helping to free the other from their self-imposed emotional isolation.

The symbolism and undertones in this novel are strong, and leave one in awe. The images are clearly defined through Dara Horn’s words. Age is a state of mind, a number we define ourselves with, but one can be 70 and still be coming of age. This book touches on coming of age, for all age groups.

~~Book Diva