Maus: A Survivor's Tale - Volume 2 - And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman

Books Completed: 11
Date Completed: January 8, 2009
Pages: 144
Publication Date: September 1, 1992

The second book in the Maus series is up on Historical Tapestry. I might have rambled a bit with this one... A good read, though!

Maus: A Survivor's Tale - Volume 1 - My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman

Books Completed: 10
Date Completed: January 8, 2009
Pages: 160
Publication Date: August 12, 1986

One of the subjects that I have been known to read a lot about is the World Wars and the events that shaped them. So, a graphic novel about the events of the Holocaust is something that is going to go on my wish list automatically, and, I actually got around to reading! The review of book one is up on Historical Tapestry, so head on over there and read my thoughts! I am going to whip up the review of book two later today.

Oh, and I spent the rest of my gift card (finally). I got four more books in the Fables series. I was going to get five of them, but book seven takes 1-2 weeks to ship for some reason, so I am just going to buy a copy when I am in the city next because they actually have it in stock! I have more gift cards that I am saving for when Patricia Briggs new book comes out, so I imagine I will get a couple more books in the series then. What can I say? I'm in love!

Briar Rose - Jane Yolen [August/06]

I love fairy tale retellings, and this is a very creative way of retelling of Sleeping Beauty written for a young adult.

From the back of the book:

It is an old, old tale, the German story of BRIAR ROSE, the Sleeping Beauty. Now one of America's most celebrated writers tells it afresh, set this time in the forests patrolled by the German army during World War II. A tale of castles, of mists and thorns, of a beautiful sleeping princess, and an astonishing revelation of death and rebirth.

A tale that will leave you changed forever

The tale of BRIAR ROSE.

I saw this book at the book store the other day, and immediately had to buy it. It is part of The Fairy Tale Series, which was created by Terri Windling. Sadly, most of the books in this series are out-of-print, so I pick them up whenever I see them. I also own Tam Lin by Pamela Dean from this series, but I have not read it yet.

This is one of the most interesting fairy tale retellings I have read this year. As the front of the book states: "The Bright Tale of Sleeping Beauty, the dark tale of the Holocaust - Twined together in a story you will never forget." I was happy with this because fairy tale retellings and World War II are examples of things that I like to read about. Putting them together was a creative idea.

This is a young adult book, so it is very short, but in the 200 pages or so, a magnificant story is told. The novel is written with scenes taking place in the present, with flashback images where the grandmother of the main character, Becca, tells the story of Sleeping Beauty. Becca's grandmother, Gemma, is really the main character because this is her story. Little is known of Gemma's background before she came to the United States, all she tells her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren is the story of Briar Rose.

When Gemma dies, Becca gets a wooden box that holds clues to who her grandmother was in the past. With these clues in hand, Becca embarks on a mission to discover the identity of her grandmother and see if she really was a princess in Poland and lived a life like Sleeping Beauty. Traveling to Poland, Becca begins to put the pieces together, and as a result the reader can see where Gemma got the idea for her story and just how true it really was.

I strongly suggest this book, even if you just read it to seek the truth. Is the tale of Sleeping Beauty comparable to the story of this woman who lived in Poland at the time of the Holocaust? I warn you, I found Becca annoying at times, but in the end it is not really her story, she is just telling it.

4/5

The Memory Man - Lisa Appignanesi [June/06]

The other day I had the chance to get a free book if I bought three others, so I decided to try something new. This novel caught my eye because it won the Isaac Frischwasser Award for Holocaust Literature. I like novels that take place during World War II, so I thought I would give it a try.

From the back:

Bruno Lind is on a mission, though he may not know it. Irene Davies knows she is, but isn't sure it's the right one. Both of them are haunted by the legacy of a tangled history of love and war.

Propelled by dreams, a chance name overheard in a hotel lobby, and the urgings of his daughter, Lind becomes the detective of his own unexplored life. He retraces those experiences of the Second World War, of refugee camps and migration, that he has long been unable to communicate. They immerse him in a world where some can't remember and others can't forget, and all are tainted by the logic of race.

I have never read Appignanesi before, but this novel was a good introduction to her. Set in modern times, the book is broken into sections. In the first section, the characters are introduced. They have all been brough together because of one man, Bruno Lind. Lind is in Vienna to give a lecture on the work that he has been producing in the United States. While checking in, he hears a name from his youth during the Second World War and it leads him to take a walk down memory lane. He was born in Vienna and finds himself visiting the house of his childhood. When he stumbles across it, an accidently runin leaves him injured and in need of a hospital. Irene Davies calls an ambulance, and then suddenly she is connected to the story. She is also looking for the man that bears the name of the one that sparked Lind to go to his old house in the first place. Then, his trip to the hospital results in his daughter coming to check up on him. Suddenly, the four characters are bundled together.

Then, we move on to the second section where the novel starts to travel back and forth through past and present. For one part we are back in the war torn world and for the next we are in the present seeing the moments that are sparking Lind's memories. It is amazing how Appignanesi makes all the pieces fit together. Sometimes novels have things work out that make little sense or look totally impossible, but the connections that are made in this novel make sense. The people all come together in bizarre, yet possible, ways.

The scenes are very vivid, but for all the death and destruction the war brought with, I did not find this novel overly depressing. I was interested in the events, as Lind is a Jew, and how Jews managed to stay out of the concentration camps during the war. A wonderful new novel from a very depressing period.

4/5

Night - Elie Wiesel (January/06)

*Note: My reviews are going to be bit a sporadic until I catch up, but this book was good and I did a review on it for another site, so I am posting it before all the other books I have read.*

In 1933 in Germany a man by the name of Hitler was the leader of a whole country. In this year, one of the most horrific acts in history began, as this was the year that the first concentration camp opened in Germanay. This was before the large scale war that would become known as World War II, before Pearl Harbour, and before thousands of lives were given for the defense of their homes. At the time that Hitler came into power there were thousands of Jewish people living in his country, but by the end that number would have decreased drastically because of the inhumane treatment the Jewish citizens would receive from the opening of the first Concentration Camp in 1933 to the liberation 1945. This period and the treatment the Jewish, as well as other minorities received became known as the Holocaust.

Thinking back on the events of the Holocaust, most people know that people were burned alive, beaten, starved, and forced to receive every brutality known to man. Most people learn the events of the Holocaust by sitting in a classroom, as this horrible period is part of the world’s history because it went on for 12 years before anyone stopped it. Some countries will never forgive themselves for doing nothing while a race was decisively being erradicated. While you know these things, I do not believe that anyone can truly understand what it was like without actually being there or hearing the account of someone that suffered in those camps. That is what Elie Wiesel’s true tale Night does for me.

As the New York Times portrays on the front, this is “a slim volume of terrifying power.” And, it is only small, only about 122 pages depending on whether you count his speech when he won the Noble Peace Prize. I was amazed that such a little book could pack such a punch, but it did, and I think anyone that reads it will live with the events described in the book for the rest of their life. Night is about a boy, now a man, recollecting his time in one of Germany’s famous Concentration Camps. There are no secrets in the book, you know the minute you pick it up that people are going to die, that you are going to be sickened by the treatment the Jews received, and that you would never look at a chimney the same way again. Even so, knowing the outcome and what was to come I still find that this book touches the heartstrings and illuminates a dark period in history.

The Jewish troubles started off almost minor when you look at the big picture. They slowly lost their rights, had to wear a yellow star to be always recognized, and were put all together in squared off sections of the town. When you are reading about this in the book you think how horrible this must be, but it is nothing compared to the events that are about to transpire. You go with Elie from this discomforting part of his life to the concentration camps where they did not know where their next meal would come from and had to do everything in their power to stay alive until the next day. To always have the hope that the Red Army (Russians) were coming to their rescue. This hope was for many of them the only way that they managed to survive. That, and making sure that you never showed weakness and were spared from the flames that left the smell of burnt flesh in the air and a slow and painful death for those chosen.

Night is an amazing piece of work. I think for me one of the saddest things was watching people lose hope because without hope you were dead. The main character, Elie, lost faith in God throughout the book because how can you have faith in someone that lets you live like this. One of the things that he said that stuck with me came from the introduction where he said that it was not a miracle that he lived, it was little more than chance. If it was not for that chance, though, I would not have read one of the best non-fiction stories I have ever encountered and with these simple pages the memory of Elie and all the Jews that suffered for many years in Concentration Camps will never be forgotten.

This book was so profound to me I cannot give it anything other than a 5/5