5 comments about Night (Oprah's Book Club).

1. Night is a book that truly makes you think and feel. What happened to the Jewish people is devastatingly awful.My mom homeschools my siblings and they chose to listen to Night on audio tape. Everyone was enraptured in Elie's story wanting to know what happened to him. I think everyone should read Elie's story or hear it at some point in your life, because it makes you grateful for your own life and because everyone should know what the Germans did to the Jews. That time in history should never be forgotten.



2. I want to point out that George Guidall did a remarkable job narrating the book Night. I homeschool, and chose to do Night as one of our books for this year. My kids were horrified with what one human could do to another. It struck all of our hearts on a daily basis when we would turn on the next CD. This book is a must read. The horrific injustice the Jewish people undertook will never be forgotten and shouldn't be by anyone.



3. This short book, which is largely autobiographical, reads like a nightmare. It will shake you, even if you are fully aware of the evils of the Holocaust. This book should be required reading in high school or college. In this book, mankind is forced to confront the issue of evil. This is a philosophical concept but real-life evil of man against man. Only when we understand mankind's capacity to commit Holocaust can we stand against it in the future. Thank you to Elie Wiesel for the courage to tell these stories to the world in the hope that something like this will never happen again.



4. Love this book! Not a happy, feel good read but something that everyone should read and understand. It's hard to imagine the horror faced by the author but he does such a great job describing the events.



5. I was happy to see that this book was added to Oprah's book club, this ment that millions who never knew of this book would read it or at least hear it's story. I read this in college as part of the debates on wither the US should have entered WW2 before 1941. When I was done I felt that I had been robbed. Not that I didn't enjoy the book but that noone had told me about it before. I would rather have read this in Middle or High school then some of the junk books they forced on us, and while Romeo and Joilet is a fine work I belive that the story Wiesel gives us is more timly and would give kids something to think about.
   The story of Wiesel and his Father in the camps should make anyone who reads this book take note of what happens when Fascism and National Socalism are given a foothold.Sadly we are having to learn some of this lessons again, hopefully we learned then well enough to stop another Holocaust.

5 comments about Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

1. Shipping took longer than expected but the book was in new condition as was stated



2. As a young adult I had read articles on the book. I knew the story. I saw the movie made from the book. However, I had never read the book itself.
   The experience of reading the words of Anne as she lived for two year in hiding with her family, and others in hiding, was entirely different than just knowing the story. Reading another persons personal words as they were living the life that inspired them to write is a most intimate experience.
   In my adult life I am glad to have had the experience of actually reading Anne Frank's words. I recommend the reading of this book to young and mature persons who wish to understand what transpired in our world history on an intimate level.



3. I've read this book ten times and it never gets old. Every young adult should read this!



4. I have finally, at the age of 33, gotten around to reading Anne Frank's diary. There is little point in adding another glowing review. Everything has been said. But after reading some of the negative reviews, I feel compelled to respond. It seems there are two primary criticisms (Three if you count the ridiculous idea that the diary is a forgery, which I won't dignify). The first is that Anne doesn't talk a lot about the war or the holocaust. To this, I can only say, that's all for the better. She was a thirteen year girl living in total isolation from the rest of the world. She really had no special expertise or light to shed on these subjects. There are many excellent history books on both of these subjects. The second criticism is simply that the book is boring. She talks too much about her day to day life, her thoughts, her feelings, and so on. To this I can only say, what part of "Diary of a Young Girl" is ambiguous? The annex was her entire world. What do you expect her to write about?
   
   What a few don't seem to understand is that this is not a "book about World War II", or even about the holocaust. If that is what she had written about, the diary wouldn't even be a footnote in history. This is the story of one young girl, in her own voice, trying to figure out what it means to live, to grow, and to be human in the most depraved and inhumane circumstances. She wrote about her hopes, her dreams, her fears, and occasionally about peeling potatoes. But the thing that some people don't see is that even when writing about the most mundane topics, she was actually writing about people, about how they endure and falter, about how they come together and how they fall apart. And despite the enormous injustice she endured, she always made the case for optimism, for hope in humanity, and for love of life. I don't know that I can agree with her, having adopted a more cynical outlook, but that just increases my admiration for her and my shame in myself for not living the gift of live to the fullest.
   
   The other thing that stands out is the maturity of the writing. After reading just the first entry, I was blown away by the eloquence and clarity of Anne's writing. I could hardly believe that I was reading the prose of a 13 year old girl. She does write a lot about the trials and tribulations of being a teenage girl, but the voice of the writing does not feel childish at all, except perhaps in its optimism. The world lost a great talent and a brilliant soul to those murderous barbarians.
   
   This is a difficult book to digest, and two days after finishing, I'm still haunted by it. Anne's optimism, faith, and courage inspired me throughout, but made the knowledge of what would come at the end all the more a bitter pill to swallow. All that we can do is to honor her by making sure her story and the story of millions of holocaust victims are never forgotten and never happen again. So far, we're not doing so well with that.
   
   And there, I've done it. I've written a review. I didn't intend to, but I did. So go out and read it, if you haven't.



5. I knew that the Diary of Anne Frank was the second most purchased book in the world, the Bible being the first, but I still wasn't sure if I wanted to read it.
   In our eighth grade class, our teacher is big on the Holocaust. And when she first mentioned that we would be learning about it, I was excited; to a point. I know that most kids my age think 'ooh blood and guts and gore' and think it's cool or funny or a joke. They all watch horror movies that almost make them immune to real life experiences that involve real horror or real tragedy.
   So before we started learning about it, I wanted to know more in depth about how it was like to be a teen during the Holocaust. So, I summed up the guts and checked it out at the library. When I started reading it, I couldn't stop. Anne and I are so similar. She's always happy-go-lucky despite the terrible circumstances; she's very curious, careless, and sometimes a trouble maker. And even though I'm not Jewish, I think it's extremely easy to worm your way into her shoes. You learn so much, and it's really emotional, knowing that Anne Frank, this person you've grown attatched to, and her family, everyone except her father Otto Frank, has been killed. Slaughtered innocently by the Nazis, a cult led by Hitler that cornered them just because of their religion or their looks.
   I think that if anyone wants to learn about the Holocaust, this is a must read; it's an amazing journey that might not end so happily, but Anne never ceased to hope. It has such vivid details of everything that sometimes it's hard to believe that something like the concentration camps and Hitler and everything existed. The fact that it's in diary form makes it all the better.
   This non-fiction diary is amazing, and I think everyone, at some point, should read it.

5 comments about The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World (P.S.).

1. My parents were actually Egyptian Jews living in Cairo and Alexandria in the 1950s and fled in the mid 50s due to Nasser's tyranny. My mother has been reading the book the past week and has goose bumps reading essentially the same story, addresses, schools, bakery, cafes etc. of her life. True, every family's story is slightly different, but the facts are essentially identical. My mother and her family lived this story and actually knew some of the people in the story. Well done to Lucette on shedding light on a part of history that many do not know - only the Holocaust is focused on. So many Egyptian Jews lost their livelihood, fortunes, property and dignity simply because of their religion.



2. The first part of the book in Cairo, as others have mentioned before me, was intriguing for a reader like me who loves to read about people and places outside of my sphere of experience. And especially I seem to be drawn to Middle Eastern/African settings.
   The elegant Cairo of a long gone era was very interesting as were the family members.
   But the book went downhill in the second half. I kept hoping for a larger understanding from the author and a comprehension and conclusions drawn about her family and their situation that would raise it above the whine level.
   And as an animal lover as much as I tried the nagging thoughts of how the cats who were so much a part of their family were cast aside so easily became symbolic of the family's ethics in general.
   So basically I ended the book feeling more sorry for the abandoned cats than the family members who I increasingly found harder to like.



3. I found the book very interesting and the story well told. Her conclusion that that the bureaucrats who wavered about bringing her father over should be pleased that he was a good credit risk is totally wrong. Yes, he paid back the JEWISH relief agency for their passage, but sold ties under the counter, for cash so never had to report any income and pay any taxes to this country. His family had large medical expenses paid for by the welfare system of this country. None of his children served in the military of this country. So as far as the United States is concerned all this family did was take. They also seem to have no appreciation for the large economic burden they placed on the citizens of this country.



4. What a wonderful book. In may ways it is a book that anyone who's family has immigrated from another country can identify with and enjoy. She is a wonderful writer, you will find yourself laughing out loud at some passages and terribly sad at others, but it is worth reading. I enjoyed every page and have already passed it on to others who feel the same way. Don't pass this one up.



5. This is my favorite book of the year. It combines all of my interests - Jewish history, family struggles, impact of culture, and so much more. The author spent her early years in Egypt and the family was forced out by anti-semitism. While in Egypt, they lived a glamorous life for many years, but with a father whose moods ranged from loving to abusive. From there they entered a generation of poverty. The writing is beautiful. Too often personal memoirs seem to wane 1/2 way through, but this book continued to engage me and I really didn't want it to end.

5 comments about The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale.

1. maus is dated and still very upsetting, to people who really understand it bigoted and hurtful intent.
   
   Don't waste time anymore, and read about what is going on right now - today! If you like the comic book form, then read and order PALESTINE, by JOE SACCO. It is about the present and ongoing -today, right now as you read this review - killing and murders of helpless and homeless Palestinian families. Although in graphic/comic form, there is 'nothing' funny about it. But if that genre motivates you to read, then you will learn a ton in an interesting way, especially the way Sacco has brilliantly portrayed it.
   
   Unlike maus, PALESTINE tells a true and objective story about something horrible happening right NOW, not a horribly bigoted and confused version of what, might of happened 80 years ago!?
   
   PALESTINE by JOE SACCO, is done with superior artistry and writing. It
   makes maus look like, well a maus.
   
   Many a student comes away reading maus and say: "Why would anyone depict the Jews as RATS, as Goebbels did. Spiegelman's bigotry is clear,i.e., he catagorizes people as certain animals, as Goebbels made jews the rats. A RACIST concept in and of itself.
   
   What does maus achieve? The answer is easy: compounded ANTI-SEMITISM. These kinds of hate writings against Poles and Germans always backfire in the face of Jews like spiegleman - ALWAYS! Was Spiegelman expecting 200 million Poles and germans to rave about being mocked - NO. Will maus help healing between future generations - ABSOLUTELY NOT!
   
   Poles deserved none of Spiegelmans mockery and got the most. Polish students today go home sick to their stomachs while being subjected to this torture by cruel and insensitive teachers: WHO-DON'T-GET-IT!. EVERY POLE ON THIS EARTH IS RELATED TO SOMEONE WHO WAS BRUTALIZED AND KILLED BY THE GERMANS - EVERY POLISH CATHOLIC. Five, 5 million Polish Catholics were slaughtered by thr Germans. Auschwitz' first 2 year only murdered Polish Catholic school children, teachers, professors, nuns and priests - NO JEWS. THE POLISH CHILDREN WERE TAKEN FROM SCHOOL, AND THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING ON AN OUTING - SKIPPING ALONG - NOT KNOWING THE GERMAN DEATH AND TORTURE THAT AWAITED THEM.
   
   Fortunately, maus is being banned more than ever and most credible bookstores refuse to sell this hurtful bigotry. I thank them for getting it.
   
   PALESTINE BY JOE SACCO, you'll read it in one sitting. PALESTINE is about TODAY. It is a general overview of truth, about an event that is effecting our image and safety in America. Perhaps spigelman should tell his Jewish spere of influence to stop murdering helpless Palestinians today. READ PALESTINE!



2. The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale collects both volumes of Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel. The complete collection is how the book called the "first masterpiece in comic book history" is meant to be appreciated. A haunting piece of work, this story is part autobiography, part family history, and part personal and historical reflection on the Holocaust. This tale relates the effect the Holocaust had on the persons who survived it as well as their descendants.
   
   Maus tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, the author's father, who survived the Holocaust in Poland and how his son, the cartoonist, comes to terms with his father and his tale. This is a paramount example of how the graphic form can be used more effectively to accessibly capture a horrific story. In Maus, the various persons and groups are drawn as anthropomorphic animals (the Jews are mice, the Nazi's cats, etc.) which gives the story an almost fairy tale quality, but by no means detracts from the story's haunting poignance. In some ways, the fairy tale is more painful in the fact that it all really did happen. Vladek's tale of survival, told slowly over the course of the almost 300 page novel, is layered with the author's own story of father as he knew him and his own personal feelings of guilt. Despite the use of animals as characters, the human qualities of these characters shines through and creates a tale that will linger with you long after you've finished the last page.
   
   If you have never read a graphic novel, dismissing them as "comic book stories for kids," you owe it to yourself to read this book and to see the scope of what graphic fiction is able to accomplish. Likewise, if you are a fan of graphic novels, you owe it to yourself to read this book as it remains one of the greatest graphic novels of all time.



3. I went to a exhibition on the history of comics a couple of years ago. They had all kinds, from Little Nemo to Jack Kirby, and many things in between. One of the things featured was several pages from Art Speigelman's Maus. I was so intrigued by what I saw that I had to buy it off Amazon, and I have not regretted it. Don't be fooled by Speigelman's seemingly simplistic black and white work. His storytelling is powerful stuff, I tell you.



4. The Holocaust hangs over western society in the second half of the twentieth century. One man said that poetry was impossible after Auschwitz, but great artists in numerous mediums have dedicated themselves ot proving this wrong. The great crime has provided a great canvas for stories of humanity in the face of evil, such as Steven Spielberg's film "Schindler's List". "Maus" is the comics world's prime entry in this difficult field of literature. Writer and artist Art Spiegelman brings us the story of his father (and mother, by times), two Polish Jews who narrowly survived the war. Having already chosen to tell his story in the form of a comic, a medium often looked down upon as inherently childish by those who don't know any better, he further chooses to cast his characters as anthropomorphic animal, in the manner of an animal fable.
   
   This choice has attracted some controversy (on display in many of the reviews on this site), in some cases because they believe it trivializes the subject-matter (to which I would say "Animal Farm"), or, more commonly, because they take issue with the seeming racialist use of different animals for different nationalities (Jews are mice, regardless of nationality, other Poles are pigs; Germans cats, the French frogs, Americans dogs, etc.). Spiegelman actually discusses the implications of the latter thing within the narrative, which includes an extensive b-story set in the then-present (from the 70s to the 80s), following Art, his wife Francoise, and his elderly father as Art writes "Maus". Francoise is a French Christian who converted to Judaism, and wonders what animal she should be cast as (he chooses a mouse, for the record). Spiegelman never casts all of one group as behaving the same way.
   
   "Maus" reminds me a bit of Paul Verhoeven's "Black Book" in its depiction of wartime Europe's complexity, including the now-uncomfortable degree of collaboration or prejudice found in the occupied countries. Vladek and Anja encounter everything but solidarity with their fellow Poles on the journey through the war; fellow Jews rat them out to the Nazis, others require payment to help Jews avoid death, something that Art expresses amazement at, but Vladek seems to see as very reasonable. Spiegelman doesn't paint his father as a saint, indeed, expressing concern that his father comes across as a stereotypical miserly Jew; at one point, Vladek is shown to be strongly racist against blacks, again to Art and Francoise's amazement. The animal characterizations are never binding; for all Spiegelman's concern over France's history of anti-Semitism, the one French frog we see is an amiable fellow-inimate of Vladek's; even among the German cats we find a Polish Jew married to a German woman, the product of this union being peculiar cat/mouse hybrids.
   
   "Maus" is ultimately a very affecting, personal work from Art Spiegelman, and does a fantastic job of communicating the life story of his father. it is a shining example of what the graphic novel form is capable of achieving.



5. Not to sound too cliche, but there really is no other way to describe Maus and brilliant. Using the medium of comic strips (often regarded as childish and immature) to tell a real life, adult tragedy impacts the reader in a different way from if it was just in print.
   
   Do not dismiss this book as irrelevant because of the panels with pictures in them. A must read. However, I wouldn't recommend young children to read this very adult themed novel. Wait until they are a little older so they can fully (or even partially) understand the beauty and tragedy presented.

5 comments about Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History.

1. Maus was a very engaging book. From the beginning I was pulled into the story. Maus is written in a very unique way. Art Spiegelman drew the Jews as mice, the Nazis as cats, and the Poles as pigs. Art Spiegelman told the story from the perspective of his father telling the story through an interview format. It is written in the form of a graphic novel. It is an interesting way to learn about history during the World War II era. Overall I liked this book, except I really didn't like the end. Also, there was a little bit of language.



2. i was one of the few among my peers who had never read one of the Maus books. When i finally got around to it, i was blown away by its excellence. This is a masterpiece (and i do not use the term lightly). Do yourself a favor and don't miss it.



3. I must say that I find this work hard to properly describe in terms of how I feel about it. I think that it was a fascinating look at one man's experience in the Holocaust, but an equally important aspect is Art's interaction with his father during their conversations. This seems like an honest portrayal, especially since Art isn't afraid to include things that may make him look bad (he isn't always the most sympathetic son). I think connecting the story of what happened then, and how it's effects are apparent for the rest of a person's life (although different people reacted in different ways) is interesting. The way this is written is especially effective, because it truly feels like Vladek is telling you his story first hand.
   As for the artwork, although it isn't my favorite style, it seems to fit for this story. The simple, unpolished look is compatible with this story which is honest and raw. Finally, I would like to add that the second installment of this comic is darker, and more depressing and sad at times, but once you read Maus I, you must (and will want to) read Maus II in order to feel any closure with the story.



4. As a Jew Living in Israel, holocaust related books are important to read, but it's hard to do it actually. I can remember several holocaust-era semi-biographic novels which are great but those are the exceptions. Most of the books are a bit bothersome though true.
   Maus just captured me.I consider it one of the best books I've ever read in my life. It was just breath-taking, adding to that the fact that this was my first graphic novel ever, not to say first comic ever.
   I gave it to my wife, her parents, brother and so on. The book came back to me after 6 month. all worn out.
   The book touched me in the deepest levels, and was able to do what many other holocaust books tried to do and failed. Take you inside one of the the darkest eras of human kind. You NEED to read to. You have to read it.



5. Maus, A Survivor's Tale is a son's pictorial version of his father's story of survival during WWII.
   
   Both haunting and mesmerizing, sometimes funny and touching, this is a story of perseverance and about what the Jews had to suffer through at the hands of the Nazis in WWII Poland. Spiegleman never sugar-coats what his father had to endure in order to keep he and his wife alive. A true work of art.

5 comments about The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers.

1. My sister and mother raved about this book, so I finally decided to read it and boy, what a wonderful slice of life book that let's me get a real glimpse of poverty stricken family life in England in the early 1900's. I live close to Mr. Bernstein (down at the Jersey shore) and I hope that I will be able to meet him if he does a lecture locally. Please read this and also "The Dream". We think that THOSE were the "good old days", but really, for many people, they were tough times. Thank you Harry Bernstein for 2 wonderful books.



2. This book really evokes a time and place. The author eloquently transports the reader to a neighborhood full of memorable characters in Lancashire circa pre WWI. It will anger you, make you laugh, make you cry. It is a very powerful book.



3. This was a very beautifully told memoir with a surprising amount of detail and description. It was as much a story of the life Harry and his family lived as it was the love story between his sister and the non-Jewish boyfriend she loved. Lovely.



4. This is a really beautiful book. It's so remarkable that the author at what may be considered an advanced age can recreate the atmosphere of England in the early 1900s. Not since "how Green Is My Valley" have I become so immersed in a memoir. The portrait of his mother is lovingly done and your heart aches for her as she struggles. Be sure to follow it up with his sequel, "The Dream" as it, too, is so compelling. May Mr. Bernstein live many more years and continue writing.



5. I read this book in two days, only because I had to sleep sometime, otherwise I might have done it in one day. I then gave it to my mother, who is 84 years old, and she read it in two days as well. The way the author writes of such difficult circumstances in which he grew up, in such a simple and all-accepting way, is so pure and innocent that it speaks perfectly of the way a child sees his world. The author is not a newcomer on the scene, but I wish I had a lifetime of novels written by him, because his writing is that good. For anyone who loves a really good story without phony embellishment or unnecessary prose, this is a must read. It is just a remarkable book, and I cannot wait to read the next and the next and the next.

5 comments about Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began (Maus).

1. I must say that I find this work hard to properly describe in terms of how I feel about it. I think that it was a fascinating look at one man's experience in the Holocaust, but an equally important aspect is Art's interaction with his father during their conversations. This seems like an honest portrayal, especially since Art isn't afraid to include things that may make himself or his father look bad (he isn't always the most sympathetic son, at times a narrow-minded father). I think connecting the story of what happened then, and how it's effects are apparent for the rest of a person's life (although different people reacted in different ways) is interesting. The way this is written is especially effective, because it truly feels like Vladek is telling you his story first hand.
   As for the artwork, although it isn't my favorite style, it seems to fit for this story. The simple, unpolished look is compatible with this story which is honest and raw. Finally, I would like to add that the second installment of this comic is darker, and more depressing and sad at times, but it is also quite powerful and once you read Maus I, you must (and will want to) read Maus II in order to feel any closure with the story.



2. One (two actually since there are two volumes) of the best submissions about the Holocaust which is designed to reach a broad audience. Maus and Maus II are written in the vernacular, personalizing the experiences of a camp survivor who is interviewed by his son. Excellent supplement to any Holocaust discussion.



3. When I included this and Maus 1 & Persepolis I was informed that they are not graphic novels and that I could not have one free. AMAZING! Of course after I asked for the distric manager's name/number there was a sudden change of heart BUT NOT a good instore experience from BORDERS at ALL. The GRAPHIC NOVEL is great. Borders are not.



4. In Maus II, Art Spiegelman continues his father's horrific story of persecution and imprisonment in Auschwitz during WWII. Mr. Spiegelman has an enviable talent for simple drawings that convey complex ideas and feelings. Scenes with his father seem all too real - both amusing and a bit sad. Great series, I'd recommend it to anyone.



5. At first glance, Maus might seem like yet another attempt to spin the genocide of the Jewish people into something demeaning. I have seen people turn and walk away from the selection because of that, and when I suggested this as required reading in a class it was initially met with hostile responses. Looking into the reading changed the way people saw the thing being constructed here, however, and by the time the class had finished they felt like I did about the book because they were more than taken. They were moved and then some.
   
   Far from words like "stereotyping," Maus tells a story that people see as disarming at first by casting the Nazis as cats and the Jewish people as mice. This makes it seem like it is approachable in ways that humanity isn't, and it also brings about a medium that people of all ages can understand. While it might be painful for someone really young to read it can still be read by kids, and the story doesn't look like a history book at first glance so the "what" and the "why" can be seen with fresh eyes. This leads to being able to take in the characters for what they are; individuals with individual lives and not vast amounts of statistics that lost the ability to live because of a word like "holocaust" or "Nazi." To me that is one of the most important things that the book does because, amidst it all, we can see reflections of people we know. The book takes the time to painstakingly make sure we never lose sight of that; unlike other books it neither glorifies the terrible nor does it make the miniscule mundane. Here, everything matters and the results hurt. The first book take a lot of tie exploring this and the second book, here, furthers that by picking up the pieces and showing you what happens when suffering continues to dig its claws into the fabric of lives.
   It works well at what it does and then some and makes me happy I could introduce both portions to people that would otherwise miss out on it.
   This collection of two actually found my face streaked with tears and the conversations we had about the read garnered much of the same response.
   
   Much can be said about Spiegelman's work and how the characterizations are explored but the reality of the book is that it takes a hard-to-approach subject and shows it to everyone willing to explore. This means that a society hardened to the plight of something that seems so far removed can feel the pulse of something too monstrous for description.
   I highly recommend and utterly respect both volumes of this work and cannot give it enough praise.

5 comments about My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq.

1. My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq by Ariel Sabar is one of the best books that I have ever read. The story is incredibly appealing and can be enjoyed by anyone who grew up with parents and grandparents that just "didn't get it". Of course, as we get older, we realize that our parents faced challenges and issues that, at the time, we could not understand.
   
   Mr. Sabar tells us something of Kurdistan and the Jewish population that once lived in Kurdistan. Both the history of the Kurdish people and the Jews of Kurdistan are very topical as the war in Iraq goes on. The Kurds after some very rough times in the 1990's, seem to be the center of prosperity and stability in modern Iraq. Perhaps this book might have some hints as to why that might be.
   
   The prose - and I know of no other word to capture its beauty - in the book is so breathtakingly powerful that at time I was moved to tears. Of course, at my age, a good coffee commercial can move me to tears. However, this book is well written and one can certainly tell that the aptitude for and love of language is a common bond between Mr. Sabar and his father.
   
   Based on the reviews and on some of Mr. Sabar's speaking engagements, this book is really being marketed as a Jewish story and, to a lesser extent, an immigrant family's story. Yet, it is a universal story of fathers and son, of generational change, and the eternal consistency of family, culture, and interaction with the outside world.
   
   There were two errors in the book that annoyed me because they were so minor and needless. First, Disraeli was not England's first Jewish Prime Minister. At the time, England took its state religion pretty seriously and only Anglican's could hold public office. Disraeli converted long before he was Prime Minister. Second, the author asks one to imagine what English would be like if it was only spoken by some isolated hill people in the middle of nowhere. Of course, with Shakespearian English that is exactly what happened. After 1680, as England became a world power the language mutated wildly. Only small isolated parts of what later became western Arkansas spoke Shakespearian English. These areas were so isolated that they did not speak "standardized" English until the 1880's.
   
   It isn't clear what type of book this is. It isn't a biography, it isn't a history, and there is enough fact that it isn't a novel. The genre of this book defies easy definition.
   
   Overall, this is a good book. Strongly recommended. It is hard to imagine anyone not enjoying this beautifully written story. It is fun to think that someday this book might get picked up for a movie, thus uniting Mr. Sabar's childhood fascination with pop culture and his father's love of language.



2. As recently as 60 years ago, Aramaic-speaking Jews were living in remote Kurdish villages, just as they had for thousands of years. Who knew? Their culture might have been lost forever when they were forced to leave Arab lands were it not for one of their number, Yona Sabar, who went on to become a world-renowned professor. While most other Kurdish Jews and their children assimilated into other societies, Sabar worked to preserve his native tongue in the halls of academia even as he watched the end of its 3000-year run as a living language. Now his son, Ariel, has brought his story to a mainstream audience.
   
   My Father's Paradise is a tale of change and loss, but also of discovery. It offers a fascinating look at the Jews of Zahko, an isolated village in Iraqi Kurdistan where time appeared to stand still for centuries. Yona Sabar lived there until the age of 12, when his family left for Israel. The story follows his journey to the immigrant slums of Jerusalem, then on to Yale University, and eventually to a professorship in Los Angeles -- an adventure unimaginable to his parents' generation. Eventually, he returns to a very different Zakho from the one he remembers. When his entirely American son, the author, becomes a father himself, he develops an interest in his family history. This leads him to Kurdistan as well, and to write this book.
   
   Most of My Father's Paradise is pretty riveting in its tales of old Zakho, immigrant life in Israel, and the Sabars' recent travels to their ancestral land. On the other hand, the less exotic chapters detailing the Sabars' life in America and Yona's academic career didn't hold my attention quite as much. Yona's linguistic work and Ariel's awakening, while somewhat inspiring, simply weren't that interesting. But they make up less than a third of the text. Overall, this is a very unique work that will appeal to history buffs as well as folks interested in immigrant stories.



3. Is there anyone out there who hasn't questioned their roots? Their faith? Their place in the world? Their own legacy?
   
   Ariel Sabar has written one of the most interesting historical/biographical/spiritual books that I have read in a long time. He weaves historical content with the more personal memories of his father and his extended family and friends. I was fascinated by this tale of a man who, having scorned his father for so long, wakes up to find that he himself has become a father, and then moves on to try to connect himself and his son to their ancestry. This is a touching, humorous, soul-searching look at family, identity, place, and interconnectedness.
   
   I was so taken in by the descriptions of Yona's childhood home and of his journey to new lands and new experiences with a family standing with one foot firmly in the past and another tentatively stepping into an uncertain future. I was also captivated by the history of Kurdish Iraq and the place that Jews held in that culture for so long. Sabar introduces a good deal of information about the history and linguistics of the region, and it was so moving to be able to read this and see how geography figures so prominently in anyone's culture by way of stories passed from one generation to another. It truly was like stepping back into another world.
   
   Bravo for Arial Sabar and this fascinating book. I have raved about this book to so many people!



4. I did not want this book to end. I felt as though I was a member of the Sabar family travelling with them through their rich personal history.



5. In My Father's Paradise, Ariel Sabar tries to find himself by finding his past. He paints hauntingly beautiful images of his family's roots by creating a deeply personal and three dimensional Kurdistan. He shows it as it was and as it must have been for centuries. A region that was inevitably lost to history but that stood solid against the river of time.
   
   He depicts the people and events that shaped this hardscrabble environment in a way that could only be done by a man who had been shaped by this place in the deepest and most personal ways.
   
   As he moves on to describe the family's time in Israel, one can only ache with the family as one sees its dreams change. One cries when the family sheds tears and laughs when they triumph.
   
   The book is a tale of redemption, of identity, of history, of a family and of a people. It is a story of community and of rugged individuality. It is a story of successes and failures and it is very much a story of a language. Aramaic. It is a story of how this language shaped empires and individuals. It shows how a language can sculpt an individual's soul and how one soul, the author's father, can save a language for his progeny and for the world.
   
   I cannot recommend this book highly enough. With Kurdistan playing such an active role in shaping world affairs, one MUST read this book. One cannot grasp what is going on or what is at stake without understanding the personalities and the forces that have shaped the region, or the world views that have been held in that region. One can also gain an understanding of the early state of Israel and also hear the voice of an American immigrant.
   
   I can guarantee one thing. You will never regret reading this book.

5 comments about Survival In Auschwitz.

1. Primo Michele Levi (July 31, 1919 - April 11, 1987) was a Jewish-Italian chemist, Holocaust survivor and author of memoirs, short stories, poems, essays and novels.
   
   He is best known for his work on the Holocaust, and in particular his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in Auschwitz, the death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
   
   
   Survival in Auschwitz - If This Is a Man has been described as one of the most important works of the twentieth century.



2. Primo Levi was an Italian Jew arrested for anti-Fascist resistance in 1944 and sent to the camps of Auschwitz. His short, vivid portrayal of the horrors of the Nazi camps there, the depravity of human nature and the extremes that the human psyche can endure, makes for a lasting literary contribution. Not sermonizing about theology or lecturing about good and evil, this bare-bones account nonetheless has dramatic questions for those interested in human nature, the holocaust, and evil. Very fleetingly does he comment on religion (the problem of theodicy is never made as clear as in Elie Wiesel's Night), but he certainly has captured some of the horrible drama of the Nazi death camps.



3. Primo Levy, a twenty-four-year-old Italian Jew captured "on 13 December 1943" and imprisoned for ten months, provides a chilling, though often poetic, account of his so called life in a concentration camp, while hitting home the frustration and futility of his situation. The best way to describe his story and style is through his own words: (p 15) as they prepared the night before they were to be deported "Everyone felt this: not one of the guards, neither Italian or German, had the courage to come and see what men do when they know they have to die," of the next morning (p 16) "Dawn came on us like a betrayer; it seemed as through the new sun rose as an ally of our enemies to assist in our destruction," after the "six hundred and fifty `pieces'" were loaded "Here we received the first blows; and it was so new and senseless that we felt no pain, neither in body nor in spirit. Only a profound amazement: how can one hit a man without anger?" He is first taken to a camp of 10,000 called Buna, where prisoners work at producing rubber. After being thrown together naked with the others, showered, shaved, disinfected and relieved of all possessions, (p 26) he writes "Then for the first time we became aware that our language lacks words to express this offence, the demolition of a man." About the time they have been settled in to the camp, they learn that they will soon be sent out for their first day of work. A French-speaking prisoner replies to their questions with (p 29) "...you are not at home, this is not a sanatorium, the only exit is by way of the Chimney." They are scheduled to work all but every other Sunday (during which they must work "on upkeep of the Lager") (p 36) "Such will be our life. Every day, according to the established rhythm...go out and come in; work, sleep and eat; fall ill, get better or die." The reader later learns (p 73) "...the Buna factory, on which the Germans were busy for four years and for which countless of us suffered and died, never produced a pound of synthetic rubber."
   
   He writes about the typical prisoner (p 90) "They crowd my memory with their faceless presences, and if I could enclose all the evil of our time in one image, I would choose this image which is familiar to me: an emaciated man, with head drooped and shoulders curved, on whose face and in whose eyes not a trace of a thought could be seen." Fortunately, Mr. Levy qualifies to work in a chemical laboratory, which results in an improvement in his living conditions. Yet the usual worries remained, especially (p 126) the "selections" (those chosen to be exterminated) "the percentage was seven percent of the whole camp." He writes as 1944 comes to a close, after almost a year in captivity (p 143-144) about his thoughts on life only twelve months before, "...the future stood before me as a great treasure. Today the only thing left of the life of those days is what one needs to suffer hunger and cold: I am not even alive enough to know how to kill myself." Eventually, the camp is evacuated. Mr. Levy lives on to provide a wealth of wonderful writing to the world, then dies in 1987 at the age of sixty-seven, falling three storeys from a building to his death (either accidentally or intentionally). Also good, Time's Arrow by Martin Amis, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and Night by Elle Wiesel.



4. Mr. Levi's ability to recount his experience with such emotional clarity allowed me to take in a piece of this dark chapter in European history that I might not have been able to otherwise, given the immensity of the horror. I look forward to reading the other two books he wrote on Auschwitz. Highly recommended.



5. We had to read this book for a World History class I took in college. I was taking 5 classes at the time, so you can imagine how much reading I had to do on a daily basis. I read this book in ONE sitting (very unusual for me). I could not put it down! I laughed. I cried. I read it again! I recommend this book to EVERYONE!

3 comments about The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, Day.

1. Night is a painful, inconsolable story about the madness and the evil that darkened Europe during the Second World War. Elie's story begins in Transylvania in a small Jewish neighborhood where Elie and his family live, unknowingly, on the brink of terror.
   
   Elie, his family, and community are captured, shuttled into railroad cars, and transported to Auschwitz, Nazi Germany's largest concentration camp. So quickly turns the fate of Elie and his family that they disbelieve their circumstances even as they witness people being conducted en masse to gas chambers and crematoriums. The weak are killed. The strong become industrial slaves, entitling them only to hope for another day and a slower death.
   
   Elie survives Auschwitz and Buchenwald, outliving both his mother and his sister. But Elie still has his father. Sensitive and intuitive, Elie notices that many fathers die after losing their loved ones. He understands that if he were to die, his father would soon follow. Elie tells himself that he must live in order to give his father hope for living.
   
   Elie does eventually live to see his father die in an infirmary, emaciated, exhausted, beaten, spiritless, and vulnerable like a child.
   
   While his father's health is still in decline, Elie daily brings half his ration of bread to him, but that would not save his father from the darkness. A German soldier beats the last bit of life out of his father while he lay prostrate on the edge of death. "Elie," his father exhaled with barely the strength to whisper his son's name as his last word. Elie, motionless, unable to utter the words in his throat, confronts the guilt of being unable to help his father. How could he allow the soldier to beat his dying father? Why was he too afraid to cry out to answer his father's call? So helpless against the growing darkness.
   
   Elie is most vulnerable when contemplating a world without God where darkness prevails. How can we, he asks, witness thousands burned in crematoriums or children being shot, thrown into a pit, and buried without losing our belief in a loving God? How can God himself ignore such evil? Where can we find a place in such a world for the Torah, the Kabala, and belief?
   
   Yet, in a world hostile to belief and hostile to life, Elie witnesses and shows us himself that hope and faith do still sprout up like grass through cracks in the sidewalk, or, more appropriately, like moonlight through cracks in the curtain. The Night is dark, but not pitch-black where yet lives one sensitive soul.



2. This is a must read - for everyone! A real, raw and riviting account of Ellie Wiesel's personal experience during the Holocaust. Starting when no one believed the pending danger of war... to the formation of ghettos and finally life in a concentration camp. His Nobel Peace Price Acceptance Speech at the end of the book is an important bonus! We must NEVER FORGET... Ellie's account will help.



3. Bought this book as a gift for a friend who is a history teacher. She gave me a 3 hour personal tour through the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC and commented that she had not read this book.