I said that I would love to read another novel by Leon Uris and I got the opportunity. This was on par for what I would expect from a piece with the name Uris on the binding. It was long, 800 plus pages, and a brilliant mesh of that which is called, or at least I will call, Narrative Fiction. This story was greatly focused upon the uprising of Polish Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. In the previous novel I read ('Exodus') the plots flashed occasionally back and followed the preceding events encompassing a number of generations. This novel really honed in the the 3 or so years directly preceding and including the invasion of Poland by the Nazis and the subsequent treatment of the Jewish Poles.
We are all well aware of the horrific massacre of Jews at the hands of the Nazis and this story pointed out all the specific atrocities involved with Jews not yet sent to Concentration Camps. Without the straight-forward annihilation, the treatment of Jews in Ghettos was equally terrific.
The characters jump off the page and we see so deeply into what drives them that we feel empathetic even for the antagonists pushed to unthinkable acts, in the pursuit of survival.
This novel follows the families of Andrei Androfski, his sister Deborah's family, and Christopher De Monti. Under the umbrella of these central characters we also gain insight into Gabriela Rak (Androfski's love interest), Paul Bronski, (Deborah's husband) the Bronski Children and their subsequent love interests (Rachael and Stephen and Rachael's lover Wolf Brandel). Most chapters open with a "Journal" passage from Alex Brandel, the primary historian recording the horrors endured by the Jews of the ghetto and his family is inextricably woven into the progress of the plot.
Beginning with Poles prepared to fight and repel the Nazis and ending with the complete liquidation of the Ghetto this story takes the reader through all the ups and downs the struggle for world recognition and, above all, the survival of the actual events that transpired.
I will need to get my hands on more Uris, he has me in awe.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
'A Fountain Filled With Blood' by Julia Spencer-Fleming
This book was, mostly, just what I needed. I had just finished a heavy autobiography and was in dire need of something much lighter.
This mystery was one of a series following Reverand Clare Fergesson and Chief of Police Russ Van Alsythe in a small Adirondack city in the North of New York. Without retelling entire episodes, Spencer-Fleming cues us into a past of mutual desire between our two main characters. In the typical mystery style we see the plot unravel leading us in many directions but eventually bringing us back to the first, and most rational culprit and reasoning. It was dissappointing as I tend to overanalyze mysteries and make my guesses based on what would make for the most thrilling motives and unlikely of guilty parties.
Unfortunately, Spencer-Fleming didn't unwind the spool as far as I was hoping and I was left unsatisfied by the ending. One last thing that was dissappointing was the realization that one last, and far more maniacal, person was responsible for everything and escaped with no repercussions.
It was a quick read and, as I said, a necessary respite from the deep pieces I've been drowing in but I won't see out more Spencer-Fleming in the future.
This mystery was one of a series following Reverand Clare Fergesson and Chief of Police Russ Van Alsythe in a small Adirondack city in the North of New York. Without retelling entire episodes, Spencer-Fleming cues us into a past of mutual desire between our two main characters. In the typical mystery style we see the plot unravel leading us in many directions but eventually bringing us back to the first, and most rational culprit and reasoning. It was dissappointing as I tend to overanalyze mysteries and make my guesses based on what would make for the most thrilling motives and unlikely of guilty parties.
Unfortunately, Spencer-Fleming didn't unwind the spool as far as I was hoping and I was left unsatisfied by the ending. One last thing that was dissappointing was the realization that one last, and far more maniacal, person was responsible for everything and escaped with no repercussions.
It was a quick read and, as I said, a necessary respite from the deep pieces I've been drowing in but I won't see out more Spencer-Fleming in the future.
'The Revolt' by Menachem Begin
Autobiographical to a fault.
I picked up 'The Revolt' hoping for a detail narrative of endless battles as Israel fought to attain then fought to retain statehood. Instead I got a, thinly veiled polemic against the Hagganah and Jewish Council leaders bowing and scraping to the British in the years leading to Israel’s jump to recognition on the International stage.
Scathing in it’s, albeit rightly deserved, contempt for the British attempt at maintaining control of their tiny hub in the Middle East, this autobiography also glorifies the actions and reasoning behind said actions of the Irgun. The Irgun was the independent Jewish Militia responsible for almost all the unrest leading upto, and causing, the pullout of Britains troops in the late 1940’s. While other groups were striving to attain a nation diplomatically the Irgun understood the true intent behind all the British were doing, claiming to do, and planning to do. This understanding led them to initiate, maintain and stiffen the armed resistance that, Begin claims, led to the triumphant return of the State of Israel to modern maps.
I know very little, or rather nothing, of what Menachem Begin accomplished or strove for in his time as Israel’s Prime Minister but this novel clearly lays out his belief in the strong hand being the only respectable hand. In nearly a decade of living ‘underground’ he was the most highly sought after and never uncovered agent in the Anti-British movement prior to their leaving Palestine.
I was hoping for narrative of epic battles but got a far more academic, and obscenely biased, outline of the planning phases, ramifications, and justifiable defense of the Irgun ideals. While I can easily admire Begin’s ingenuity, the valor displayed by his compatriots and the brilliant insight indicative of all their plans, I would not choose to read another book written by Begin himself.
I picked up 'The Revolt' hoping for a detail narrative of endless battles as Israel fought to attain then fought to retain statehood. Instead I got a, thinly veiled polemic against the Hagganah and Jewish Council leaders bowing and scraping to the British in the years leading to Israel’s jump to recognition on the International stage.
Scathing in it’s, albeit rightly deserved, contempt for the British attempt at maintaining control of their tiny hub in the Middle East, this autobiography also glorifies the actions and reasoning behind said actions of the Irgun. The Irgun was the independent Jewish Militia responsible for almost all the unrest leading upto, and causing, the pullout of Britains troops in the late 1940’s. While other groups were striving to attain a nation diplomatically the Irgun understood the true intent behind all the British were doing, claiming to do, and planning to do. This understanding led them to initiate, maintain and stiffen the armed resistance that, Begin claims, led to the triumphant return of the State of Israel to modern maps.
I know very little, or rather nothing, of what Menachem Begin accomplished or strove for in his time as Israel’s Prime Minister but this novel clearly lays out his belief in the strong hand being the only respectable hand. In nearly a decade of living ‘underground’ he was the most highly sought after and never uncovered agent in the Anti-British movement prior to their leaving Palestine.
I was hoping for narrative of epic battles but got a far more academic, and obscenely biased, outline of the planning phases, ramifications, and justifiable defense of the Irgun ideals. While I can easily admire Begin’s ingenuity, the valor displayed by his compatriots and the brilliant insight indicative of all their plans, I would not choose to read another book written by Begin himself.
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