Last Impressions

Finished September 5

Last Impressions by Joseph Kertes

Ben is the middle son of Zoltan Beck, a Holocaust survivor and Canadian immigrant. Zoltan (Zoli) grew up in an upper-class family in Hungary, the younger son in the family. He venerated his older brother Bela, who was a gifted musician and despite his young age a teacher at the Franz Liszt Academy. 

The book begins with Ben visiting his father in the hospital, Zoltan is nearing the end of his life and Ben is still trying to understand him. We see the interaction between the two men, and can sense the strong connection, and Ben's deep emotion. 

The story then jumps back a few months to when Ben is picking his father up to take him into the hospital for a colonoscopy. Ben's younger brother, an eye surgeon, has finally convinced Zoli to get the procedure done, but the visit is a comedy of errors, as is Zoli's driving test shortly after. We get a sense of the zaniness of the older man and the way his mind works.

Zoli has never gone back to Hungary, his country of birth since he emigrated in the 1950s when Ben was a young child. It is something both he and his wife talked of from time to time, but never followed through on. The family decides that he must go while he still can and so it is arranged that Ben takes him back to his homeland.

The book then jumps back and forth between Zoli's experiences as a Jew in Hungary near the end of the Second World War, and things he has never talked about with his family before. As the two storylines come together we learn some of what has made Zoli the man he is, and why he has suppressed so much of this until now. 

I loved the relationship between the father and son, and Zoli's relationship with his daughter-in-law Lucy as well. Zoli is a character, full of quirks that make him both exasperating and lovable. As the story unfolds and Zoli finds that there are things he didn't know about the past as well, there is a sense of inevitability in the way things come together. A fantastic read that I could barely put down.

Sarah's Key

Finished May 13
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

This read was for my upcoming book club meeting. It is a WWII story of a young girl, ten years old, who is awakened early one July morning in 1942 by pounding on her apartment door. She wakes her mother, and tells her. They family isn't that worried as Sarah's father has been sleeping in the cellar after rumours of police seizing men have become widespread. This morning, however the police order Sarah's mother to pack a bag and also tell Sarah they will be taking her. When Sarah enters her bedroom to get clothes, and wake her younger brother, only 4, he refuses to go.
The children had a deep cupboard they often played in and hid from their parents in fun. He goes in there and Sarah locks him in, promising to come back later.
As the police shepherd the two from the building, Sarah's mother screams for her father, and he joins them. They are part of a roundup of Jews in Paris, in which busloads are taken to the Vel' d'Hiv'.
Sixty years later, Julia Jarmond, an American woman reporter, who has lived in Paris for twenty-five years, and married a Parisian, is assigned to do a story on the sixtieth anniversary of this horrible event. Julie hadn't heard of it before, and as she does research, she is horrified.
When she discovers that her husband's family has a connection to the event, she is determined to find out about the family that used to live in the apartment her husband's grandparents lived in.
As we follow Sarah's story in 1942, we also follow Julia's investigation into the past.
This is a novel of a fictional family, set around a true event, and a terribly sad one. This particular raid was enacted by Frenchmen on Nazi orders, men who did not protest acting against their fellow citizens. This is a novel that was written to help enlighten the people of today about their past, and look toward a future of truth and acknowledgement.

A Crime in the Family

Finished March 6
A Crime in the Family by Sacha Batthyany, translated by Anthea Bell

Even though he was born and grew up in Switzerland, Sacha's parent's, who escaped from Hungary, never really adopted Swiss ways of life, and yearned for their homeland. Once the wall came down and Eastern Europe became more accessible, his parents, although separated, both returned to Hungary. Sacha works as a journalist, and he began to hear a story about his great aunt's actions during the war. It is a story that horrifies, and Sacha finally begins to investigate the story as a tool to discover more about his own history.
When his mother died, he was given all her papers, but he hadn't looked at them until now. Shortly before she died, she had started to write down some of her memories of the war years, and he is drawn to an incident that seems to reappear often. The incident is of an encounter between her father and a local Jewish couple. This leads Sacha to try to find out more about this incident, and what really happened and he looks for people connected to it.
One of the children of the couple is still alive in South America, and he first makes a connection with one of her daughters, and finally with her in person.
The knowledge of this history is one that captivated Sacha for a long time, and led him to many insights. I found his story very interesting both on an historical and a personal level.

Götz and Meyer

Finished December 26
Götz and Meyer by David Albahari, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursać

This short novel is told from the view of a teacher, a man whose immediate family were some of the few Serbian Jews to survive the Second World War.
He tells the story of the fate of many Belgrade Jews, who were first interned at the Fairgrounds, and then taken by truck to their death. When leaving the Fairgrounds, they were told they were being transported to another camp in Poland or Romania, and the local Jewish Administration was even given the rules of the new camp to flesh out the story. In reality, shortly after leaving the camp, the two drivers, brought from Germany, Götz and Meyer, stopped and attached the exhaust to a spot in the floor of the truck and drove their route while the Jews in the back died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
The unnamed teacher survived because his mother had taken him to live in a small village in the mountains, and his father survived in a POW camp. But he is consumed by the story of the Jews, many of his relatives among them, and has researched their story and dug into the identities of those involved. About Götz and Meyer he doesn't know much beyond their names, and his story reveals their interchangeability.
As his students study history, he rents a bus and takes them on the same journey, first to the Fairgrounds, then onward as he gives them an identity to imagine and become for the trip. Imaginative and consuming this novel makes the victims come alive, as well as the two young soldiers who drove the truck.
I found the book difficult for its subject matter and its format, which is just one long paragraph. I felt myself needing to take breaks, but without any natural spot to stop. The author is Serbian, but has lived in Canada since the mid-1990s.

Night

Finished March 17
Night by Elie Wiesel, translated by Marion Wiesel

This is another classic that I had never got around to reading. This is the memoir of Elie Wiesel of his experience in the concentration camps in World War II. Wiesel was born in Transylvania, a part of Europe that was one of the last to succumb to the rounding up of the Jews. He and his family were taken from their home in 1944, and this book tells their experience as Elie loses the members of his family, questions his own faith, and realizes the horrors that man is capable of.
The book reads as a very present experience as Elie captures the stream of events as they happen, including his inner thoughts and feelings.

Letters from the Lost

Finished February 9
Letters from the Lost: a memoir of discovery by Helen Waldstein Wilkes

This book is a compilation of letters from Helen's relatives that never made it out of the Czech Republic to safety and most of whom died in the Holocaust. There is also a few letters from an uncle that survived the camps, but was utterly changed by them. More than the letters, the book describes Helen's parents' own flight to Canada, their struggles to make a living in their adopted country, and the silence they maintained about the lost family. Helen describes this well, including her own experiences with exclusion and her gradual interest in the past. She talks about her research, her visits to the Czech Republic, searching for news of her family and revisiting family homes and memories. A moving book, open and honest about the difficulties and the rewards of such a search.

Far to Go

Finished January 23
Far to Go by Alison Pick
This novel is set in Czechoslovakia at the beginning of the Second World War, when the Germans took over first Sudetenland and then the rest of the country. We look at things from the point of view of the young nanny for a well-off Jewish family. There is also a voice from the early twentieth century that we don't find out the identity of until the end of the book.
The story is a different voice and follows not only the arc of the German's in Czechoslovakia, but also the variety of responses to the German's presence. The nanny, Marta, has her own issues that influence her actions here. The small boy, Pepik, is put on the list for Kindertransport and manages to escape, but never sees his family or nanny again. His experience is something we hear about later in the book.
This is a sad book, but not in a manipulative way. We see a story that is based on real stories and real history and it is a learning experience as well as a rewarding tale.
Well told and researched.

War Story

Finished June 28
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: a novel of war and survival by Louise Murphy
Two young children, brother and sister are left in the woods by their father and stepmother who are fleeing from the Germans in the last months of World War II. To hide their identity as Jews, the two are told their names are now Hansel and Gretel.
On their travels through the woods, the two eventually encounter a house lived in by Magda, an eccentric old woman known to local villagers as the witch. Despite the urging of others, Magda takes in the two children as her grandchildren. She receives help from family members in hiding the real identity of the children, and trying to give them a normal life. When a new German General comes to town with his own agenda for some of the children, things become even more difficult for the villagers.
With a close look at the difficult lives of villagers during this time period, history comes to life. But the added element of the Hansel and Gretel story adds another dimension to the story.
A fascinating and engrossing novel. This book was a San Francisco Chroncile Best Book of the Year.

Fascinating Listen

Finished May 8
Anne Frank Remembered by Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold, read by Barbara Rosenblat
This is the story of the woman who helped to hide Anne Frank and her family in Amsterdam. When the Franks were discovered, she found the diary and saved it, giving it to Otto Frank once she knew Anne wouldn't be coming back for it. Miep's story is an interesting one in its own right, with the Frank's story overlayed. This new edition updates the first and adds additional information that has surfaced since that time.
Offering another perspective on the story known around the world, this memoir is brought to life by the wonderful reader.
Oddly enough, I somehow missed ever reading The Diary of Anne Frank, but this story brought the experience to life. I will have to go back and read that one now too. This story is told in a very factual, yet human way, and the details really brought it to life. Miep is self-effacing and humble about her role in the famous story, but she obviously played a very important role.
Well worth listening to.

Canadian Fiction

Finished November 9
Your Sad Eyes and Unforgettable Mouth by Edeet Ravel
This book was recommended to me back in January and I finally got around to reading it. I really enjoyed it. The novel is very character-driven, centering around Maya, daughter of a Holocaust survivor. Maya's father died before she was born and she lives with her mother and grandmother. She is a bit of a misfit and feels it until one summer when she attends an unorthodox summer camp. The following summer she meets and becomes friends with Rosie, another daughter of Holocaust survivors and embarks on a new life embracing her Jewish culture as a way of staying close to Rosie.
As we see Maya coming to terms with her feelings and her impulses, we are made aware of her motivations and thoughts.
This is a book of a woman coming to terms with her life.

Teen Novel

Finished Nov 7
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
This is a book that is disturbing. The main character is a 9-year-old boy, Bruno, whose father is a commandant in the German army during World War II. Bruno and his family move from Berlin to a house out in the country. The only things around it are woods and a fenced-in area that Bruno can see from his room. Bruno is lonely and misses his friends from Berlin. His sister, Gretel, is a few years older and not a willing playmate for him. He decides to go adventuring, as he plans to be an explorer when he grows up, and during his first adventure finds a new friend.
As the book follows Bruno's life, we also see the situation and the people around him from his point of view. At the age of nine, and naive, he doesn't truly understand the nature of his father's job, or what is going on in the world. This makes his viewpoint interesting and I think is what really grabs you about the book. As the reader, we understand more than Bruno and yet can see how he would interpret things as he does.
This book is aimed at teens, and older children will be okay with it, particularly if they are engaged in discussion about the book.

World War II Novel

Finished June 21
Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian
This story begins in Poland at the estate Kaminheim, owned by the Emmerich family. The Russians are advancing and due to the stories being told of their brutality against civilians, most people are fleeing in advance of them. The Emmerichs, consisting of Irmgard and Rolf and three of their children, Anna, Helmut and Theo. They also have with them Callum, a POW from Scotland who was working on their farm and whom Anna is having a secret relationship with. They must cross the frozen Vistula river and keep moving west from there. Part of the reason they are travelling with Callum is that they hope the might meet up with British forces eventually and that he will vouch for them.
We also follow Uri, a German Jew who escaped from a train travelling to the camps and has since been taking on various identities, often of German soldiers, to survive. He is looking for his sister Rebekah who was also taken to the camp and whom he is not sure still lives.
The third story is that of Cecile, a French Jew who had been working in a factory attached to a camp and is now being moved west with the rest of her camp to an uncertain destination. She feels close to Jeanne and tries to keep her motivated to live and hope for rescue from their situation.
As they all work their way west, they encounter each other and play roles that influence the direction of each others' lives.
This is a story of strong characters, particularly Anna and Uri, and the feelings that underlie their actions. The situation is constantly changing, but always somewhat desperate and none of them are really sure what they are ultimately hoping for.

Finished three in a day

Finished April 20
The Sunday List of Dreams by Kris Radish
This was a great book and very positive and uplifting.
Connie Franklin Nixon, divorced mother of 3 grown daughters is just about to retire from her career as a nurse. Before starting as a medical consultant, she has three months in which to fulfill some of the dreams she has been adding to her list since she was pregnant with her first daughter. As she goes through her household, getting rid of things, she discovers that her oldest daughter has a business making and selling sex toys. This launches her into her list faster than ever and takes her to a new relationship with all of her daughters, a new awareness of herself, new friends of many ages, and a new career that she never dreamed of.
I highly recommend this book and am buying a copy for my own mother.

Once by Morris Gleitzman
This young adult book follows a young boy, Felix Saint Stanislaus as he leaves the Catholic orphanage that his Jewish parents entrusted him to when he thinks he might be able to help them. As he gradually discovers the reality of the situation for Jews in Austria he meets other young children, a Jewish dentist who is helping them and a variety of Nazis. He learns different ways to survive and function in the world he lands in, and how to help others. He is a natural storyteller and this makes it easier for the others he is with to deal with their realities.

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (aka John Banville), read by Timothy Dalton
This great crime novel stars Garret Quirke, a Dublin pathologist who was adopted out of an orphanage as a young boy by a leading Dublin judge. He has grown up with the Judge's own son and the two married sisters from Boston. Quirke's wife, Delia, died in childbirth 20 years ago.
Now Quirke discovers that his adopted brother has falsified a record for another young woman who has died giving birth and this sets him off on a quest for the truth that leads to other deaths, beatings, and back to Boston.