The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time by Judith Shulevitz (2010).
The Sabbath is not just a holy day of rest. It is also a concept of a less pressured and purer world.
Judith Shulevitz describes her own reckoning with the Sabbath by exploring the concepts of the Jewish and Christian sabbaths. How the sabbath is celebrated changes throughout time. It's origins come from Torah, Talmud and Christian Gospels. Various religious doctrines have imposed harsh penalties on those who fail to rest on the Sabbath, yet other views perceive the Sabbath as being made for man's reflection on life.
This book is an interesting meditation of the meaning of a day of rest. It is somewhat scholarly and not an easy read.
Read: October 2010.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Books Set in Europe: Germany and Poland
Skeletons at the Feast, by Chris Bohjalian (2008)
Skeletons at the Feast is the first book by Chris Bohjalian that I have ever read. I was quite taken by this book and the author’s writing style. This novel takes place at the end of World War II and describes the flight of the Germans from Prussia as the Russian army invades. The author gained access to the diary of a neighbor’s grandmother who had experienced first-hand the flight as the Russian army marched through Poland.
The novel tells the story from three perspectives ~ a wealthy German family living in Prussia traveling with a Scottish POW caught behind enemy lines; Cecile, a Jewish woman in a concentration camp; and a renegade Jew who essentially wills himself to survive the war.
The Emmerich’s, the German, tried to ignore and downplay the horrific events of the war. Living on the family estate are Mutti, the mother, Rolf, the father, their 18-year old twins, Anna and Helmut, and 10-year old Theo. Their oldest son is already off fighting for the Reich.
Mutti convinces herself that the German cause will prevail. She has hung a portrait of the fuehrer in her parlor, but apparently doesn’t fully understand or appreciate what the fuerher stands for. Rolf, however, has a better understanding of what is going on. He convinces his wife that they must flee to Germany before the Russian army reaches their country estate. He and Anna tell Mutti that they have buried the family silverware and will retrieve it when they return. In fact, however, in the middle of January 1945, the ground is too frozen solid. Both Anna and her father know that returning to the family home is not a reality.
The family gathers what belongings it can and sets off. Traveling with the Emmerich's, although hidden under the food supplies in their wagon, is Callum Finella, the Scottish paratrooper and prisoner of war who had been assisting on the family farm. Their motive for taking Callum, however, it not altogether altruistic. The father hopes that by having the POW with them, Callum will buy them safety from the Allied army. Unbeknownst to the rest of the family, Anna and Callum have become lovers. Soon, however, the father and Helmut decide to turn around to fight the Russian army. Mutti, Anna Theo continue on alone towards Germany.
A second perspective of the events is Cecile, a French Jewish prisoner in a concentration/work camp. In the final months of the War, the Germans attempted to erase signs of the concentration and work camps. Cecile was in a group of women who were marched from such a camp. Cecile came from a privileged family who attributed her survival to her hiking boots.
The novel also follows Uri Singer. He and his family had been rounded up and forced into a rail car for transport to Auschwitz. Uri managed to escape and, after killing a Nazi soldier, passes as a German. Knowing that his family has likely been killed, Uri does everything possible to survive to tell their tale. He becomes a chameleon, changing names and identities with alarming frequency. He takes the uniforms and names of various German soldiers who he kills when they cross his path. Uri is obsessed with his sister, from whom he was separated from when they were forced into the rail car. He ultimately ends up joining the Emmerichs’ on their trek. Although he doesn’t reveal his true identity, he begins go find comfort with this German family.
Skeletons at the Feast explores questions not often seen in Holocaust novels. Did civilians really know what was going on in Germany? How much did they know, and how could they not take action? The author describes this chaotic period of World War II in a way I had not seen before. The characters are fully developed and react in ways very human ways when faced with such agonizing moral choices encountered during wartime.
Read: October 3, 2010.
Skeletons at the Feast is the first book by Chris Bohjalian that I have ever read. I was quite taken by this book and the author’s writing style. This novel takes place at the end of World War II and describes the flight of the Germans from Prussia as the Russian army invades. The author gained access to the diary of a neighbor’s grandmother who had experienced first-hand the flight as the Russian army marched through Poland.
The novel tells the story from three perspectives ~ a wealthy German family living in Prussia traveling with a Scottish POW caught behind enemy lines; Cecile, a Jewish woman in a concentration camp; and a renegade Jew who essentially wills himself to survive the war.
The Emmerich’s, the German, tried to ignore and downplay the horrific events of the war. Living on the family estate are Mutti, the mother, Rolf, the father, their 18-year old twins, Anna and Helmut, and 10-year old Theo. Their oldest son is already off fighting for the Reich.
Mutti convinces herself that the German cause will prevail. She has hung a portrait of the fuehrer in her parlor, but apparently doesn’t fully understand or appreciate what the fuerher stands for. Rolf, however, has a better understanding of what is going on. He convinces his wife that they must flee to Germany before the Russian army reaches their country estate. He and Anna tell Mutti that they have buried the family silverware and will retrieve it when they return. In fact, however, in the middle of January 1945, the ground is too frozen solid. Both Anna and her father know that returning to the family home is not a reality.
The family gathers what belongings it can and sets off. Traveling with the Emmerich's, although hidden under the food supplies in their wagon, is Callum Finella, the Scottish paratrooper and prisoner of war who had been assisting on the family farm. Their motive for taking Callum, however, it not altogether altruistic. The father hopes that by having the POW with them, Callum will buy them safety from the Allied army. Unbeknownst to the rest of the family, Anna and Callum have become lovers. Soon, however, the father and Helmut decide to turn around to fight the Russian army. Mutti, Anna Theo continue on alone towards Germany.
A second perspective of the events is Cecile, a French Jewish prisoner in a concentration/work camp. In the final months of the War, the Germans attempted to erase signs of the concentration and work camps. Cecile was in a group of women who were marched from such a camp. Cecile came from a privileged family who attributed her survival to her hiking boots.
The novel also follows Uri Singer. He and his family had been rounded up and forced into a rail car for transport to Auschwitz. Uri managed to escape and, after killing a Nazi soldier, passes as a German. Knowing that his family has likely been killed, Uri does everything possible to survive to tell their tale. He becomes a chameleon, changing names and identities with alarming frequency. He takes the uniforms and names of various German soldiers who he kills when they cross his path. Uri is obsessed with his sister, from whom he was separated from when they were forced into the rail car. He ultimately ends up joining the Emmerichs’ on their trek. Although he doesn’t reveal his true identity, he begins go find comfort with this German family.
Skeletons at the Feast explores questions not often seen in Holocaust novels. Did civilians really know what was going on in Germany? How much did they know, and how could they not take action? The author describes this chaotic period of World War II in a way I had not seen before. The characters are fully developed and react in ways very human ways when faced with such agonizing moral choices encountered during wartime.
Read: October 3, 2010.
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