The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale

Book Description

At last! Here is the definitive edition of the book acclaimed as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust” (Wall Street Journal) and “the first masterpiece in comic book history” (The New Yorker). It now appears as it was originally envisioned by the author: The Complete Maus.

It is the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father’s story. Maus approaches the unspeakable through the diminutive. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks us out of any lingering sense of familiarity and succeeds in “drawing us closer to the bleak heart of the Holocaust” (The New York Times).

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek’s harrowing story of survival is woven into the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits. This astonishing retelling of our century’s grisliest news is a story of survival, not only of Vladek but of the children who survive even the survivors. Maus studies the bloody pawprints of history and tracks its meaning for all of us.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent read.......2007-09-12

I read Maus I and II back in junior high and thought it was really cool that I was reading a book while also reading a comic. I purchased and re-read the boxed set recently when I stumbled upon it on Amazon. It's excellent. Truly a one-of-a-kind story, told in a way that gets the reader engaged in the details of what went on back in World War II. I love the cleverness of the Jews being portrayed as mice and the Nazi soldiers as cats. The only qualm I have with this series is that Maus II (the second and last book) ends rather abruptly, which is sort of understandable if you read the books. Honestly, I wanted more from the author and the storyline. Either way, it was a good read back when I was age 12 and still a good read at age 25.

DEMEAMING, INSENSITIVE, STEREOTYPING, TOO GRAPHIC - JUST NOT CORRECT.......2007-09-01

I just don't understand, how any type of stereotyping, as maus is loaded with it, can be acceptable. Stereotyping like bigotry, can "never" be justified! The graphic nature of this book is also "disturbing." With so many other books out there, I personally am unable to understand why anyone would use this book that offends "other" (3 million Catholic Poles for starters)holocaust victims. Many, many books out there get the job done, without such dark graphics and offending peoples, who were also victims. There are three books that I feel are truly objective, factual and just not as offensive, as Maus is: "Auschwitz," by Sybile Steinbacher, Richard Lukas' "The Forgotten Holocaust," which "objectively" talks about "everyone's" suffering in the holocaust; and finally, Michael R. Marrus' "The Holocaust in History." On Marrus' book: "An ideal introduction to the subject for any student of the Holocaust, and an authoritative summary for the expert." Yehuda Bauer, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem(back cover). With all the suffering and sensitivity on the Holocaust, "all" victims' feelings should be considered - maus does "not" accomplish this.

Sometimes truth is better than fiction........2007-08-21

I stumbled across this a few days ago in a book shop in Cambodia, of all places. I sat transfixed reading the book until 4 a.m., when my eyes could no longer focus. When I awoke the next day, I finished the book.

We are provided with a narrative by the father, a Holocaust survivor, and a more recent portrayal of the author (the son, who happens to be the artist, also). We see the trials and tribulations of his father and his mother as a young Jewish couple in World War 2 era Poland during the Nazi invasion and subsequent occupation.

We also get to share the experience of being the guilty son of Holocaust survivors. He worries about seeing his father as the stereotypical "miserly old Jew." Can he have judgment about people who have suffered through so much? Can he have a bit of animosity towards his parents, as most people tend to do? The author has to question how his mother could have survived the Nazi regime, but committed suicide when he was 20. He has to question the relationship with his father. Is he annoying or pitiful or admirable?

All these muddled emotions and the true story of a man who lived through the most brutal crime of the 20th century all come into play.

The drawings are great. The format is great. The idea to show different races as different animals is also great. Because, as silly as that sounds- isn't even sillier that people see our own races as different creatures?

Maus.......2007-08-10

As a Polish/american/alsacian I need to say this book is amazing. It captures all cultures together and produces the most authentic representation of WW2 I have ever read.

Immensely sad. Full of pathos. An immense work.......2007-06-13

More than a graphic novel. Rather a powerful moving tale of a son's recovery of a father's experience of the years of the holocaust and how this trickled down into contemporary family life. Reflective and immense in scope. I would recommend this book genuinely to anyone interested in what makes life worth living. The vignettes of Spiegelman's father are harrowing and inspiring, accentuated by a matter of fact story telling style. Spiegelman's insertion of his own family into the narrative serves to contrast the relatively normal travails of a modern family with those of families on the edge of survival and extinction.

Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History

Average customer rating:

Maus: Explores the ineffable with creativity and ease
A Compelling Graphic Novel
Approbation for Maus
Excellent seller!!
DEMEANIG, INSENSITIVE, CRUDE STEREOTYPING, HURTFUL TO "OTHER" HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS

Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
Art Spiegelman
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0394747232
Release Date: 1986-08-12

Amazon.com

Some historical events simply beggar any attempt at description--the Holocaust is one of these. Therefore, as it recedes and the people able to bear witness die, it becomes more and more essential that novel, vigorous methods are used to describe the indescribable. Examined in these terms, Art Spiegelman's Maus is a tremendous achievement, from a historical perspective as well as an artistic one.

Spiegelman, a stalwart of the underground comics scene of the 1960s and '70s, interviewed his father, Vladek, a Holocaust survivor living outside New York City, about his experiences. The artist then deftly translated that story into a graphic novel. By portraying a true story of the Holocaust in comic form--the Jews are mice, the Germans cats, the Poles pigs, the French frogs, and the Americans dogs--Spiegelman compels the reader to imagine the action, to fill in the blanks that are so often shied away from. Reading Maus, you are forced to examine the Holocaust anew.

This is neither easy nor pleasant. However, Vladek Spiegelman and his wife Anna are resourceful heroes, and enough acts of kindness and decency appear in the tale to spur the reader onward (we also know that the protagonists survive, else reading would be too painful). This first volume introduces Vladek as a happy young man on the make in pre-war Poland. With outside events growing ever more ominous, we watch his marriage to Anna, his enlistment in the Polish army after the outbreak of hostilities, his and Anna's life in the ghetto, and then their flight into hiding as the Final Solution is put into effect. The ending is stark and terrible, but the worst is yet to come--in the second volume of this Pulitzer Prize-winning set. --Michael Gerber

Book Description

A story of a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father's story and history itself.

Customer Reviews:

Maus: Explores the ineffable with creativity and ease.......2007-09-18

The book is adumbrated in the form of a graphic novel, giving a seemingly new perspective on the holocaust. The issue itself is nothing spectactularly new, although it approaches the holocaust in such a way that the most acerbic of events are bearable.
Most simply stated, the visual aid that accompanies the text allows for the reader to fully understand the author's stance, or viewpoint on the touchy issues of the holocaust. One does not need to have any sort of historical acumen, to grasp the concepts and ideas of the story.
The facade, of animals, instead of humans, used by the author also makes the events seem a little less human. However, throughout the novel, the thought doesn't escape your mind, that this was actually happening, to real people.
The reader is also easily captivated by the father-son presentation of the story, as Art (the author), interviews his father. With nothing but acrimony polluting the stories told by his father, a bond is formed between the reader, Art, and his father, as you must approbate anyone who braves these hardships, more specifically, the characters.
Overall, this story makes something new, that has been done so many times. It entertains, as well as informs. However, it isn't something I'd recommend for casual reading, as time must be set aside to truly appreciate the events in this book.

A Compelling Graphic Novel.......2007-09-18

When hearing the words "Graphic Novel" most people do not think of a moving and inspirational story, yet Maus by Art Spiegelman is just that. Firstly I would recommend this novel for its crafty and meaningful graphics. Various groups, such as the Jewish and German, are depicted as numerous animals. In doing so, the author expresses underlying themes, as one judges another's character by how they look, or their origin. Each picture also conveys the deep feeling in each moment. Frighten and sometimes acerbic faces, give the reader acumen on how the characters feel and are reacting. Also, several depictions of maps and drawings, heightening one's understanding of each setting. The second reason I would recommend the novel is because of the compelling story lines it contains. The first is Vladek's poignant account on how he and his wife survived as the Nazis abrogated their rights. From witnessing friends being hanged, to hiding in attics, the reader gains and insight on personal experiences of the Holocaust. The second is of a strained father and son relationship. As the father ages, the interest and reminiscence of a troubled past becomes their last connection. These assiduous characters are connectable for the reader, and acquire my last approbation. Anyone with a stained relationship or even an experience with isolation, can relate to the feelings and manners of the characters. With evocative graphics, gripping story lines, and relatable characters, Maus is a compelling novel which I highly propose.

Approbation for Maus.......2007-09-18

Maus should be greatly encouraged with approbation. The book displays the crude reality of the Holocaust and World War II in a creative, artistic way that makes the book classic and unique. Having Jews displayed as mice and Nazis as cats, Spiegelman uses much acumen in how the book is laid out and the story told. Even without reading, the graphic art adumbrates the story enough to understand.
Artie is a comic book writer who decides to write meaningful stories instead of useless funny ones, and wishes to interview his father about his experiences during the Holocaust. Vladek willingly tells his story to Artie, who seems unchanged by the troubling information his father is offering him. Throughout the story, Vladek becomes almost an anathema to Artie, and Artie finally finds the hate for his father that was always brewing. Although Artie dislikes his father, his father dislikes himself as well. After the war, life was never the same for Vladek. Having never gotten over his wife's death, and feeling antipathy for his new wife, he seemed to abjure all opportunities to enhance his life and adopted a new, somewhat acerbic personality.
Overall, the story told in Maus is an unforgettable one. It brings about several ineffable issues such as the harshness of World War II and how the Nazis arrogated lives with no right to do so. In addition, how these times were difficult even for the high class. The graphic art in the book ties all of the information together and allows a visual interpretation what the book is saying. Although the story is based on World War II and the Holocaust, it is as much about family issues and hidden hate as it is about history. Throughout the whole experience, Artie and Vladek discover where they truly stand with each other and decide that this deleterious relationship is not worth the trouble any longer.

Excellent seller!!.......2007-09-15

Good seller! Highly recommended for all buyers. My item was timely sent and the condition of the item was as described.

DEMEANIG, INSENSITIVE, CRUDE STEREOTYPING, HURTFUL TO "OTHER" HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS.......2007-09-14

This is as bad, as the 1st Maus: Horribly GRAPHIC, EXREMELY CRUDE and INSENSITIVE to the "OTHER" victims of the holocaust. Spiegleman shows absolutely "no" sympathy or sensitivity to the 3 million Polish-Catholics that were killed by the Germans. Adding insult to injury, he portrays the Poles in a very negative and hurtful manner, when in fact the Poles themselves lost everything. Poles, as well as Jews, lost their homes. Poles, as well as Jews, came home to homes that were piles of rubble. There are so many better vechicles out there to teach about this. This is the last one to use, as it seriously offends many innocent students whose parents and grandparents also suffered, died and lost everything in the Forgotten Holocaust. Better books are: Sybille Steinbacher's "Auschwitz. Steinbachers book gets the job done without all the grusome graphics and vulgar demeaning that is in Maus. Richard Lukas' "The Forgoten Holocaust; Poles Under Nazi-Occupation," and "Did The Children Cry: The suffering of Polish & Jewish children in the holocaust." After reading the latter one by Lukas, you'll never go anywhere near a Maus book again! "Did The Children Cry," will be a wake-up call - unless you are inhumane. Lukas, in both book, talks, OBJECTIVLY about "all" who suffered, without the sick graphics and personal attacks that maus has. Michael Marrus' "The Holocaust in History." Marrus, like Steinbacher and Lukas is controlled, scholarly and informative - Spiegleman is not. These 3 books will explain and teach you something, unlike Maus, that only teaches hateful generalizations through stereotyping and is grusomly graphic. Don't be fooled by the hype. Maus gets an F- for humanity. TEACHERS, PLEASE, BE TEACHERS!

Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began (Maus)

Average customer rating:

Non Fiction
A hauntingly good work.
Astonishing -- a must read
An Incredible Historical Perspective (Part 2)
Spectacular account of the Holocaust

Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began (Maus)
Art Spiegelman
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679729771
Release Date: 1992-09-01

Book Description

MAUS was the first half of the tale of survival of the author's parents, charting their desperate progress from prewar Poland Auschwitz. Here is the continuation, in which the father survives the camp and is at last reunited with his wife.

Customer Reviews:

Non Fiction.......2007-09-03

Spiegelman continues the story of his father's life, through Auschwitz and afterwards, and his feelings about what has happened to him.

The story is told using animal forms for the people within, different classes of people are represented as different animals. Mice, obviously are used to represent the prisoners.

A hauntingly good work........2007-01-11

Haunting, you'll find certain parts that keep coming back to you. Don't let the artwork fool you, this is no children's book. This work is honest, and perhaps because of it, is very emotionally affecting. I've had to read it more than once to really appreciate it.

Astonishing -- a must read.......2006-10-23

I was compelled to read this after finishing Art Spiegelman's astonishingly brilliant "Maus," a graphic novel retelling his father, Vladek's, experiences as a Jew in Poland during WWII. This sequel picks up right where the first left off, with Vladek's separation from wife, Anja, after arriving at Auschwitz. There Vladek must struggle to survive starvation and disease as well as the guards and the ovens, all while trying to get news of his wife from over in Auschwitz's second camp, Birkenau. His horrific time there is expertly rendered as Spiegelman manages to get across a complex range of emotions through his illustrations and words. Even after Auschwitz is abandoned and the Nazi soldiers go on the run, Vladek must still struggle to survive and make his way to safety. His journey home to his wife (from Auschwitz to an abandoned German landscape, through ruined cities and, finally, back to the now unrecognizable city he once called home) is utterly compelling, unforgettable stuff.

Equally compelling is the story of Vladek in later years that is mixed in with his history in both volumes of "Maus", after he has come to America with Anja, had another son (the first, Richieu, did not survive the war), lost Anja to suicide in 1968, remarried, developed a heart condition and a strained relationship with his surviving son, and begins telling his story to 'Artie', who is interested in adapting his father's tale into a comic book). In the WWII segments Spiegelman captures the horrors that took place during that tragic time, and in these father-son moments he explores how surviving an event like that leaves a mark on you forever, and can even pass on the burden of survivor's guilt to a new generation that wasn't even alive when the atrocities took place. Surprisingly, it is during these deeply personal moments that the "Maus" books really hit home the hardest. Spiegelman does a masterful job getting across the complex personalities of his characters and how the past has left a wide, seemingly impassable gulf between him and his father. Really, it is just a beautiful portrait of their relationship and I cannot recommend it enough. Spiegelman's delicate, earnest elegy to his father -- and to all survivors and victims of the Holocaust alike -- is a true triumph of literature and a heartbreaking look at one of history's greatest tragedies.

An Incredible Historical Perspective (Part 2).......2006-10-11

This conclusion of Maus 1 is the conclusion of Holocaust survivor Vladek Spiegelman's story and of the father-son relationship explored throughout the work.

This book tells the story of Vladek's time in Aushwitz, the liberation of the camps and the rebuilding of a new life. There is a lot more in Maus 2 about the relationships and mental trauma of a Holocaust survivor. It's really very moving.

Maus 2 is the second testament to Speigelman's brilliance as a story-teller and artist, Maus 1 being the first. His understanding of the depth of history and how it effects our lives is impressive.

Spectacular account of the Holocaust.......2005-07-09

I first read Maus II when I was in fourth or fifth grade, but, of course, I didn't really grasp the true horror of it all at the time. I decided to buy a copy a couple of months ago and see if it lived up to my memory, and I was not disappointed. Now that I'm nine or ten years older and more attuned to the world and its history, it's that much more poignant. The insanity of the time period is hard to comprehend, but even in a cartoon, Spiegelman is able to give us some small idea of the reality.

I definitely recommend this book to everyone. Even if (like me) you're not a fan of graphic novels, this is still worth the read.

Average customer rating:

great book
Just OK
Boy do I love suicide cults.
Better Than Fight Club
Unique, Fresh, Brilliant

Survivor: A Novel
Chuck Palahniuk
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0385498721
Release Date: 2000-01-04

Amazon.com

Some say that the apocalypse swiftly approacheth, but that simply ain't so according to Chuck Palahniuk. Oh no. It's already here, living in the head of the guy who just crossed the street in front of you, or maybe even closer than that. We saw these possibilities get played out in the author's bloodsporting-anarchist-yuppie shocker of a first novel, Fight Club. Now, in Survivor, his second and newest, the concern is more for the origin of the malaise. Starting at chapter 47 and screaming toward ground zero, Palahniuk hurls the reader back to the beginning in a breathless search for where it all went wrong. This time out, the author's protagonist is self-made, self-ruined mogul-messiah Tender Branson, the sole passenger of a jet moments away from slamming first into the Australian outback and then into oblivion. All that will be left, Branson assures us with a tone bordering on relief, is his life story, from its Amish-on-acid cult beginnings to its televangelist-huckster end. All of this courtesy of the plane's flight recorder.

Speaking of little black boxes, Skinnerians would have a field day with the presenting behavior of the folks who make up Palahniuk's world. They pretend they're suicide hotline operators for fun. They eat lobster before it's quite... done. They dance in morgues. The Cleavers they are not. Scary as they might be, these characters are ultimately more scared of themselves than you are, and that's what makes them so fascinating. In the wee hours and on lonely highways, they exist in a perpetual twilight, caught between the horror of the present and the dread of the unknown. With only two novels under his belt, Chuck Palahniuk is well on his way to becoming an expert at shining a light on these shadowy creatures. --Bob Michaels

Book Description

From the author of the cult sensation Fight Club (now a major motion picture starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter) comes Survivor.

"A turbo-charged, deliciously manic satire of contemporary American life." --Newsday

"The only difference between suicide and martyrdom is press coverage," according to the "been there, done that" wisdom of Tender Branson, last surviving member of the Creedish Death Cult. At the opening of Chuck Palahniuk's hilariously unnerving second novel, Tender is cruising on autopilot, 39,000 feet up, dictating the whole of his life story into Flight 2039's "black box" in the final moments before crashing into the vast Australian outback.

Not since Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night has there been as dark and telling a satire on the wages of fame and the bedrock lunacy of the modern world. Wickedly incisive and mesmerizing, Survivor is Chuck Palahniuk at his deadpan peak.

Customer Reviews:

great book.......2007-08-03

the chapter about lobster is the best. i've re-read it several times and i've introduced it to friends, who have been awed by its awesomeness.

Just OK.......2007-07-26

I thought the plot in this book fell a little short. There were some threads that Palahniuk started in the beginning of the book that were intriguing, but he didn't follow them through to the end. Not nearly as interesting as Fight Club.

Boy do I love suicide cults........2007-07-24

This was the second book by Chuck Palahniuk that I read and it just added fuel to the fire. It's and interesting story with VERY interesting characters that you will not be able to relate to but it's ok.

The way the book is set up is you're reading the book backwards. You're at the end of the book when you first open it, but it doesn't give important things away. It's a very unique way of telling a story and it worked for Chuck.

Better Than Fight Club.......2007-06-26

Fight Club was amazing. It was later made into a David Fincher film. LOL I love how every single one of Chuck's books has to mention that.

Anyways, Fight Club's ending in his book is a bit lame. The movie's ending overshadows it and even Chuck said the film's ending was better. Don't get me wrong Fight Club is great, but this is how Survivor edges out Fight Club.

The entire book just made me keep wanting to read. Never put that book down. Unlike Haunting, which made me want to give up reading, this book was just long enough and reading it was fun.

The only problem, if there was any, was the concentration on his celebrity status. It seemed a little drawn out and unnecessary. But it built on Tender's character. So whatever.

All I can say is, once you get to the end.. You'll be stunned.

PS. When you are finished being stunned, head over to Chuck's official website and read exactly what happens to Tender. I love this book.

Unique, Fresh, Brilliant.......2007-06-18

Survivor is an absurdly funny, yet penetratingly accurate look at modern society, in perhaps a not-so-good light. As a follow-up to the wildly successful Fight Club, Survivor carries over some of the elements I found so fresh and new about Palahniuk's writing, while still keeping the story fresh and new. In other words, this is definitely not Fight Club, Part II.

As an author, Palahniuk's best quality is his willingness to take chances. From the backward numbering the pages and chapters to the edgy themes contained therein, we can be certain about this: there is no topic too sacred.

A few of the "twists" toward the end didn't live up to the set-up for me, but it's not much of a let down when the book is still so much more interesting than the rest of what's out there these days.

Average customer rating:

Magnificent
Fantastic!!
A monument of Israeli literature
See Under: Masterpiece
This is a life-changing book

See Under: LOVE: A Novel
David Grossman
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0374257310

Book Description

In this powerful novel by one of Israel's most prominent writers, Momik, the only child of Holocaust survivors, grows up in the shadow of his parents' history. Determined to exorcise the Nazi 'beast' from their shattered lives and prepare for a second holocaust he knows is coming, Momik increasingly shields himself from all feeling and attachment. But through the stories his great-uncle tells him-the same stories he told the commandant of a Nazi concentration camp-Momik, too, becomes 'infected with humanity.' Grossman's masterly fusing of vision, thought, and emotion make See Under: Love a luminously imaginative and profoundly affecting work.

Customer Reviews:

Magnificent.......2005-03-26

Words fail. I beg anyone who has been considering buying into Jonathan Safran Foer's hype to instead find themselves a copy of this, the book from which he appears to have stolen most of his ideas, instead.

All hyperbole aside, this wonderful book has few equals. It demands attention, and reflection, and time, and it rewards those willing to invest those things in it beyond compare. Nothing short on a meditation the way our lives are impacted by the moral calculi of others, and the way our own actions reverberate throughout the generations.

Fantastic!!.......2003-01-20

One of the best novels I have ever read. Don't miss it!

A monument of Israeli literature.......2002-11-10

As an Israeli who have read it in Hebrew, I would like to add a few words. One thing: this book is entirely different if you read it in Hebrew. It losses a lot in the translation, and not because the translation is bad, rather that the combination of different layers of very special Hebrew combined with Yiddish, along with the cultural context, makes it a book that is an impossible mission for the translator. Of course, you can't ask someone to learn Hebrew just for this book (and this still won't be enough, because he has to be born again as an Israeli and grow up here to understand everything...), but the book has numerous universal aspects that can be translated, and it's still, even after the translation, a must-read.
And now, for the book itself (if there is such a thing the book itself...).
This is by-far the greatest Israeli book that I have ever read. I had one feeling that went along with me throughout the journey: I don't know how the hell he did. I just don't know. Like a magician that makes a trick you just can't figure. The scope. The depth. I cannot describe this book. It defies space and time. It is a masterpiece.

See Under: Masterpiece.......2002-07-13

It was hard to read this novel. Grossman presents us with mysteries and references that require both faith and patience -- they are amply rewarded. Part of what delays the intrepid reader is the time required just to absorb, to make connections, to take deep breaths, to sob. The horror and disgust that one expects in a holocaust novel are there, but what pulls us up short are the compassion and, yes, love that emerge in the most unlikely places. It would be no help to read a synopsis of this book or to have a guide to its mysteries, because you read it in your heart and in the aqueous subconscious. Reading is always an act of love, a tryst of imagination with the writer. When it really goes well, when the miracle occurs, a child, a book is produced between them. It hovers luminously in the aether - real, profound, fleeting. See Under: Love invites us to into that relationship, helps us visualize it, and transforms our sense of what this world really is. There is plenty to study, learn, and analyze in Mr. Grossman's incredible work, but my first reading was a sacred experience. This book sat on my shelf for about eleven years. I gave a first edition of it to a young man obsessed with the holocaust who died a year later of a mysterious disease. I thought picking it up would mean acknowledging his absence - instead it reassured me of his presence. Prepare to be surprised.

This is a life-changing book.......2001-03-03

For any who reads and allows this book to really get into their consciousness, I believe it will alter the way one thinks and feels about the past (and current) century's greatest heartbreaks. Without sentimentality or easy new-age evasions, Grossman asks how ordinary people are drawn to collaborate with "evil" and what are the possibilites for redemption and forgiveness. Shortly after writing this book, Grossman was moved by his own conclusions to begin visiting Palestinian refugee camps in Israel which led to his next book, "The Yellow Wind.&quot...

Average customer rating:

The Holocaust as Madness
The Twilight of Madness
In search of the Savior
Insanity or Love?
Not as Perplexing as kex86 found it!

Twilight: A Novel
Elie Wiesel
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

French | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 080521058X
Release Date: 1995-11-07

Customer Reviews:

The Holocaust as Madness.......2006-02-19

This novel moves along slowly for the first three-quarters. But it picks up very quickly and becomes a very compelling read as Wiesel begins to introduce the character of Pedro, the novel's idealized hero who is present from the beginning but never escapes the memory of the protagonist, Raphael, to take the page as a living character. Pedro, who was known as Pinhas in Poland, earned his name in the Spanish Civil War, where he had gone to fight in the years before the Holocaust. After the war, he becomes a kind of secret agent for devastated Jewry, working with others to bring the survivors together and set them on their new life.
Painted in the tradition of the near messianic hero, familiar to readers of Mordecai Richler's "Solomon Gursky Was Here" and perhaps to a lesser degree Saul Bellow's "Humboltd's Gift," Pedro is instantly admirable and the reader shares Raphael's feeling for him. Wiesel uses Pedro as a character of unbridled potential who is never allowed to reach it, and is banished to the realm of Raphael's memory. In a novel about the Holocaust, that works to great effect because clearly there were many real "Pedros" who were either killed in the concentration camps or could not survive in the aftermath of the Holocaust.
This is a novel about memory and madness; the memory of those who died in the Holocaust and the madness of the hate that caused their deaths.
Along the way, we meet a character who stares at the sky trying to find the lost six million in the clouds and the stars, and there are some other excellent character portraits. But Wiesel also introduces a host of mad inmates of an insane asylum who think they are biblical figures. That last part is what the novel could have done without. These crazy want-to-be biblical figures are very unbelievable, especially compared to the more sane characters of Raphael, his wife Tiara and Pedro.
Instead, we get the sense that Wiesel is using these characters as a way to weave Midrash, or biblical legends, into a modern novel. Although it is an ambitious experiment, it falls flat for lack of believability.
Ultimately, the novel does well to explore the Holocaust as a kind of all-encompassing madness. It at times can be an engrossing read. And the pages that challenge God on how He could have allowed the Holocaust to happen are worth anyone's read. But it would have been a better book without much of the material set in the insane asylum.
The novel does finish well and leaves you with a glimpse of light beyond the Holocaust. And a good use of naming gives the reader the impression that even Pedro, nee Pinhas, could come back. According to some Jewish legends, Pinhas is in fact Elijah, the great prophet who never died.
When he followed up the novel "Night" with the sequel "Dawn," Wiesel explored how life can go on after the Holocaust without turning one's back on the horror of that worst period in human history. "Twilight" continues that theme but makes it more accessible to the average reader by setting the survivor in everyday life, instead of in the life and death struggles of nascent Israel.

The Twilight of Madness.......2004-07-24

Elie Wiesel is a man apparently haunted by his past. A survivor of the concentration camps and the Holocaust, Wiesel has turned his experiences into some of the most profound modern literature. "Twilight" is no exception to that rule, a novel that searches for the truth of humanity lost during the Holocaust.

"Twilight" tells the story of Raphael Lipkin, a lost and lonely man. He finds himself drawn to a sanitorium in upstate New York, which specializes in the madness of patients who believe themselves to be characters from the Bible. He is there to hopefully his friend Pedro, the man who saved him during the Holocaust and then disappeared from his life. As he studies these patients, who range from Abraham and Cain to Jesus and God himself, Raphael is torn between madness and sanity. He questions all that he knows to be true and all that he has experienced in his life.

Wiesel is a master storyteller, weaving complicated stories into a wonderous picture. "Twilight" fluctuates between the present time, to Raphael's memories, to his family's persecution during the Holocaust. The reader is shown the true horrors that Jews experienced, and how families are torn apart. Raphael never recovers from his experiences, and this becomes apparent in his questioning. His search doesn't necessarily bring answers; these are tough questions that might not be answerable. How can one see through the madness of the Holocaust when it is an event that the entire world still struggles to understand? Wiesel's purpose isn't to make one understand these tragedies or to give simple answers to questions of faith; rather, he wants the reader to think and question, and be content to know that not everything is for us to know.

In search of the Savior.......2002-01-04

This was a difficult book to rate. It is, to begin with, a fairly short novel; just over 200 pages. I felt one of the problems with this book was that the author moved us around too much in time, place and character. The brevity of the book made this confusing. We're one place then another before we got settled in with the former. The basic plot of the book is challenging but worth the effort to try and follow. A doctor (Raphael)who was a youthful survivor of the Holocaust is trying to come to understand his experiences. Through him we meet a wide array of characters of whom the most important is a man nicknamed Pedro. Raphael is in a search for Pedro and for meaning to the horrors that are beyond meaning. There is an irony in the duality of his search. On one level Raphael searches for a real savior that he has lost. On the other level, he searches for the savior that was never there. In the end he encounters both. We are left unfulfilled. Having gone this far with him, we expect more. We want a clear answer, a happy ending. We get neither and, in this ambiguity, we get a sense of Holocaust reality; there is no meaning, there is no happy ending. Night represents evil, day represents good. In the twilight lies the madness.

Insanity or Love?.......2001-07-24

Twilight seeks to explore the relationship between God and his creation in the context of a mental assylum whereby the accusation of God's insanity in the wake of the Holocaust is juxta-opposed against God's care. The book is filled with wonderful characters in the assylum who 'double' in their insanity as characters from Hebrew Scripture - Adam, Joseph, Cain, Abraham, the Messiah and God. The book is somewhat complicated in that the deepest questions concerning the nature of God and humanity are explored while historic 'flash backs' break up the intensity to tell the real struggle of the main character and his family under the Nazi regime. The book is written with an intense passion and stimulates emotions and arguments and insights concerning God's relationship to humanity in the light of the holocaust from all angles. God is seen as omni-present but veiled, simultaneously imminant and transcendent. Many times the question WHY? is thrown at God and options of God's insanity, cruelty, indifference and usury are expressed. Finally, the accusation of God's insanity in relation to the hohlocaust is defended through the patient who beleives himself to be God - 'When exactly was I suppose to stop it? Go on, tell me'

The novel evokes sympathy for God as a concluding note and in the face of anger and accusation because of the holocaust we are left with an unveiled God in tears and pain through the accusation 'you could have stopped it - you should have stopped it'.

This is a short novel the weaves a masterful tapestry of emotions, history, theology, accusation and theodicy. It's setting in a clinic is unique, the patients are loveable, understandable. Wiesel leads the reader to be on everyone's side, in everyone's shoes. A stunning novel - well worth coming to terms with and reading over and over again.

Not as Perplexing as kex86 found it!.......1998-12-08

This was my 1st Wiesel work and I did not find it to be "perplexing" or "weird". Actually, I found it to be a quite sane story depicting one of the 20th centuries' most perplexing events.

For readers who have thought previously about the various shades of madness and those who find themselves afflicted (Robert Persig's 'Lila' as an example) and for readers who have spent any time reflecting on the inexcapable impact of the Holocaust on survivors and their next generation...then 'Twilight' is a mystical and brutally real novel depicting the terror of just one family out of the countless thousands.

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Joy comes in the morning

Clergy as "Humans"

Have a little faith in your reader, or yourself

A Mixed Bag

searching to fit in

Joy Comes in the Morning: A Novel
Jonathan Rosen
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Rashi's Daughters, Book I: Joheved (Rashi's Daughters)

The Outside World

Women's Minyan

Seven Blessings: A Novel

The Covenant

ASIN: 0374180261
Release Date: 2004-08-26

Book Description

Deborah Green is a woman of passionate contradictions--a rabbi who craves goodness and surety while wrestling with her own desires and with the sorrow and pain she sees around her. Her life changes when she visits the hospital room of Henry Friedman, an older man who has attempted suicide. His parents were murdered in the Holocaust when he was a child, and all his life he's struggled with difficult questions: Can happiness really come after such loss, or does the very wish profane the dead? Can religious promises ever bring peace? Deborah's encounter with Henry and his family draws her into a world of tragedy, frailty, love, and, finally, hope.

The New Yorker called Rosen's first novel "An impressive debut--a highly original addition to the distinguished line of Jewish-American romances." He has fulfilled the promise of his first fiction in this contemporary story of classic scope, whose characters hunger for love, grapple with faith and doubt, and seek to bind themselves to something sacred in the midst of modern chaos.

Customer Reviews:

Joy comes in the morning.......2007-05-12

Excellent book. Very well written. A beautiful love story with a few twists and turns. Really enjoyed reading it.

Clergy as "Humans".......2007-03-30

All too often, many of us have expectations from our clergy that are unrealistice. Although the are trained as spiritual leaders, they are, after all is said and done,-just human like the rest of us.
This novel explores how it feels to be a female, Reform Rabbi. If you would like to know what it is like to be in a position like that, this is a good book to read.
Many "issues" are dealt with-Mental illness, aging, dying, love, families, and spiritual crises. It was difficult to "put it down."

Have a little faith in your reader, or yourself.......2006-09-09

Ugh. Nothing I hate more then an author who writes a lovely story and then spoils it at the end with some melodramatic twist that is not relevant to the plot and indicates a lack of faith in one's readers. It may represent the author's world view, but a book should be looked at as an entity with a personality of its own and diversions like the one in this book are silly. Perhaps its not just a recognition of the lack of faith in one's readers, its a lack of faith in the author's ability to hold our attention to the end. Silly.

Otherwise, a great book with very loveable and endearing characters.

A Mixed Bag.......2006-04-07

I enjoyed the author's previous book very much. I 'd like to give this book a 3.5... I really enjoyed the first half of the book - the development of the characters, the writing, the storyline, etc. As someone involved in the Jewish community, I especially enjoyed the Jewish educational piece through the descriptions. as I got started I it really felt like a delightful read for my recent vacation. However, about 1/2 way through (why does this happen with so many books - both fiction and non-fiction!) As the book reached it storyline climax, I cared less about the characters than I did at the beginning. I no longer could believe what was going on.

All in all, I would share this book with friends, but would let them know to expect a book that has some really lovely Jewish parts, but has a mixed story line.

searching to fit in.......2006-02-27

At first I did not think i would like this book.
Because it was very one dimensionally. It felt like I was at first reading a beach read. Some of the events in the book were very quirky, 20-30 somethings. But than I started to relate to what she was going through. She a jew who wanted to become more observant and did not know where she fit in.
Myself, I am in my 40's. I have had a problem since I am just learning about my roots. Even though I was brought up jewish there are things I am torn between the secular world and the jewish.
Even though this is fiction. The book put it in prospective. Especially when you don't know where you fit in. Not so much for the literal form, but that the author knew where I was coming from.
If you like reading a quirky beach romance this is for you. BEWARE
Just like the previous reviewers have said, if you love the book like I had you will be passing it on

Three Complete Novels (Dark Rivers of the Heart / Sole Survivor / Intensity)

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Three Complete Novels (Dark Rivers of the Heart / Sole Survivor / Intensity)
Dean R. Koontz
Manufacturer: Bright Sky Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0970998716

Book Description

Dean Koontz is one of the world's top-selling authors with total worldwide sales of his novels at 225 million copies! He achieves what few writers can: he creates books that consistently jump to the top of the bestseller lists in both hardcover and paper. His newest novel had a half-million copy first printing, and it went straight to the Number One position in its first week on The New York Times and Publishers Weekly Bestseller lists! His many fans will snap up this handsome foil-and-embossed volume, with three of his best works in one book. The perfect impulse buy or gift. The collection includes the complete and unabridged novels Dark Rivers of the Heart, Intensity, and Sole Survivor.

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Wow.
Great book!!
A breath of fresh air
Good message and well written.
Heartwarming and Realistic

Ill Watch the Moon: A Novel
Ann Tatlock
Manufacturer: Bethany House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0764227645
Release Date: 2003-06-01

Book Description

Award-winning novelist Ann Tatlock once again lovingly crafts a story that will touch readers' hearts while illuminating a powerful spiritual truth. I'll Watch the Moon is the story of Catherine Tierney, angry at a God whom she no longer believes exists, and her painful journey back to faith. It is also the story of her friendship with Josef Karski, who teaches her how to trust in God as he reveals his own story of surviving the horrors of Auschwitz. And finally, it is the story of Nova Tierney, Catherine's daughter, and the threads that bind their lives together. Ann Tatlock has skillfully and gracefully woven a tale you won't soon forget.

Customer Reviews:

Wow........2006-10-24

This is an incredible story of love and forgiveness. I will recommend this book to everyone I know! I can't remember the last time I read such a moving, touching story.

Great book!!.......2006-08-12

This was one of the best books I've read in a long time. From the first page, I couldn't put it down. It's excellently written and the characters are people I'll forever remember.

A breath of fresh air.......2005-05-27

I enjoyed this book so much! A warm story of family relationships and caring friends. I will recommend this book andthis author to all my reading friends.

Good message and well written........2004-09-02

I love this book and plan to give it (or at least recommend it) to all my friends and family members! When I picked it up at the library, I didn't really know anything about it. And I didn't even notice that it was from a specifically Christian publisher until I had finished reading it. (By the way, I think both Christians and Jews would appreciate this book, and likely those of other faiths as well. I'm guessing atheists will not care for it.)

The storyline was interesting, and the characters very believable. Tatlock has created very real and likeable people. I appreciated that even the most admirable of them had flaws, but that all the main characters had the desire to be good people.

Unlike many religiously oriented works, this one was touching without being sappy, and inspiring without being preachy. On a personal note, when I was reading this, I got some bad news about my mother's health, and felt very depressed. Yet as I continued reading the book, I felt my spirits lift and my sense of life's purpose return.

I will definitely seek out Tatlock's other novels!

Heartwarming and Realistic.......2004-01-27

Heartwarming book dealing with facing the disappointments in life. Deals with the following themes: support of friendship and family, the reality of tragedy in our lives. The characters come alive on the pages. Excellent, captivating and well written book. I can't wait to read other books by Ann Tatlock!

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No real change here
Exceptional character development
Brilliant
Prose pulls it off
A Changed Man?

A Changed Man: A Novel
Francine Prose
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0060196742
Release Date: 2005-03-01

Download Description

On an unseasonably warm spring afternoon, a young neo-Nazi named Vincent Nolan walks into the Manhattan office of World Brotherhood Watch, a human rights foundation headed by a charismatic Holocaust survivor, Meyer Maslow. Vincent announces that he wants to make a radical change in his life. But what is Maslow to make of this rough-looking stranger who claims to have read Maslow's books, who has Waffen-SS tattoos under his shirtsleeves, and who says that his mission is to save guys like him from becoming guys like him?

As he gradually turns into the sort of person who might actually be able to do that, Vincent also transforms those around him: Maslow, who fears that heroism has become a desk job; Bonnie Kalen, the foundation's fund-raiser, a divorced single mother and a devoted believer in Maslow's crusade against intolerance and injustice; and Bonnie's teenage son, Danny, whose take on the world around him is at once openhearted, sharp-eyed, and as fundamentally decent as his mother's.

Masterfully plotted, darkly comic, A Changed Man illuminates the everyday transactions in our lives, exposing what remains invisible in plain sight in our drug-addled and media-driven culture. Remarkable for the author's tender sympathy for her characters, A Changed Man poses the essential questions: What constitutes a life worth living? Is it possible to change? What does it mean to be a moral human being? The fearless intelligence, wit, and humanity that inform this novel make it Francine Prose's most accomplished yet.

Customer Reviews:

No real change here.......2007-06-19

This is the first book of Francine Prose's that I've read; I heard her interviewed on NPR after it was released and decided to read it based on that. I have to say that I wasn't very impressed. First, it was about a hundred pages too long, and a little healthy editing would have improved it. Second, the plot is extremely predictable. I could see what was going to happen almost from the first page. Third, the characters are fairly two dimensional, although I think that may have been deliberate on the part of the author. But my biggest beef with the book is that the main character, Vincent, our so-called "changed man", really doesn't change much. He's described in reviews as a skinhead, neo-Nazi. We then learn that he's basically only gone along with his cousin and his racist friends because he needed a place to stay and a job. Similarly, his "conversion" appears to be more a matter of convenience, a way to get another job and place to stay, than an actual change of heart. How can you stop being a neo-Nazi if you never really believed in their views to begin with? There were a few times while I was reading the book that I thought Vincent was actually scamming his new friends at the World Brotherhood Watch, and would turn out to be, in fact, the leader of the ARM of which he claimed to be a member. I'm afraid it would have made for a more interesting story had that been the case. As a sidenote, I found the Meyer Maslow character, founder of the WBW and Holocaust survivor, to be a thoroughly unlikeable character. Again, this may have been intentional, but it didn't help me enjoy the book much.

Exceptional character development.......2007-03-03

I will leave the overall general critiques and summaries to the other reviewers. That said, I have read a great deal of fiction of all sorts, ranging from stomach-curdlingly awful (albeit bestselling), to timeless literature, as well as serendipitous obscurities. What particularly stood out while I read A Changed Man was the true-to-life quality of the characters: they are remarkably 3D, fully fleshed out; each with their positive, redeeming qualities and their faulty, darker aspects well-developed. It's as if the characters are sun-catchers; every so often they turn just bit and the reader glimpses yet another facet, another subtlety of color.

So very different from the standard fare: I find that in contemporary fiction, often the characters populating the plots are good, bad or indifferent; they seem to be put there simply to move the story along. Not the case here. The entire time I was reading, I was hard put to decide whether I LIKED them, or DISLIKED them.

I haven't read anything else by Prose prior to A Changed Man, but I look forward to adding more of her work to my reading list.

Brilliant.......2007-01-25

Ms. Prose deserves a wider following. She has a scalpel for an eye and can dissect and lay open suburban and metropolitan pretense in a crisp phrase. Her dialogue is impeccable -- there is not a single word of it that rings false in this entire book. A fascinating premise, thoughtfully developed, good characterization and depth are the hallmarks of this excellent book. The ending is a tiny bit weak, but I can't think of a better one. Buy, read, enjoy.

Prose pulls it off.......2006-06-22

"A Changed Man" is not a book I would have read without a recommendation from my daughter. The plot line just did not sound very promising: a member of a neo-Nazi movement decides to change his life by securing a job with the "World Brotherhood Foundation". Prose manages to pull it off, making the plot and the many characters credible and interesting. What makes the book so enjoyable is that Bonnie, the foundation fund raiser and single mom, is such an appealing person. Prose does not accomplish any lofty goals such as new insight into the human condition or American culture, but she has produced a good novel.
I found it a bid discordant to the tone of the novel, and the idea of Vincent and Bonnie as a couple, that Vincent was willing to bring so very much harm to his cousin by violence as well as theft. I also found the last few pages too wordy, and there are a few other occasions when Prose loses the lighter touch this novel requires. After all, this is really an optimistic novel, almost a comedy, wherein even the true neo-Nazi is a good family man whose views never seem to make him do anything worse than a frat boy would do.

A Changed Man?.......2006-06-14

Francine Prose's satire "A Changed Man" addresses the issues of changing for the better, the power of the media, raising kids as a single mother and the necessary need of non-profit organizations to raise money. There is plenty of action, although often predictable or so over-the-top that it seems implausible even with the most generous of readers. However, loads of impressive internal dialogue, quick in tempo like a rush of blood to the head, peppers the novel. The reader is able to peak inside several different viewpoints, but the predominant one is from Bonnie Kalen, the do-gooder, single mother of two sons, Danny, 16 and Max, 12.

Kalen is the fundraiser for World Brotherhood Watch (WBW), the organization Meyer Maslow, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, founded to promote human rights across the world. The "changed man" Vincent Nolan enters the Manhattan WBW during the onset of the novel. He is a 32-year-old tattooed ex-skinhead (looks like Timothy McVeigh) who just decided to permanently leave the couch of his cousin Raymond and the other fellow hate mongers who are members of the American Rights Movement (ARM), a.ka. Aryan Resistance Movement. Nolan persuades Maslow and Kalen to let him help the organization by dissuading guys like him from following his former path of hate.

Maslow knows his latest book sales have been slow and the upcoming dinner fundraiser tickets have also been selling slowly, thus Maslow decides to take Nolan's offer of assistance on "faith". Maslow asks Kalen to house him in her suburban New Jersey home. The dutiful employee (devotee) readily agrees despite being an excessive worrier and knowing Nolan will also have to share the house with her two precious sons.

Sounds like a worthy beginning that seems pregnant with promise in showcasing the inner-conflict between the past demons of hate and the burgeoning angels of Nolan's newfound view of loving humanity (although his vision came while high on Ecstasy at a rave). But that is not where Prose goes with this storyline. Prose gives us a strawman conflict with Nolan playing the ex neo-Nazi. A little further into the novel one begins to quickly get the notion that Nolan is more accurately portrayed as a down-on-his-luck young white guy who has a quick temper, never really crossing over into the all-consuming hatred that is portrayed by other ARM members (who talk a good game, but do nothing but drink). His worst past offense was throwing an old woman in the pool. Hardly the monster one would expect and need in order to provide real tension for the remainder of the plot. What we get instead is Nolan latching onto the WBW in order to have room and board. "A Changed Man" is a misnomer of a title as no major change is really happening to Nolan (except that his fame increases); perhaps the only people seeing any change are those potential donors who later swoon at Nolan's poster-boy packaged image of someone who appears to have changed thanks to the magic of WBW marketing and Nolan's charismatic speaking style.

A more apropos title would have been "A Changed Woman" as Kalen's thoughts and growth receive the lion's share of the book's pages. However, her character alone cannot salvage the novel. Sparks appear sporadically, hoping the novel really catches on, one keeps reading, and reading, and reading, but no real fire is set as the novel pushes on somehow, to only end in a blasé way that Harlequin romance writers would not even dare to.

Bohdan Kot

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