Book Twenty-Five of the Book-a-Week Quest
Night
by Elie Wiesel (1960)
Apparently, everyone read this book in high school or college but me. So, based on the recommendation of one of my employees, I ventured into this short memoir.
There's really no need for a summary here as everyone knows that it's the true story of the Jewish author's life at Nazi concentration camps when he was a teenager. While there he witnesses horrific events and begins to question his religious beliefs in light of the atrocities that unfold before his eyes.
It's certainly a good book, but if I'm being honest, I was left wanting more. The writing style is almost too simplistic. Now, I feel awful saying that...I'm sure I would not want to relive the experience had I gone through it. And, don't get me wrong, there were certainly passages that got to me (the one that stands out is the child who was hanged, but because of his small size, was not killed immediately after the hanging and was forced to die in slow agony for 30 minutes while everyone had to watch).
Yes, a good book, and one that was easy to read (easy in terms of style, not in subject matter). I just wanted it to be a little more in depth...I wanted to learn more about this man's journey (maybe that's what his book "Dawn" is about, so I may need to check that out). Note: This is my third(?) Oprah's Book Club Selection...much better than "The Reader", that's for sure.
I recently listened to this on audio as I drive 45min each way to work and catch a lot of books that way. I had never read it in school either, and like you I think I was hoping for something more from thiis. I think what has made the book a classic is that it is a memoir about such a horrific experience, and one that, for all the people who suffered through it, there are really few memoirs that I've ever heard of from survivors. I also figured that they didn't want to attempt to relive the experience again by writing it.
ReplyDeleteBut I found myself surprised that such a horrific experience could be expressed in really what amounted [to me] in such a flat, rather matter-of-fact way. I was actually looking for more emotion, more vibrant detail of not necessarily the horrors but the memories of what was slipping away and what evil was gaining on them as it happened.
It's been about two months since I listened to it, but I seem to recall that the end came in what to me felt rather abrupt. I guess i just expected to feel the weight of someone's real experience and just didn't.
Seems HORRIBLE of me to basically say it just didn't sound bad enough. I don't mean it that way.