Among the Living

Title: Among the Living
Author: Jonathan Rabb

This was a really well thought out book. I didn't mean to read another holocaust book so quickly but a glance at my library renew list showed that it is due today and cannot be renewed due to other holds on it.

So I read it today.

This is the story of a man named Yitzhak who is a survivor of the holocaust. After he gets out of a sanatorium he travels to Savannah, GA to find his last remaining relatives and start his life anew. Life blooms with a few hiccups along the way, and new love. Soon the least expected thing imaginable happens and he finds himself face to face with the girl he thought dead: his fiance from before the concentration camps.

This was a descent read. I rather liked it. 

Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Among-Living-Jonathan-Rabb/dp/1590518039

ISBN: 978-159051803-8

My Russian grandmother and her American vacuum cleaner: a family memoir

Title: My Russian grandmother and her American vacuum cleaner: a family memoir
author: Meir Shalev

This book was a hard read for me because of the authors' writing style. Meir Shalev does a good job explaining the family tales that surround the mystery of his grandmother's vacuum cleaner as well as the fundamentals of what the village she lived in was like. He does a decent job at showing what his family life was, and how everyone came about in telling family stories from their own viewpoint but all around the central hub of his grandma Tonia.

I do not think I could have hung around with his grandma, much too structured in ways that I find unfamiliar. She was obviously the keystone of his and his families lives and a legend in the area.
Strewn throughout this memoir among glimpses of grandma Tonia, stories that are passed down either through physical practice (industrial cleaning of the family houses) or through tales passed down (including that of the title piece... Her American vacuum cleaner.).

The story of the cleaner however holds the whole thing together and continues through to the end of the book itself, in a rather surprising ending. (In fact, there is a point near the end that made me both laugh out loud and cringe dealing with the woman and her "sveip-per")

Overall it was an okay book. I think if I had been able to skip straight through and only have the tale of grandma Tonia's vacuum I would have liked it more, but I understand that in being a memoir it was not the only part of the tale to tell. I probably will not read any more of the authors works due to his writing style which is too jumpy for my brain to be able read properly (linear is WAY easier for me to retain). That should not dissuade you though, as like I said, the book itself a okay.


Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Grandmother-American-Vacuum-Cleaner/dp/0805242872

ISBN: 978-0-8052-4287-4

ONCE

I'm a sucker for books having to do with the holocaust, so this is easily another one where the cover drew me to it.

Title: Once
Author: Morris Gleitzman

This is part of a trilogy, which I will be finding the other books in the series to read. It was a bit of a hard read for me because it is from the point of view of a very young child. That being said after you start reading it from that standpoint and block out any outside knowledge of the holocaust, it becomes a gripping tale of confusion and trying to look on the bright side of things.

The view point is that of a ten year old polish Jewish boy who has been sheltered thus far from the holocaust. He is living in a catholic orphanage waiting to be reunited with his parents during 1942.

Soon he runs away and embarks on his own, seeing through his unspoiled childs eyes, learning slowly the terrors of what lay in store for people who shared his faith. 

This is the story of a very strong little boy, and i'd say that it is safely juvenile fiction. It might be highly upsetting to children as they continue reading it though because as he starts realizing what is happening it all becomes very clear, the Nazi agenda. 

I really love that it is from the standpoint of such a young child. It really brings a whole new aspect to the reality of the holocaust and may even drive the point home more of: these were PEOPLE. People just like everyone else, who were singled out. To them, they were no different than anyone else. Just as if you were to have this happen. There would be no real understanding from your part, and definitely not from the children. It's terrible that it happened in the first place, but its a good lesson to look back upon so that we do not repeat our mistakes of the past. 

Find it here:  https://www.amazon.com/Once-Morris-Gleitzman/dp/0312653042

ISBN: 978-0-8050-9026-0