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The Chocolate Lady (94 KP) rated Lilac Girls in Books

Oct 5, 2020  
Lilac Girls
Lilac Girls
Martha Hall Kelly | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
4
8.4 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
This novel is very nicely written, with interesting characters. In particular, the protagonist Caroline is beautifully formed, with a life that is fascinating for those who know little about how Americans tried to help those who became unwitting refugees in the US after Hitler invaded their homelands. However, we must remember that Holocaust novels are a dime a dozen. This is why I was hoping that this novel would be different, particularly since the blurb for this book talks about Christine and her helping two survivors of the women's camp Ravensbruck. Unfortunately, the detailed information about the two other women in this story, and their introduction to Ravensbruck was, in my opinion, too much back-story. Although retelling the grim and gory ways that the Nazis treated their prisoners is a necessary evil, I somehow felt that this book included these scenes only to evoke pity for these characters. I don't want to pity characters, I want to have empathy for them, to care about them, and the author let me down with this.

In addition - and I hope this doesn't sound racist or snobbish - as a Jew, I have a hard time with Holocaust novels that seem to outwardly ignore how the Nazis treated the Jews, and only focuses on the other "undesirables." I realize that the Nazis didn't only kill Jews, but they were their primary target, and to avoid that altogether was disingenuous, to say the least. However, I was glad that this book didn't focus on any overtly Christian themes, even though I believe that there is a market for Holocaust stories within the Christian Fiction genre (see my review of the novel The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron here http://drchazan.blogspot.com/2014/07/beauty-out-of-ugliness.html for more on my feelings about this).

Furthermore, the only Jewish reference I found in this novel was a passing reference to visiting the Ghetto and a remembrance of eating a Hanukkah delicacy. Unfortunately, the author didn't do her research properly, and the character said she remembered eating a type of doughnut that the Jewish bakers made for the holiday. Those doughnuts - known as "sufganiot" were never part of any Eastern European Hanukkah celebration at that time. In fact, sufganiot that are popular among Jews today, come from the Jews of North Africa and Arab countries. The word, sufganiot, comes from the Arabic and Hebrew words that mean sponge. While Jews in Poland did make something similar, their popularity as a particularly Hanukkah delicacy among Easter European Jews only coincided after Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Jews came together in Israel (i.e., post-1948). All of this is why I cannot give this book a rating of more than two and a half stars out of five, but I'm certain that it will find a much more sympathetic audience among non-Jewish readers.
  
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Hazel (2934 KP) rated The Choice: Escape Your Past and Embrace the Possible in Books

Oct 21, 2018  
The Choice: Escape Your Past and Embrace the Possible
The Choice: Escape Your Past and Embrace the Possible
Edith Eger | 2017 | Health & Fitness
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
“Our painful experiences aren’t a liability—they’re a gift. They give us perspective and meaning, an opportunity to find our unique purpose and our strength.” ― Edith Eger, The Choice

Oh my goodness, I can't even begin to tell you how good this book is. It's not just another Holocaust survivors life-story, it's so much more than that ... it's extraordinary!

Dr Eger is now 90 years old and what an amazing woman she is ... this book tells the story of being a teenager and her relationship with her parents and sisters, the truly horrific time she spent being a prisoner of the Nazis, her astonishing strength and bravery before, during and after the war and of her life once freedom had been achieved.

Once again, I can't tell you how good this book is. It's beautifully written and flows exceptionally well. Highly recommended.

My thanks go to the publisher, Penguin Random House UK, Ebury Publishing via NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Z For Zachariah (2015) in Movies

Sep 5, 2020  
Z For Zachariah (2015)
Z For Zachariah (2015)
2015 | Drama, Sci-Fi
6
7.0 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Earnest, very loose adaptation of Robert C O'Brien's novel. A young woman growing up alone after a nuclear holocaust must adapt to the appearance of two men in the valley where she lives.

I say 'very loose' because after a while this essentially bears no more resemblance to the source novel than it does to any of a number of other films in a similar vein: the movie adds a new character (which is a big deal in a story which originally only had two). What follows is thoughtful and well-made, clearly favouring Robbie's attempts to display her range, and the performances aren't actively bad. Even if you haven't seen other films dealing with this kind of scenario (and there have been a few!), the slowness and solemnity of this movie may get a bit wearisome after an while; others may baulk at the lack of an actual proper ending. Passes the time, though.