Beautifully constructed and very rich but, still, tales with a narrow focus that may seem foreign and strange to the...
Seventeen stories, most portraying historical figures trapped in the political convulsions of the 1930s and ’40s, by award-winning Spanish novelist Muñoz Molina.
Muñoz Molina writes with a kind of political nostalgia, recalling the great conflicts between Communists and Fascists and the various factions caught in between during WWII and the years leading up to it. His style is leisurely and anecdotal, somewhat in the manner of Borges, and it nearly always takes the form of personal recollections of events seen now across the expanse of many years. Some of the stories, like “Sacristan” (a provincial Spaniard who moved to Madrid many years ago continues to return to his native village for Holy Week and observes the changes brought on with the passing of time), are simple elegies, but most are rooted in actual events and some are populated by historical figures. “Munzenburg,” for example, depicts the real-life adventures of Willi Munzenburg, a German Communist spy who ended up being pursued by the Gestapo and the KGB alike during the early days of WWII. “Silencing Everything” gives us the recollections of a Spanish university student who, too young to fight in the Spanish Civil War, made his way to Russia a few years later to fight the Germans in WWII, while “Those Who Wait” recounts the stomach-churning tension suffered by those who tried to go on with their daily lives while trying to evade arrest by the Soviet or Nazi secret police (Jews such as Victor Klemperer of Dresden, or hapless Communist Party rejects like Margarete Buber-Neumann or Nadezhda Mandelstam). The title piece is a rambling memoir that moves from the author’s recollections of the abandoned Jewish ghetto in his native Spanish town to a visit many years later to the Sephardic cemetery in Manhattan.
Beautifully constructed and very rich but, still, tales with a narrow focus that may seem foreign and strange to the majority of American readers.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-15-100901-5
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A mother and her child-prodigy daughter struggle to survive the Holocaust by telling stories and remembering the power of...
Rosner’s debut novel is a World War II story with a Room-like twist, one that also deftly examines the ways in which art and imagination can sustain us.
Five-year-old Shira is a prodigy. She hears entire musical passages in her head, which “take shape and pulse through her, quiet at first, then building in intensity and growing louder.” But making sounds is something Shira is not permitted to do. She and her mother, Róża, are Jews who are hiding in a barn in German-occupied Poland. Soldiers have shot Róża’s husband and dragged her parents away, and after a narrow escape, mother and daughter cower in a hayloft day and night, relying on the farmer and his wife to keep them safe from neighbors and passing patrols. The wife sneaks Shira outside for fresh air; the husband visits Róża late at night in the hayloft to exact his price. To keep Shira occupied and quiet the rest of the time, Róża spins tales of a little girl and a yellow bird in an enchanted but silent garden menaced by giants; only the bird is allowed to sing. But when Róża is offered a chance to hide Shira in an orphanage, she must weigh her daughter’s safety against her desire to keep the girl close. Rosner builds the tension as the novel progresses, wisely moving the action out of the barn before the premise grows tired or repetitive. This is a Holocaust novel, but it’s also an effective work of suspense, and Rosner’s understanding of how art plays a role in our lives, even at the worst of times, is impressive.
A mother and her child-prodigy daughter struggle to survive the Holocaust by telling stories and remembering the power of music.Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-17977-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
An engaging, inclusive debut.
A young woman with cognitive disabilities finds inspiration in Viking legends and prepares herself to become a hero when her brother gets involved with drug dealers.
Zelda knows she’s different than most people she meets, and she understands that difference is because of something called fetal alcohol syndrome. She has seen the unkind glances and heard the muttered slurs, but really, she just wants what any 21-year-old wants: love, acceptance, and some degree of independence to make decisions about her life. Also? A really good sword would be useful. Zelda is obsessed with Vikings—their legends, their fierce loyalty, their courage in the face of danger. Like the ancient clans, she finds strength in her tribe: her older brother, Gert, and his on-again, off-again girlfriend, AK47, plus her helpful therapist and her friends at the community center, especially her boyfriend, Marxy. He isn’t the best kisser, but he’s willing to try sex, a subject about which Zelda is definitely curious. But when Gert struggles to pay the bills and gets involved with dangerous drug dealers, Zelda knows she has to step in and help him whatever the cost. “The hero in a Viking legend is always smaller than the villain,” she reasons. “That is what makes it a legend.” In this engaging debut novel, MacDonald skillfully balances drama and violence with humor, highlighting how an unorthodox family unit is still a family. He’s never condescending, and his frank examination of the real issues facing cognitively disabled adults—sexuality, employment, independence—is bracing and compassionate. With Zelda, he’s created an unforgettable character, one whose distinctive voice is entertaining and inspiring. Will appeal to fans of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
An engaging, inclusive debut.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-2676-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
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