Dale Brunton

Gritty, Real, Surprising!

Revisado: 06-09-20

I am a rare reviewer but I am compelled to write this time. Pre-WW2 Poland was the country in Europe that had highest percentage of Jews. Not only a large community, but diverse in every imaginable way. I could not find the time to confirm the historical fit of the background, but nor could I find anything to say it was not so. Originally written in Polish and translated into English, it reads authentically and draw you into that world.

The story weaves everyday life in the Jewish underworld life, its political protectors and adversaries, around the paradox of what is good can be bad and the other way around. Not for the faint-hearted, the book unemotionally studies how the depravity and cruelty that humans are capable of along with moments of compassion and selflessness.

The translation and narration is virtually flawless. Just the right amount of Polish was mixed in with the English to make feel real, and a distinct advantage of the audio book.

The print edition of this book was recently published, but it has been widely reviewed in a more skillful way than this one.

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Inauthentic

Revisado: 11-06-19

The book has all the elements of a war story, but the author is either unwilling, uncomfortable or unable to share the gritty details of a war story. Maybe this is the part of the story that she has no personal experience with. The narrative seems to place internal thoughts as more important than the depravity and suffering that the key characters are exposed to. A common theme in stories where individuals are put through extreme distress is to show how this stress changes their character, their values, and their essence.

Rather, everytime we are made aware torture, violence, cruelty, the author distances us from it and glosses over any granularity. Then she returns to other slightly more mundane things, like the list of What am I afraid of? Under these circumstances is it normal to be reviewing my top 5 scary things list, or is it a more visceral fear of being tortured, raped and murdered?

At at what should have been the climax of the book and could have been a suspenseful part of the book, the author dances around sharing any details of the step by step description of what it was like to sneak into the lion's den. Rather the author glossed over the entire event in a few paragraphs, quickly moving on with the after-party. Rather than let a tense and dangerous moment emerge, the author dives back in to the angst of the remaining protagonist. My conclusion was, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail".

I understand the focus of the book was to delve into on the main characters feeling for each other, but you don't need to cloak that story in a war. In so many life and death situations I felt that the main characters were side tracked in their personal issues to the point where they could not rightly be concerned with the fear for their own life. I felt the book trivialized what a war time occupation by a cruel and sadistic secret police really is, in favor of sharing repetitively the inner thoughts of the main characters.

And one character behind enemy line, speaking lousy French and no German, and Jewish heritage has audacity to put her self in numerous situations un-necessarily risking herself and those around her.

A key scene in the book centered around a rescue. But in the book, there was really no insight to how it was planned, thoughts about what could go wrong in advance, how long the operation would take, a timetable of what was supposed to take place, how long it would take the bad guys come in a reinforced manner, Other questions such as why shoot at a small surface with a pistol at a distance better served by a rifle. And if you are at risk at being apprehended, tortured and shot, why would you take a pistol some place to practice.

Every time the author came across a chance for us to see something thrilling or amazing happen, it was glossed over by the author.

Another thing that annoyed me is early in the book, the character narrative switched from first person to 3rd person. So much of the story that started in the first person was changed to the third person. I, Queenie changes to Queenie did this, Queenie did that. I wondered, maybe this author just doesn't like to write in the first person perspective. But by the end of the book, two characters are back in the first person keeping written records of what is happening, literally.

One is forced to write, but the other apparently justifies some other way.
It is not uncommon to have one character in a novel that happens to be a writer, recording everything, but two? Enough already.

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An Interesting read that covers the sciences

Revisado: 08-06-18

The author wove a story and a historical narrative sprinkled with key points about chemistry, biology, meteorology and geology. I liked the flow and I would definitely put more of Kean's books on my wish lists.

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