The Librarian of Auschwitz - Antonio Iturbe
Regrettably, I only gave this novel two stars on Goodreads. Considering how much I loved both The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Choice, I really though that this one would be on a par. But I really struggled with it, in all honesty. Reading through the Goodreads reviews, I gather that many people didn't get on with this one as much as they anticipated they would either, which may be due to the high precedent set by similar recent works.
I read Heather Morris' The Tattooist in September 2018, and it was the first WW11 memoir I'd read. Shortly after this, I read Edith Eger's memoir The Choice, and both books I absolutely loved. Eger's novel was in the first person, which I really loved because surely this is the best way to really portray the emotion and sincerity behind the experience first-hand, right? Yet Morris' novel was written in the third person (based on the memoirs of Lale Sokolov), and still retained that sincerity and honesty. But unfortunately, this novel really fell flat.
At first I thought that it might have been due to the third-person perspective not fully capturing the reality of the horrors witnessed and the emotions that went with it. But like I said, Morris managed to illustrate this beautifully in her novel. So that can't be to blame. Perhaps the translation, then? The book was originally written in Spanish and translated by Lilith Thwaites. I often think that translated texts lose some of their original meaning and integrity, due to the filtration and potential corruption of the language and its intended wording.
But in reality, I think I'm just making excuses for this novel... it just wasn't that well-written!
The story follows fourteen-year old Dita Kraus and her role in the family camp of Auschwitz as the 'librarian' - transporting books through the camp hidden under her dress, as well as taking care of the physical condition of the books as they were such precious contraband. The camp has a limited eight volumes and they are managed by Dita, under the instruction of Jewish leader Fredy Hirsch. The main thing I disliked about this book was the excessive dramatising of the events, which in reality do not need to be made into a 'drama'! Both Eger and Morris simply stated the events in matter-of-fact terms, of course with the added emotion of the protagonist in question. But somehow this novel managed to make everything seem like a soap opera!
To explain what I mean by this, I think my main issue was the abundance of short, stop-start sentences intended to create drama and tension. For example "This was it. Now or never. She was a woman. Forever." (This isn't a real quote from the book I'm just giving an example of the type of sentences that were used a lot!) This just gave an overly corny and almost cringe-worthy prose, in my opinion. It didn't feel genuine and heartfelt, it seemed too try-hard, and like the author was really trying to get an emotional reaction. When it comes to this subject matter, there really shouldn't be any need to try - the emotion comes naturally.
The novel got better towards the end but even this was problematic. In the final chapters the style took on more of a factual, non-fiction style with a lot of the dates and numbers surrounding the events of the Holocaust. This really stuck out from the rest of the book, which had focused solely on the story of the characters up until this point, and hadn't really included the context or historical facts at all. The sudden switch to a more non-fiction style, albeit being arguably better than the rest of the narrative, was just jarring.
But in reality, I think I'm just making excuses for this novel... it just wasn't that well-written!
The story follows fourteen-year old Dita Kraus and her role in the family camp of Auschwitz as the 'librarian' - transporting books through the camp hidden under her dress, as well as taking care of the physical condition of the books as they were such precious contraband. The camp has a limited eight volumes and they are managed by Dita, under the instruction of Jewish leader Fredy Hirsch. The main thing I disliked about this book was the excessive dramatising of the events, which in reality do not need to be made into a 'drama'! Both Eger and Morris simply stated the events in matter-of-fact terms, of course with the added emotion of the protagonist in question. But somehow this novel managed to make everything seem like a soap opera!
To explain what I mean by this, I think my main issue was the abundance of short, stop-start sentences intended to create drama and tension. For example "This was it. Now or never. She was a woman. Forever." (This isn't a real quote from the book I'm just giving an example of the type of sentences that were used a lot!) This just gave an overly corny and almost cringe-worthy prose, in my opinion. It didn't feel genuine and heartfelt, it seemed too try-hard, and like the author was really trying to get an emotional reaction. When it comes to this subject matter, there really shouldn't be any need to try - the emotion comes naturally.
The novel got better towards the end but even this was problematic. In the final chapters the style took on more of a factual, non-fiction style with a lot of the dates and numbers surrounding the events of the Holocaust. This really stuck out from the rest of the book, which had focused solely on the story of the characters up until this point, and hadn't really included the context or historical facts at all. The sudden switch to a more non-fiction style, albeit being arguably better than the rest of the narrative, was just jarring.
I know I've been pretty negative about this book. The memoir itself was truly inspirational and gripping to read, whilst of course being horrifically harrowing and upsetting in places. As Dita's experiences are so haunting and her survival truly remarkable, it's a real shame that her amazing story did not hit the mark in terms of the writing. As mentioned, this may be partly due to the translation, and it not being read in the original intended language. Overall, the story itself redeemed it, but I was pretty disappointed after all the hype surrounding the book.
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