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This is the story of the Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto. Kazik, the code name for Simha Rotem, and his fellow Jews smuggle in arms and explosives, perform acts of resistance, hold off the Nazi army for almost a month, and rescue the few surviving Jews after the Warsaw Ghetto is destroyed. Kazik spends the rest of the war helping Jews who still remain in Warsaw, joining the Poles during their ill-fated uprising against the Nazis, and assisting the Polish underground.
I was explaining to friend yesterday that while I fervently believe that all victims of the Holocaust should have the opportunity to tell their story should they choose to, there are some tales that could really benefit from ghost writing, rewriting, or massive amounts of editing. Thirty pages into Kazik’s memoir, I was convenience this would be yet one more example; it just was not turning out to be an enjoyable read.
Luckily, it turned out not to be the case. While the writing structure did not improve with the progression of the tale, the emotional depth was conveyed in a much more impactful way as the tale moved along. I become more interested and saw a multitude of connections between what Kazik experienced to what I’ve seen in movies.
This memoir was the primary source for the NBC miniseries “Uprising”, which I have not seen. It is also the author’s voice saying “I remember…when I said to myself, ‘I am the last Jew, I am going to wait for morning, I am going to wait for the Germans,” that ends Claude Lanzmann’s film “Shoah”. There are also elements of the book’s story such as using the sewers in Warsaw to evade the Nazis that has been replicated in other films.
Book Mentioned:
- Kazik (Simha Rotem). Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter. Translated from Hebrew by Barbara Harshav. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994. Print. 180 pgs. ISBN: 0300093764. Source: Purchased.
While I already keep a long list of books to-be-read as a page here — color-coded by where I can find the book (library, own bookshelves, etc) — I decided to also create a Google spreadsheet of the list. There I not only organize the books by title and location, but I also try to provide the name of who I first heard about the book from, the year the book was first published, and what challenge the book counts for. It’s still a work in progress but I do like how much more user-friendly it is. After all, you might be curious to know how many books by Alan Furst I have on my TBR list (answer: 3!) or how many of the books on my list are available from the library (answer: 396!).
I started the first book in Smith’s series a couple years ago but ended up abandoning the book was I was just not into the tale of Precious Ramotswe and her detective agency. Upon restarting this tale I decided that I gave up soon after Happy’s paternity was established. I decided to restart Smith’s book at this time because I wanted to read more fiction set in Africa after reading a book set in the Congo a couple weeks ago.
“Mma Ramotswe did not want Africa to change. She did not want her people to become like everybody else, soulless, selfish, forgetful of what it means to be an African, or, worse still, ashamed of Africa. She would not be anything but an African, never, even if somebody came up to her and said “Here is a pill, the very latest thing. Take it and it will make you into an American.” She would say no. Never. No thank you.” (pg. 215)
Set in Botswana, this book features thirty-five year old Mma Ramotswe. A woman who, after her father dies leaving her many head of cattle, sells the cattle and opens a detective agency. Women from around the country hire her to track missing husbands, cheating husbands and thieving husbands.
But in this particular book, Mma Ramotswe’s attention is captured by a letter sent to her by a distraught father whose only son has disappeared into thin air. This mystery pulls her into a search amongst the unacknowledged, embarrassing witch doctors of Botswana.
The book is more of a collection of vignettes than a novel. Unlike a traditional mysteries, the focus is not on the mysteries themselves but the culture behind them and the women who tries to solve them. Gender issues in Botswana, for example. Mma Ramotswe comments off the cuff repeatedly that women in the country do all the work while the men lounge around. And interesting snippet that factors into many of the mysteries Mma Ramotswe solves but nothing something the novel sets out to address.
Upon finishing this book I told a friend who asked me about this book that I liked it and, if subsequent books were laying around the house, I would pick them up and read them. I am still not sure if I will actively search out the next book(s) in the series, but I am sure that I enjoyed reading this book and am glad to finally have read it.
Others’ Thoughts:
Book Mentioned:
- Smith, Alexander McCall. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. New York: Anchor Books, 2002. Originally published 1998. Print. 235 pgs. ISBN: 1400034779. Source: Borrowed from my mom.
Subtitled “A Doctor’s Powerfully Moving Memoir of Her Struggle to Save the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto”, Szwajger’s memoir is of her time working as the equivalent of a physician’s assistant in the Jewish Children’s Hospital in the Warsaw Ghetto. Szwajger watched terrible atrocities such as starving children dying and participated in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising all around the age of twenty-two.
Unlike other books about rescue and resistance during the Holocaust I have read over the past couple of weeks, it’s much more difficult to pull out a single topic or theme that carries on throughout the book. Instead, Szwajger’s story is based entirely around luck. She’s lucky that a man saw her name on the deportation lists and forewarned her. She’s lucky the German believed her instead of the man that accused her of being a Jew.
That said, I actually did not enjoy reading this tale all that much. Her books read like a stream of consciousness — point A reminds her of point B so she mentions it, but first we have to finish talking about point A or point C reminds her of life after the war which then reminds her of point D so she never finishes discussing point C. I really do not like that style of writing as it made it confusing to follow along with the tale.
Szwajger also wrote this book five decades after the war and her memory and therefore her novel were a bit fuzzy on the details. The intensity of what she experienced was surely much more strong and difficult than the intensity Szwajger conveyed in her memoir.
Book Mentioned:
- Szwajger, Adina Blady. I Remember Nothing More: A Doctor’s Powerfully Moving Memoir of Her Struggle to Save the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto. Translated from Polish by Tasja Darowska and Danusia Stok. New York: Touchstone, 1990. Originally published 1988. Print. 184 pgs. ISBN: 0671760386. Source: PaperBackSwap.
Subtitled “Being the Adventures of an Enlightened American in Jane Austen’s England”, Elyot’s book was got to be one of most confusing Jane Austen spin offs to be published. The novel follows New York actress C.J. Wells as she auditions for the leading role for a Broadway play about Jane Austen and her fictional romance.
But during her final audition, C.J. is transported back to 1801 in Bath, England. While there is introduction to Lady Dalrymple and presented as one of Lady Dalrymple’s poor relation to the Earl of Darlington and his cousin, Jane Austen.
I was interested in the beginning of the book as it follows C.J. as she attempts to survive in 1801 England. But the book quickly morphs into very odd tale as C.J. manages to jump back and forth in time. She is only able to see glimpses of her life in present-day New York as the people around her cannot hear her. She falls in bed with the Earl of Darlington and is introduced to Kama Sutra sex and ruined reputations.
Austen also only speaks in lines from her books and her works. How boring! And made me think that Austen was only added to the tale in order to capitalize on the growth of Austenesque books recently.
Needless to say, I did not enjoy this book. It just reached a point where I should have put the book down and abandoned it. Only kept reading because I was stuck in an area where I did not have access to other books and needed something to read.
Book Mentioned:
- Elyot, Amanda. By a Lady: Being the Adventures of an Enlightened American in Jane Austen’s England. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2006. Print. 372 pgs. ISBN: 1400097991. Source: Purchased.
