Recently Read

Since returning to university I have read a little.
For my die-hard fans I have written a little about what I thought on the novels in question.

If This is A Man by Primo Levi.
This book was incredible. It was both fascinating and horrific. The most poignant and tragic moment for me was the very last page of the book. Reminding you it is not a novel with a happy ending but a true account man's life ruined and tortured forever. And not only this single man but a whole generation of Jews. It describes him finally arriving home to his family in Italy after years in Auschwitz and journeying home. Although he returns to find his family alive, his house intact, he still wakes in the middle of the night and believes he is back in the lager. And his return was nothing but a cruel dream.

	You who live safe
	In your warm houses,
	You who find, returning in the evening,
	Hot food and friendly faces:
	Consider if this is a man
	Who works in the mud,
	Who does not know peace,
	Who fights for a scrap of bread,
	Who dies because of a yes or a no.
	Consider if this is a woman
	Without hair and without name,
	With no more strength to remember,
	Her eyes empty and her womb cold
	Like a frog in winter.
	Meditate that this came about.
	I commend these words to you.
	Carve them in your hearts,
	At home, in the street,
	Going to bed, rising;
	Repeat them to your children.
	Or may your house fall apart,
	May illness impede you,
	May your children turn their faces from you.

Night by Elie Weisel
This was another, much shorter, personal account of a young boy's time in Auschwitz.
Although this was also a very moving and horrifying book, it was not as poetic as If This Is A Man. And being a lot shorter it did not go into the same dept and descriptions. I'm not sure I particularly enjoyed reading this book, although it has received a lot of praise. Perhaps had I read the two in the opposite order, or further apart in time I would have appreciated it more.

I don't want to read much more about concentration camps for a while. I keep having dreams about being in one.

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I quite liked this book. However, focusing mainly on indulged Americans living in the Mediterranean I can't say I felt much empathy with the characters. It reminded me a little of Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks - mostly because a man set up a sanatorium and the issues to do with mental health. Human Traces is a much better book though.

I also decided recently that The Grapes of Wrath is probably my favourite book. For the poignant ending and the whole chapter devoted to a turtle crossing the road. That part is really great.

Oh! And if I remember correctly it also contains a bit about a boy coming home from school with toads and lizards in his lunch box. That's my favourite part of a book ever. (I have since found out that it is actually The Red Pony, also by Steinbeck which has section about boy with lizards in his lunch box)