mattmo

Although a slender book, "Night" is one of the most potent and intense books I have read, one of the few I have recommended to others, and the only book to my recollection in which I read it three times in a row, with the intent to re-read it again. Elie Wiesel recounts his experience with the Holocaust from when just the first whispers of what was going on flew unheeded through his hometown, through his survival of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, until his arrival in a hospital after being set free by the Americans. There is no "pity poor me" throughout the book, nor any amount of grotesque detail. Mr. Wiesel is straight to the point but with the gift of a storyteller to place unforgettable images into the brain. He asks for no tears, but writes with absolute clarity the loss of innocence, of life, of hope, and of spirituality, even going so far as to speak of how, then, he began to wonder who and what or even if God was. He speaks of what happens to people struggling so hard to survive that they are forced to loose those things that make them human, most importantly sympathy and emotion. Once again, I highly recommend this small book.

2022-11-01 11:37