Rating: 2/5
Review:
Not for me
This is a difficult review for me to write. A story inspired by the author's parents'
real meeting in the aftermath of the Holocaust ought to be a moving and
uplifting account of the triumph of the human spirit, and it seems churlish to
criticise a book with such subject matter, but the truth is I don't think it's
very well done. As a result, I found it
turgid and a slog to get through.
I wanted to like the book, but I didn't. I'm afraid that I found the prose rather
clumsy and the characters both somewhat unbelievable and faintly
irritating. It's basically a RomCom in a
very serious setting (although there is a good deal of "comedy" too –
none of which I found very funny), and it didn't engage me at all.
Peter Gardos' family history obviously gives him the right
to tell such a story, and I am reluctant to be critical of it or him. All I can say is that some members of my own
family survived of the Holocaust and others died in the Camps, so perhaps I
have the right not to like it. I'm afraid
I don't and, unlike many others, I can't recommend it.
No comments:
Post a Comment