Tuesday 1 May 2012

May Read: Cootehill Reading Group


Wladyslay Szpilman
The pianist

This title received 4 stars from our Bailieborough group but what will our Cootehill readers think of it???

Originally published in Poland in 1945 but suppressed, this memoir of survival in the Warsaw Ghetto joins the ranks of Holocaust memoirs notable as much for their literary value as for their historical significance. The author brings realism and clarity to the banalities of ghetto life, especially the eerie normalcy of some social relations amid catastrophic upheaval.

1 comment:

  1. Well how could you not award such a story of courage 4 stars! This true story of the life of pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman during the German occupation of Warsaw is an incredible account of how the human spirit can triumph over the most extraordinarily difficult and challenging conditions. Szpilman should have been a broken man after all the hardship and torment he endured but he carried on and triumphed both mentally and physically. However Cootehill Reading Group didn’t necessarily enjoy the book. Some found it a little clinical and somehow removed of emotion and others just felt that it was hard to read of such hardship when all we need right now is a lift. That said though, it is an excellent book and was generally recommended.

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