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wwatts1734's review
4.0
This book is one of the surprising treasures that one finds at used book stores or other unlikely locations. It is a novel of the holocaust, the story of a girl named Eva who ran away from her Jewish town in Southeastern Poland and posted as a gentile, a Ukrainian peasant girl named Katya. The story follows Eva as she works as a maid in the home of a prominent Austrian family in Linz, and then as an office worker in a German munitions factory in the same town. When she is finally discovered as a Jew, she is sent to Auschwitz where she spends the rest of the war. At the end of the novel she is trying to find a home, which was difficult because the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe were destroyed by the Nazis.
The novel is a strange combination. On the one hand it is a story of a teenage girl, the kind of girl who loves to hang out with her friends, who dreams of romance, who wants to find her place in the world. But this teenager is a Jewess who is literally hunted down by the Nazi Final Solution. Even simple things like sharing her name with others is an act of potential danger. Who would betray her? Who could she trust? It makes us all look back at our own upbringing and consider the difficult times that we have all faced. Surely the little trials of adolescence are nothing compared to this girl, who survived years in hiding, and who even survived Auschwitz.
There are some novels which bring a profound sadness to the reader because these novels bring home the reality of evil in the world. Novels about the holocaust are like this, just like the movie "Schindler's List", which deals with similar subject matter. Solzhenitzyn's novels about the gulags are also like this, as are the novels of Khaleed Hossein that were set in Taliban ruled Afghanistan. It reminds us that we should not take for granted what we have, especially the intangibles, like freedom and acceptance. In "Eva", Levin does not lay the guilt trip of the holocaust at the feet of all gentiles as other authors tend to do. In "Eva" we meet righteous gentiles who help Eva, sometimes at the risk of their own lives. In the end Eva survives, and the means of her survival are both compelling and realistic.
I would recommend this novel to anyone who is interested in historical fiction, especially fiction having to do with the holocaust.
The novel is a strange combination. On the one hand it is a story of a teenage girl, the kind of girl who loves to hang out with her friends, who dreams of romance, who wants to find her place in the world. But this teenager is a Jewess who is literally hunted down by the Nazi Final Solution. Even simple things like sharing her name with others is an act of potential danger. Who would betray her? Who could she trust? It makes us all look back at our own upbringing and consider the difficult times that we have all faced. Surely the little trials of adolescence are nothing compared to this girl, who survived years in hiding, and who even survived Auschwitz.
There are some novels which bring a profound sadness to the reader because these novels bring home the reality of evil in the world. Novels about the holocaust are like this, just like the movie "Schindler's List", which deals with similar subject matter. Solzhenitzyn's novels about the gulags are also like this, as are the novels of Khaleed Hossein that were set in Taliban ruled Afghanistan. It reminds us that we should not take for granted what we have, especially the intangibles, like freedom and acceptance. In "Eva", Levin does not lay the guilt trip of the holocaust at the feet of all gentiles as other authors tend to do. In "Eva" we meet righteous gentiles who help Eva, sometimes at the risk of their own lives. In the end Eva survives, and the means of her survival are both compelling and realistic.
I would recommend this novel to anyone who is interested in historical fiction, especially fiction having to do with the holocaust.
samisokay's review
3.0
This book has been sitting in my room for months now, after I bought it at a used bookstore downtown and could never seem to find the time to read it.
The idea behind the story is that Eva, a Jew from Poland, escapes the confinement of the Jewish neighborhood by pretending to be a Ukranian farm girl. She begins living and working in Austria, and tries to maintain the idea of both identities within herself.
Most of the literature that I read is fairly modern, and usually has been written within the past 15 years, so it is always different to read a book from a slightly older perspective. The writing style is a bit weird- and seems to switch between past and present tenses with ease. However, the story shows both the struggle and perseverance of the main character (Eva), as well as appropriately portraying a character that has a strong ability to continue moving forward through unsure times, while making decisions for herself based on her own moral code. Overall, I liked the book, and I'm -if not entirely pleased- happy with the ending, and I was surprised that the ending was as good as it was. Levin did a very good job with the story, and the fact that the book was from 1959, when the war was a much nearer event than it is now, really makes me think about the cultural impacts upon the writing of this book.
The idea behind the story is that Eva, a Jew from Poland, escapes the confinement of the Jewish neighborhood by pretending to be a Ukranian farm girl. She begins living and working in Austria, and tries to maintain the idea of both identities within herself.
Most of the literature that I read is fairly modern, and usually has been written within the past 15 years, so it is always different to read a book from a slightly older perspective. The writing style is a bit weird- and seems to switch between past and present tenses with ease. However, the story shows both the struggle and perseverance of the main character (Eva), as well as appropriately portraying a character that has a strong ability to continue moving forward through unsure times, while making decisions for herself based on her own moral code. Overall, I liked the book, and I'm -if not entirely pleased- happy with the ending, and I was surprised that the ending was as good as it was. Levin did a very good job with the story, and the fact that the book was from 1959, when the war was a much nearer event than it is now, really makes me think about the cultural impacts upon the writing of this book.
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