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A review by papidoc
The Violin of Auschwitz by Maria Àngels Anglada
4.0
I’ll admit that I’m of two minds about The Violin of Auschwitz. Like many who have already reviewed it here, it didn’t affect me as powerfully as have other novels or biographical accounts of the Jewish holocaust and the Nazi concentration camps. I think, for example, of the dark power of Elie Wiesel’s Night, or the tremendous wisdom to be found in Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, and this one simply doesn’t compare. However, not all books can be Pulitzer prize winners, and that this one is not does not mean it has no value.
For me, its value lies in the symbolism I found in it, which may or may not have been intended by the author (or fully brought to life by the translator). The violin itself was symbolic of things that bring beauty and light into life. Such things allow us to transcend the difficulties, challenges, and even evils that come upon us sometimes, and our immersion in them, bringing all of our talents and energies to bear upon them, can take us out of ourselves and to a different, better place. Friends such as Bronislaw also prove to be lifelines (and we to them) in those dark times, and also in times of goodness and hope. Even the prison commander and the evil doctor are symbols, of that which is most evil and destructive, but that still has not the power to destroy us (not our shell that we call our body, but us), and can only take our soul if we allow it. Death may remove us temporarily from this world, but never from the memories of those we have loved, and who loved us, and never permanently from the eternal world.
Like others I have read of this genre, this book led me to pause from time to time, to think and ponder, and to appreciate the ease and joys and blessings of my life. That made it worthwhile.
For me, its value lies in the symbolism I found in it, which may or may not have been intended by the author (or fully brought to life by the translator). The violin itself was symbolic of things that bring beauty and light into life. Such things allow us to transcend the difficulties, challenges, and even evils that come upon us sometimes, and our immersion in them, bringing all of our talents and energies to bear upon them, can take us out of ourselves and to a different, better place. Friends such as Bronislaw also prove to be lifelines (and we to them) in those dark times, and also in times of goodness and hope. Even the prison commander and the evil doctor are symbols, of that which is most evil and destructive, but that still has not the power to destroy us (not our shell that we call our body, but us), and can only take our soul if we allow it. Death may remove us temporarily from this world, but never from the memories of those we have loved, and who loved us, and never permanently from the eternal world.
Like others I have read of this genre, this book led me to pause from time to time, to think and ponder, and to appreciate the ease and joys and blessings of my life. That made it worthwhile.