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donnaehm's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.25
nicjohnston's review against another edition
4.0
An incredibly well constructed family history and a very worthy Costa winner.
jacki_f's review against another edition
4.0
Lien de Jong was a young Jewish girl living with her parents in the Hague when WW2 broke out. She was 7 when her family had to start wearing yellow stars on their clothing. Then one day in August 1942, her mother sat her down and said "I must tell you a secret. You are going to stay somewhere else for a while." Lien was taken to live with a Dutch family, Henrik and Jans van Es. It is their grandson Bart who has written this book.
Lien never saw her parents again. They died at Auschwitz only months later. She lived with the van Es family for less than a year, and from there she was shunted through a series of temporary homes. She spent a couple of years with another family where she was treated almost like a family servant and sexually abused by her foster mother's brother. She survived by compartmentalising her feelings, not thinking about the family that she lost or about anything at all really. When the war ended she went back to live with the van Es family and while externally this looked like a happy ending, in reality she still felt like an outsider and she suffered enormous survivor guilt.
Lien's story is told alternately with the story of Bart van Es's investigation, which fills out gaps in her memory and gives a different perspective on her story. It's an enormously moving book, told simply and without sentiment. The saddest part of all of course is that there are still so many children today who are separated from their families as refugees.
Lien never saw her parents again. They died at Auschwitz only months later. She lived with the van Es family for less than a year, and from there she was shunted through a series of temporary homes. She spent a couple of years with another family where she was treated almost like a family servant and sexually abused by her foster mother's brother. She survived by compartmentalising her feelings, not thinking about the family that she lost or about anything at all really. When the war ended she went back to live with the van Es family and while externally this looked like a happy ending, in reality she still felt like an outsider and she suffered enormous survivor guilt.
Lien's story is told alternately with the story of Bart van Es's investigation, which fills out gaps in her memory and gives a different perspective on her story. It's an enormously moving book, told simply and without sentiment. The saddest part of all of course is that there are still so many children today who are separated from their families as refugees.
annauq's review against another edition
3.0
Hmmm. I feel like this was trying to be a whole bunch of things at the same time and ended up kinda failing on a lot of them as a result. First off, we’ve got the author trying to understand the connection he has to a country he is from but hasn’t grown up in or lived in. And boy, do I understand this. I too am from the Netherlands & have never spent more than 2 weeks there consecutively. But then he chooses this bizarre angle to unpack his own identity from: a Jewish girl/woman his grandparents sheltered, fostered, and later cut out of their lives. He’s constantly relating his own experiences and that of his family as voluntary emigrants with the profound trauma of a holocaust survivor; and I fail to see the supposed incredibly profound connection there. Rape, sexual assault and a suicide attempt get mentioned alongside his troubled teenage daughter, and his lonely walk through the Dutch countryside. All this is presumably meant to illustrate how connected everything is, how everyone has their own demons to fight. It’s a little odd.
Then there is the Dutch history angle. A wealth of information , place names, villages and dates are thrown around the page, and again I get a sense of faux-significance: a few solid statements about Dutch history and politics, but nothing particularly groundbreaking or indeed, new.
And lastly we have Lien herself, the person the book is meant to be about. Her story is told through narrated, polished recollection that doesn’t always give her room to shine. The horrific emotional trauma she endured is jarringly juxtaposed with the author’s bizarre, detailed retelling of his uncle’s penthouse or car ownership. Every time Lien’s story starts to pick up steam, the author forcefully reinserts himself into it all with a bland remark about the state of Dutch society. Ugh,
In short: interesting points here and there, but too much focus on the author and not enough on the person he’s supposedly trying to understand.
Then there is the Dutch history angle. A wealth of information , place names, villages and dates are thrown around the page, and again I get a sense of faux-significance: a few solid statements about Dutch history and politics, but nothing particularly groundbreaking or indeed, new.
And lastly we have Lien herself, the person the book is meant to be about. Her story is told through narrated, polished recollection that doesn’t always give her room to shine. The horrific emotional trauma she endured is jarringly juxtaposed with the author’s bizarre, detailed retelling of his uncle’s penthouse or car ownership. Every time Lien’s story starts to pick up steam, the author forcefully reinserts himself into it all with a bland remark about the state of Dutch society. Ugh,
In short: interesting points here and there, but too much focus on the author and not enough on the person he’s supposedly trying to understand.
gabiloue's review against another edition
2.0
An emotional story told with a detached air, Bart van Es' novel "The Cut Out Girl" kind of follows the author's journey to the Netherlands to find out more about his family's connection with a young child (Lien) during the Holocaust, and also kind of follows that child's story. Neither narrative really cuts deep with the reader though, and instead makes it glaringly obvious that the reader is only seeing the story from a very outside perspective. Even when van Es attempts to relate his personal family drama to Lien's, he instead creates an entire narrative that seems random and rather selfish in the face of all this young girl has to go through during the war.
Though a poignant tale (and one that's very important to learn about), all poignancy and emotion is lost in the author's vapid storytelling. It;s a beautifully done book, but there's honestly not much there.
Though a poignant tale (and one that's very important to learn about), all poignancy and emotion is lost in the author's vapid storytelling. It;s a beautifully done book, but there's honestly not much there.
swarnak84's review
5.0
Beautifully structured memoirs of loss and tragedy, family and memory. Van Es conveys both wartime horrors and simmering familial resentments in compelling manner. Very well deserving of all the plaudits it has received.