Reviews

Mendelssohn is on the Roof by Jiří Weil

vvolof's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

missmelia's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

jhouses's review against another edition

3.0

Un episodio anecdotico y casi bufo, la retirada de la estatua del músico "judío" del tejado de la sala de conciertos y su confusón con la de Wagner por tener este un aspecto más semita, nos abre la puerta a un fresco, triste y humano de la ocupación de Praga por los alemanes en la segunda guerra mundial. Desde Heydrich, el carnicero de Praga, a una pareja de huerfanos judios; toda la sociedad se ve retratada con sus miserias, sus egoismos y sus contradicciones. Colaboracionistas, miembros de la resistencia, capos del getto... todos son seres humanos y contribuyen al horroroso drama de la ocupación y el holocausto. La sencillez y la naturalidad con la que se relata todo hace aun mas terrible la novela. Curiosas las alabanzas al ejercito rojo, que ayudan a poner en contexto el momento y lugar en que la novela se escribe y que, en el fondo, son tan ominosas como la falta de adjetivos de la ocupación.

maiamiga's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Vaya novelón. Todavía no entiendo cómo una obra tan coral, con tantas aristas, no parece desmadejada; cómo una novela con ironía y fino sentido del humor puede ser triste y a la vez esperanzadora; cómo una escritura tan centrada en la trama y que no es florida ni compleja es capaz de crear tanta poesía con tan poco (de hecho hay fragmentos memorables). En el inicio cuesta situarse por hablarnos de muchos personajes distintos pero luego entiendes que esto es precisamente lo que da una visión rica y de sociedad, de nosotros, de todos, de diferentes actitudes y destinos. Además, Praga como ciudad y el Reich Como contexto quedan perfectamente enmarcados y los personajes sutilmente descritos en su psicología. Una obra maravillosa.

audreylee's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Genocide

ronanmcd's review against another edition

4.0

What a strange way to put together a book. It lurches to a narrative halt once the statue referred to in the future is dealt with. Then it commences a grim recount of loosely related lives of Jews in occupied eastern Europe.
The stories are well crafted, descriptive, but abruptly so. But the way they interweave without relation to each other is just odd. Not that that is a bad thing.
Aside from that, the book is as harrowing as you would expect, considering it's provenance and subject.

cwagner's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

jasonfurman's review against another edition

5.0

A powerful novel that presents a wide-ranging perspective on the Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia. The novel begins with a German who is ordered to remove a statue of Felix Mendelssohn from the roof of a building the German's have turned into their own cultural center. He sends workers up to remove it but there are no plaques on the many statues so he orders them to find the one with the biggest nose. They are about to destroy it when at the last moment he realizes it is Richard Wagner. The semi-comic events unfold and depict a set of people caught up in the process who are each less motivated by evil or anti-semitism or ideology and more motivated by the penalties for not following orders. Although they eventually identify the statue of Mendelssohn and take it down, many of the initial set of characters caught up in the statue incident end punished in a variety of ways that involve being removed from Prague. The novel moves through chapters each largely focused on a different part of the process, including SS officers, heads of the Jewish Council, Reinhard Heydrich, guards, police, learned Jews, Jewish girls in hiding, a member of a quasi-resistence. At the same time, the novel moves forward in time and gets increasingly brutal and tragic as the Germans increasingly understand they have lost but only become more brutal.

Mendelssohn is on the Roof does not have some of the moral ambiguity of Primo Levi or the present the painful choices the way Eli Weisel does. The Jews, even the collaborators, all barely wrestle with their choices if at all and are presented as reasonably doing what they need to do without adding to the suffering of others. The depiction of most of the Germanys is more motivated by the fear and punishment created by the system, just like the Jews, rather than belief. Only at the very top where you have people like Heydrich are they presented as proud contributors to the horror rather than quasi-victims themselves. But I, for one, am not going to judge the perspective that Jiří Weil brings to his novel or fault it for failing to conform to the perspectives of some of the other literature by survivors.

jpgaipo's review against another edition

4.0

Empieza con una anécdota y bastante comedia y un poco de humor negro estilo checo. Acaba en drama gordo y mucha tristeza, porque es Praga en 1942-44.
Enlaza bien los personajes y las tramas, aunque deja alguna cosa sin terminar y en el aire.

kingkong's review against another edition

4.0

Dark and foreboding