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kerryanna2709's review against another edition
3.0
I have lots of different feelings about this book. It drew me in really quickly but then became incredibly repetitive. Although the situation he's in is terrible, for me, Otto was not a likeable character and I'm unsure whether that was intentional.
I struggled with a couple of parts of the book. One was that Otto felt like the stereotype that anti-Semites had of Jews - rich and obsessed with money. Of course it was understandable that he was concerned about money and didn't want to lose all he'd worked for but it often felt that he cared more about his money than his wife or his son. If it had been written by someone who wasn't Jewish I would have found it offensive, instead I was just intrigued that the author went down this route. I was also surprised that a reference is made to the Jews being persecuted because of their faith (rather than referencing their race). Again, this felt like something that a non-Jew would write rather than a Jew.
It was a very different take on the horrors of 1938 and I wanted to keep reading and see what happened so I'm glad I've read it but I'm not really sure what I feel about it. I do wonder whether there are things that haven't translated well.
Finally, I love an ambiguous ending but this was too much of one, even for me!
I struggled with a couple of parts of the book. One was that Otto felt like the stereotype that anti-Semites had of Jews - rich and obsessed with money. Of course it was understandable that he was concerned about money and didn't want to lose all he'd worked for but it often felt that he cared more about his money than his wife or his son. If it had been written by someone who wasn't Jewish I would have found it offensive, instead I was just intrigued that the author went down this route. I was also surprised that a reference is made to the Jews being persecuted because of their faith (rather than referencing their race). Again, this felt like something that a non-Jew would write rather than a Jew.
It was a very different take on the horrors of 1938 and I wanted to keep reading and see what happened so I'm glad I've read it but I'm not really sure what I feel about it. I do wonder whether there are things that haven't translated well.
Finally, I love an ambiguous ending but this was too much of one, even for me!
nastja943's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
justfara's review against another edition
5.0
Sad, funny and ultimately heartbreaking
Read about the Author
Read about the Author
ed_moore's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
“You cling to the idea that Germany is still a democracy not a madhouse”
This book opened as a five star prediction, unfortunately it didn’t persist as strongly as it began but was still a very well written and numbing tale of the early years of the Jewish persecution in Nazi Germany. Written in 1938 following the events of Kristillnacht Boschwitz presents likely one of the earliest literary depictions of the holocaust, though the tragic story of the author in his personal escape from Germany but death at sea at only 27 when shot by a German U-Boat led to the manuscript for ‘The Passenger’ being lost and only rediscovered, translated and published in 2018.
‘The Passenger’ follows Otto Silberman, a partly autobiographical insert of Boschwitz, as he becomes alienated within his own country, still believing he identifies as a German and trying to get by and escape persecution by taking trains across the country, primarily between Berlin, Dortmund and Hamburg. It is such a quotable book with many the poignant image, though in its structure buying time and freedom through train travel it does get a little repetitive as the repeated train journeys are redescribed and relived. As a consequence towards the conclusion the book very much petered off in engagement and quality but for the most part was gripping, so numbing in its depictions of shifts in humanity, and though a bit choppy because it is in the state of a manuscript draft still has such a captivating control of imagery and language.
_annabel's review against another edition
4.0
It was pretty good, it reminded me a lot of confederacy of dunces. Maybe because the author died before it was published and his mother had to finish it off. But then it was also was pretty surreal. It’s about a Jewish man, living in Berlin with his non-Jewish wife. He’s rich, owns a business and then Hitler happens and they start being arrested. He can’t get out of the country and so he starts just crossing the country on the trains, desperate to get out, getting more and more tired. It certainly had its own atmosphere.
kipstrik's review against another edition
4.0
Belangrijk en goed boek, maar als je het te langzaam leest, kun je b behoorlijk kriegelig worden.
justjadey's review against another edition
4.0
"After all, she belongs to the times, she accepts them as they are, and she seems more than a match for them. Yes indeed, he thought, now getting angry: brutality plus romanticism. Ignorance plus insolence. She may have a motion-picture soul - that's the character of the times - but she is charming! Which is something that can't be said about the times."
A really good read made all the more fascinating by the story of Ulrich Boschwitz's real life and demise. Shame about the ending, in all the ways.
A really good read made all the more fascinating by the story of Ulrich Boschwitz's real life and demise. Shame about the ending, in all the ways.
piotrjawor's review against another edition
5.0
To kolejna z tych książek, których nie sposób oceniać czy "recenzować".
Jej waga i znaczenie, jej historia, historia autora ....
To ta sytuacja, kiedy najlepiej po prostu ... pomilczeć.
Rok 1938 ... tyle dekad ... wydawałoby się, że to już wszystko za nami...
A to coraz bardziej aktualne. Trzeba czytać by dobrze wiedzieć, dobrze zapamiętać, co nigdy więcej - i nigdzie - nie może się powtórzyć.
Jej waga i znaczenie, jej historia, historia autora ....
To ta sytuacja, kiedy najlepiej po prostu ... pomilczeć.
Rok 1938 ... tyle dekad ... wydawałoby się, że to już wszystko za nami...
A to coraz bardziej aktualne. Trzeba czytać by dobrze wiedzieć, dobrze zapamiętać, co nigdy więcej - i nigdzie - nie może się powtórzyć.