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A review by kbyanyname
Day for Night by Frederick Reiken
2.0
Let me begin by saying that I did not intend to read this book in one day. It was more that once I started it and realized what it was, I figured I might as well push through to the end. I utilized some convenient insomnia to finish up, which was pretty easy to do at a little more than 300 pages.
This also makes the second book this year about the Holocaust that I feel I've sort of been tricked into reading (the first was [b:Beatrice and Virgil|7176578|Beatrice and Virgil|Yann Martel|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275621211s/7176578.jpg|7627945]) and there's nothing wrong with reading on that subject or anything, but it definitely colors a reading.
Not that I think a book needs to let you know that up front (insert comment about books and covers), but it would be nice to be able to emotionally prepare for such a horrific subject.
What's more is that Reiken doesn't exactly do anything that I haven't already (and recently) come across with this subject, except humanize both sides of the action. Not to cheapen it in the least, because it's an important subject, but the story is not going to change, and the only thing that we can come away with is either going to be despair or hope. Reiken's writing still drew me in during several parts, and I have to admit that I was sad and upset at all the right places, but it probably would've gone over better if there wasn't as much allusion to some long-hidden family secret or such for several characters.
The book is billed as a web of short stories bringing several unsuspecting characters together through life events and relationships they never thought to consider. I was continually frustrated through the book looking for a surprise connection, but only finding several people who might've come into contact with each other for any number of meaningful reasons. The speaking cast is almost all women, almost all Jewish, from the same places and families. Some parts of the book came off as a Hebrew rendition of The Joy Luck Club to me.
I really, really hate to be the "gender studies" guy, but there are so few men in this book. Only four get their own stories (out of about 12 in the book, I think), and only three of them have names. With the exception of one or two both speaking or non-speaking, they are either inept or maladjusted, and almost all of them die. By contrast, the women are brilliant, emotionally involved, bond together and reach out and are put into danger and grow as people and, as before, a web of humanity bringing hope. The "superhuman" character in the book is even female, though I don't have an issue with that in general, just in terms of the huge imbalance in the stories. I'm not certain it was an intentional writing choice, but it hampered the reading for me.
The most frustrating part of the whole thing for me is that the early stories in the book hit such high notes and brought up genuinely interesting characters and conflicts, and we have to move on without almost any resolution. Reiken gives us a glimpse into some stories and events that draw us in, and then abandons them and drags us along the rest of them as his stories begin to get a more and more narrow focus on Israel. I feel as if Reiken started a few really interesting short stories that were great on their own, and then an editor sparked a few connections between them and promised it would sell. I would love to see these first few stories expanded into their own worlds, and maybe a little less connected to the rest of this web of history.
This also makes the second book this year about the Holocaust that I feel I've sort of been tricked into reading (the first was [b:Beatrice and Virgil|7176578|Beatrice and Virgil|Yann Martel|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275621211s/7176578.jpg|7627945]) and there's nothing wrong with reading on that subject or anything, but it definitely colors a reading.
Not that I think a book needs to let you know that up front (insert comment about books and covers), but it would be nice to be able to emotionally prepare for such a horrific subject.
What's more is that Reiken doesn't exactly do anything that I haven't already (and recently) come across with this subject, except humanize both sides of the action. Not to cheapen it in the least, because it's an important subject, but the story is not going to change, and the only thing that we can come away with is either going to be despair or hope. Reiken's writing still drew me in during several parts, and I have to admit that I was sad and upset at all the right places, but it probably would've gone over better if there wasn't as much allusion to some long-hidden family secret or such for several characters.
The book is billed as a web of short stories bringing several unsuspecting characters together through life events and relationships they never thought to consider. I was continually frustrated through the book looking for a surprise connection, but only finding several people who might've come into contact with each other for any number of meaningful reasons. The speaking cast is almost all women, almost all Jewish, from the same places and families. Some parts of the book came off as a Hebrew rendition of The Joy Luck Club to me.
I really, really hate to be the "gender studies" guy, but there are so few men in this book. Only four get their own stories (out of about 12 in the book, I think), and only three of them have names. With the exception of one or two both speaking or non-speaking, they are either inept or maladjusted, and almost all of them die. By contrast, the women are brilliant, emotionally involved, bond together and reach out and are put into danger and grow as people and, as before, a web of humanity bringing hope. The "superhuman" character in the book is even female, though I don't have an issue with that in general, just in terms of the huge imbalance in the stories. I'm not certain it was an intentional writing choice, but it hampered the reading for me.
The most frustrating part of the whole thing for me is that the early stories in the book hit such high notes and brought up genuinely interesting characters and conflicts, and we have to move on without almost any resolution. Reiken gives us a glimpse into some stories and events that draw us in, and then abandons them and drags us along the rest of them as his stories begin to get a more and more narrow focus on Israel. I feel as if Reiken started a few really interesting short stories that were great on their own, and then an editor sparked a few connections between them and promised it would sell. I would love to see these first few stories expanded into their own worlds, and maybe a little less connected to the rest of this web of history.