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jdvough 's review for:
The Light of Days
by Judy Batalion
This is a bleak book with an endless stream of heartbreaking stories presented in a rapid fire mix of terror and heroics. As a mandatory book club read, I quickly realized once begun, that I didn't want to read this. Within the first half hour of reading, I was so depressed as the horror of the Nazi treatment of Poland's Jewish population began weighing on me. I then decided that I just wanted to finish it and limit the feeling of dread to as short a time as possible, so I raced through it. I suppose any true life account of this subject would be the same so it is not the fault of the author, and I suppose others may be more receptive to learning more about the subject. With that in mind, I acknowledge the high value of the work and the necessity of telling the stories of both the atrocities and the heroism of those who fought against them.
In addition to not liking the subject matter, I also did not enjoy the style in which it was presented. The narrative seems to jump from character to character, time to time, and place to place almost randomly. Names come fast and furious and just when we get used to learning the story of one of our heroines, we've moved onto the next without finishing. And when we do come back to the story of the first heroine, so much has happened with other people in other places, that we have to work to remember what happened so far. There is a reference map and a list of characters at the beginning, that makes me feel the editors also thought it would be difficult for the reader to keep names and places straight.
The value of this work is immeasurable. These stories need to be told. But not everyone should read these stories, at least not in this format.
In addition to not liking the subject matter, I also did not enjoy the style in which it was presented. The narrative seems to jump from character to character, time to time, and place to place almost randomly. Names come fast and furious and just when we get used to learning the story of one of our heroines, we've moved onto the next without finishing. And when we do come back to the story of the first heroine, so much has happened with other people in other places, that we have to work to remember what happened so far. There is a reference map and a list of characters at the beginning, that makes me feel the editors also thought it would be difficult for the reader to keep names and places straight.
The value of this work is immeasurable. These stories need to be told. But not everyone should read these stories, at least not in this format.