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A review by lorees_reading_nook
The Good Doctor of Warsaw by Elisabeth Gifford
3.0
This story is based on true events that occurred in the Warsaw ghetto during WW2. It mainly deals with the life of Missha and Sophia and their interactions with Dr Korzcak and his orphanage.
As a story about the Holocaust there is no denying its impact. Once again, I've learnt something a new about this dark area of human history. Gifford certainly did her research and many details in her story which attest to this. However, as with most stories about real lives that are narrated many years later and usually after the people concerned are no longer alive, there was quite a lot of telling and not much showing. For example, although I can imagine how claustrophobic it much have been for half a million people to be squeezed into an area of one square mile, we get no sense of this from the story. Nor, for the most part, do we really ever get a sense of the fear that these people must have lived with after the occupation of Warsaw by the Nazis.
The characterization was also rather weak but I can imagine how hard it must be to write about real people without ever meeting them in person.
In some cases I had a hard time with the construction of some sentences and had to read them a few times before they made sense. I'm not sure whether anyone else noticed this or whether it was just me.
Overall I am glad I read this book as it will probably lead me to delve further into the the real- life events on which this book is based.
As a story about the Holocaust there is no denying its impact. Once again, I've learnt something a new about this dark area of human history. Gifford certainly did her research and many details in her story which attest to this. However, as with most stories about real lives that are narrated many years later and usually after the people concerned are no longer alive, there was quite a lot of telling and not much showing. For example, although I can imagine how claustrophobic it much have been for half a million people to be squeezed into an area of one square mile, we get no sense of this from the story. Nor, for the most part, do we really ever get a sense of the fear that these people must have lived with after the occupation of Warsaw by the Nazis.
The characterization was also rather weak but I can imagine how hard it must be to write about real people without ever meeting them in person.
In some cases I had a hard time with the construction of some sentences and had to read them a few times before they made sense. I'm not sure whether anyone else noticed this or whether it was just me.
Overall I am glad I read this book as it will probably lead me to delve further into the the real- life events on which this book is based.