MUST READ – Page 16 – kindread spirits

The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer

I have a love-hate relationship with Holocaust-related books. I hate them because they are painful and tear at my heart and I often can’t sleep at night because of them. I love them, because they are essential to keeping the memory of what happened burning in our minds and they are often poignant and dramatic stories in and of themselves. I have read many, although each time I am leery about starting them. This one I put off for a long time, but it was recommended by so many people that I had to give in and take the plunge.

This one, though, was worth the heartache. It is a brilliantly written story of a young, Jewish man named Andras who goes from Hungary to Paris in 1937 to study architecture. While there, he falls in love and gets swept up in the politics of war.

This great literary saga truly captures the day-to-day miseries of the Second World War. The characters are loved and lost just as they were during the war. The separations and sacrifices are dramatic, just as they were in real life at that time. This book is also unique both in how it goes into detail about the earlier antisemitic forces both in France and in Hungary (prior to the war) and in its description of the war in Hungary specifically, which is often omitted in Holocaust books.

In short, The Invisible Bridge is worth every tear you will shed.

The Dovekeepers, by Alice Hoffman

Wow, is all I can say about this book. This is a must-read for anyone with any interest in the dramatic, heroic story of Masada. By telling the story through the voices of 3 main fictional women who live on Masada before and during the siege of the Romans, the author takes the reader through the harshness of desert life and the barbarism and the humanity that coexisted there. As you develop an empathy for each character and their personal plight, you then go through the actual siege with them and even though the outcome is known, the story is still gripping and suspenseful. This is to the Masada story as Mila 18 was to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the story is just as dramatic.

I learned so much from this story. I learned about the Essenes, a sect of Judaism that existed at this time which dictated strict adherence to the Jewish laws and a strict avoidance of any violence whatsoever. I also developed an appreciation for the mystical beliefs that still prevailed at that time. Even though Judaism preached belief in one god, there was a lot of belief in sorcery and spirits and angels and demons as well. Mostly, though, this story gave me, in vivid — really graphic — detail, an idea of how harsh life in the desert is. I felt as if I myself was tasting the sand in my food and feeling the pelting heat of the sun. I felt a relief as they did when the rains came.

I loved this book. I’d love to hear how you feel about it if you have the good fortune to read it!