Wonderful...more than a WWII novel

books:


	• Those Who Save Us Jenna Blum Harcourt, 2004 - 496 pages average customer review:based on 76 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fantastic

Those Who Save Us was gripping and page turning. I could not put it down. I love novels that jump between two seperate people telling stories that are intertwined and that is exactly what this book is.

Wonderful...more than a WWII novel

This novel is one of the best I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Blum provides a sophisticated, compelling plot, realistic and complex characters and relationships, and an interesting perspective. The details are raw, reflecting the horror of life under the Nazis. Even more than a story about the Holocaust, this novel explores the relationship between mothers and daughters, the right to know and the right to privacy, the maternal instinct, love, shame, and forgiveness of self and others. This work was satisfying from beginning to end and left me with much to think about. Although this is one fictional woman's experience, I can't help but think that it reveals truths similar to women who have endured life in war torn countries of past and present.

I look forward to more novels from Jenna Blum.

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A beautiful, sad book

Those who save Us caught me right from the start. World War II fascinates me- esp. the Holocaust and the Nazi regime. This book tells the story of Anna, a young woman who becomes a Nazi officer's mistress to save her daughter. This book made me cry- it made me so angry when people judged her! The novel doesn't have qoutetation marks, which at first set me off, but after reading the book I think it didn't need them. Without qoutetation marks, the story takes on a quaint, sepia feel. Jenna Blum did a wonderful job and I hope she writes something new soon!

Those Who Save Us

I thought the experiences of the characters were probably based on some fact. The story depicted to me the right to survive and persist during the most trying time in world history. Judgement of the main character could be harsh if one has never experienced a life threatening situation for themselves or their love ones. The guilt of surviving and how it was accomplished haunts the woman who had to do what she did to protect her loved one. The author kept my interest througout the book and at times I felt deeply for the woman and how she submitted herself to survive.

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great read, dissapointing ending

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is literary yet at the same time a page-turner, and about halfway through the book I began thinking it might quite possibly be a favorite. The plot was engaging, the characters compelling, and the themes incredibly important. I applaud Jenna Blum's courage to approach such a sensitive subject with such an unconventional edge. Every few pages I had to stop reading to think. She is truly not affraid to delve into the "gray" area of the Holocaust instead of leaving it black and white as many would prefer, which I think is important. I also liked her ommitance of quotations, I found that this creative technique served its purpose of keeping the reader engaged in the plot.
With that said, I must say I was dissapointed when everything finally came together in the end. The reader waits and waits for Trudie to find out that her father was not in fact the monster she thinks he was, but rather a Jew that her mother truly loved, and that her mother was not an apathetic German like she fears but rather a young woman with outstanding courage but who was forced to make decisions that are difficult for the average person to even comprehend. From about page 200 on, each time the plot shifted back to present I would get excited, thinking, "she will find something this time." But instead of Trudie finding lead after lead, it all came together for her at once, which was fine, but it all happened in about 5 pages. As I was reading, I thought "Oh know, there are not enough pages left for all of these things I've been waiting for to happen." I wanted to know more about how Trudy felt, I wanted at least something from Anna. In fact, I didn't see anywhere where Mr. Pheffer even told Trudy that her father was a Jew, which I think was important. I also would have liked to see something happen with Trudy and her cameraman. I just felt like the ending was unfair. I understood the significance of the brevity, but I felt like the reader deserved more. I had such a thirst for a great ending and it felt like at the end I was offered a short steady stream before I realized the spicket was turned off.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald.

Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother's life.

Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation of life during the war, and a poignant mother/daughter drama, Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure to survive and the legacy of shame.

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