Four star review, originally posted here on August 20, 2024.
It took me a few attempts to get started on this book, which was gifted to me. It is clear at the very beginning that this book was not written by a professional writer. That’s fine; it’s a holocaust memoir, so I’m not going to get snobby about it. But I did have to make sure I was in the right mindset to read this for what is was: an incredible true story, lovingly told by the daughter/granddaughter of the main characters. Once I got into it and made sure I was reading from the right place mentally, I was still occasionally pulled out of the story by poor writing. But only occasionally, when it affected my understanding of what was going on (like references to characters I did not recognize.)
But for the most part, this story is so compelling that I got pulled in right past the writing and straight into the narrative. That’s how I find myself giving 4 stars to a book for which I started my review with an entire paragraph complaining about the writing. That’s how interesting the story is, when told with such heart. The author’s love and admiration really shines out of the pages. The hero, the author’s grandmother, was one serious badass, and it would be impossible to read this without being in awe. She carried her children through so many insane situations, using her mind and grit to survive. This was also a pretty unique story as far as holocaust memoirs go, because it followed neither concentration camp victims, not military members. Instead, after a brief sting in a ghetto, we’re following a family wandering the woods and countryside to avoid detection. In this way it most reminded me of Latvian memoirs I’ve read from forrest sisters, and Siberia survivors. But I’m most reminded of a memoir called Sailing to Freedom, which is the true story of Estonians who escaped across the Atlantic Ocean in a tiny sailboat. The similarity is in the ingenuity and grit of the folks leading the quest to escape. There are some truly incredible people out there, who can pull off some truly incredible feats when their backs are up against the wall. That’s good stuff.
Helga without the H 