Tagged: world war ii

Sliding on the Snow Stone by Andy Szpuk

(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

It is astonishing that anyone lived this story. It is even more astonishing that anyone survived it. Stefan grows up in the grip of a raging famine. Stalin’s Five Year Plan brings genocide to Ukraine – millions of people starve to death. To free themselves from the daily terrors of Soviet rule, Stefan and his friends fight imaginary battles in nearby woods to defend their land. The games they play are their only escape. ‘Sliding on the Snow Stone’ is the true story of Stefan’s extraordinary journey across a landscape of hunger, fear and devastating loss. With Europe on the brink of World War Two, Stefan and his family pray they’ll survive in their uncertain world. They long to be free.

[Full disclosure: Andy Szpuk sent me an ebook copy of his book in exchange for an honest review.]

I’m not a person that cries easily anymore, but this book had me in tears verging on hysterical sobs.  The only reason I didn’t break down completely at some parts was because there was someone in the room.  Had I been reading this while staying up alone in the evening, I would have been a complete mess.

Andy Szpuk wrote his father, Stefan’s, memoirs and I imagine that it was a hard story both to tell and hear.  In my own experiences interviewing community members who came over from Europe before and after WWII, such discussions bring up a whole host of repressed emotions and long-forgotten memories; it’s difficult hearing about it from a virtual stranger, so I can’t imagine hearing the story from your own father.  The horror of the Holodomor (death by hunger) in the Ukraine is so great that I honestly can’t believe that history has largely ignored it.  It’s not nearly as well known as the horrors of the Holocaust, but it (and Stalin’s other atrocities) deserve at least equal recognition.  What Stefan and his family went through is more than most of us can imagine and Andy Szpuk has brought those horrible years to life in terrifyingly realistic fashion.

I haven’t read many memoirs (considering how many books I’ve read overall), but Sliding on the Snow Stone is definitely one of my favourites, right up there with the possibly fake The Long Walk and My Hitch in Hell.  Sliding on the Snow Stone is definitely aimed at adults, but is also an enjoyable read for teens interested in World War II.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

(Cover picture courtesy of The Halifax Reader.)

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten-year-old girl, is taken with her parents by the French police as they go door-to-door arresting Jewish families in the middle of the night.  Desperate to protect her younger brother, Sarah locks him in a bedroom cupboard—their secret hiding place—and promises to come back for him as soon as they are released.

Sixty years later: Sarah’s story intertwines with that of Julia Jarmond, an American journalist investigating the roundup.  In her research, Julia stumbles onto a trail of secrets that link her to Sarah, and to questions about her own romantic future.

There are two words to describe this book and neither of them are particularly eloquent: meh and predictable.  As much as I hate to say it, once you’ve read quite a few books on the Holocaust, they all start sounding the same.  Sarah’s Key is an average book, but it is incredibly predictable and there’s nothing in it that really distinguishes it from other Holocaust-related novels.  I stand by my first impression: meh.

Using a boring series of cardboard cutouts Tatiana de Rosnay tells the story of Julia, a modern-day American journalist living in Paris, and Sarah, a ten-year-old Jewish girl during the Holocaust.  There is nothing exceptional about either of these characters and you don’t actually care about them until halfway into the novel because the first few chapters are basically information dumps that leave the reader slightly confused, especially in Julia’s point of view.  I feel that novels dealing with the Holocaust should show some new insight into that horrific period in history or at least raise new questions about it.  Sarah’s Key does neither of these.

The plot is slow but fairly consistent, so I’ll give de Rosnay that at least.  But much like the characters, it is entirely predictable with nothing new added to it.  This is partly because I have read quite a few novels on the subject and because every Holocaust cliché ever written is thrown at you in the course of the novel.

I give this book 2.5/5 stars.

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