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sarah_____nicole's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
pattydsf's review against another edition
3.0
“Consider also the special word they used: survivor. Something new. As long as they didn't have to say human being. It used to be refugee, but by now there was no such creature, no more refugees, only survivors. A name like a number -- counted apart from the ordinary swarm. Blue digits on the arm, what difference? They don't call you a woman anyhow. Survivor. Even when your bones get melted into the grains of the earth, still they'll forget human being. Survivor and survivor and survivor; always and always. Who made up these words, parasites on the throat of suffering!”
I borrowed this audiobook mostly because it was short. When I was working, I listened to a lot of talking books. I had a short commute to work, but I often had a lot of driving for work. Now that I am mostly retired, it takes me months to get through a book.
Once again, I figured out that I forgot to review this. It has been a long time since I listened, but just reading the quotations here reminded me of the pain Ozick showed me in these two stories. Although the first story is about the Holocaust and so obviously agonizing, it is the second story that I found most distressing. I was not as prepared for the hurting that surviving can bring. I think both these stories were even more powerful because I heard them rather than reading them.
If you haven’t read Ozick before, these stories would be a good place to start. She is an excellent writer. Her faith, Judaism, permeates her works which I find makes them very thought provoking.
I borrowed this audiobook mostly because it was short. When I was working, I listened to a lot of talking books. I had a short commute to work, but I often had a lot of driving for work. Now that I am mostly retired, it takes me months to get through a book.
Once again, I figured out that I forgot to review this. It has been a long time since I listened, but just reading the quotations here reminded me of the pain Ozick showed me in these two stories. Although the first story is about the Holocaust and so obviously agonizing, it is the second story that I found most distressing. I was not as prepared for the hurting that surviving can bring. I think both these stories were even more powerful because I heard them rather than reading them.
If you haven’t read Ozick before, these stories would be a good place to start. She is an excellent writer. Her faith, Judaism, permeates her works which I find makes them very thought provoking.
stella_starstruck's review against another edition
3.0
The first story was heartbreaking and difficult to read. The second story didn't work that well for me. I didn't see the point when it was over.
zisi's review against another edition
4.0
Ozick's literary style (dense, allusive, poetic) makes reading her always a pleasure. I first read "The Shawl" ("The Shawl," short story; "Rosa" novella) when it first appeared in 1984, and have returned to it several times in the years since. The stories, better read as a single narrative, are about Rosa, a Holocaust survivor, in mourning for over thirty years (the narrative takes place in 1977) for her dead parents, siblings, and infant child, who the Nazis discovered and threw against the camp's electric fence. The story is marred somewhat by its brevity (69 pages) and underdevelopment, and the protagonist's self-torment, which, after awhile becomes a bit tedious to read. But Ozick's prose, as usual, soars, the suppleness of the language making up for the story's unrelenting bleakness.
asililydying's review against another edition
how hard it is not to feel contempt for everyone who can't even begin to understand
haley_j_casey's review against another edition
3.0
Another short story for class!
I don't really know how I feel about this one... The writing was well-done, and the subject was brutal but honest, but overall I wasn't caught up in the few pages. I felt like I knew what was going to happen in the end (though I don't think it was supposed to be a secret, either), and in the beginning, I thought the story was going to be from one POV and it ended up being from another. I also felt like some of the details were described completely clearly, and then a paragraph later the descriptions were vague and had to be deciphered.
I just don't know. It wasn't bad. But I don't think I, personally, liked it.
After discussing it in class, I liked the meaning better. But not necessarily the story itself :/
I don't really know how I feel about this one... The writing was well-done, and the subject was brutal but honest, but overall I wasn't caught up in the few pages. I felt like I knew what was going to happen in the end (though I don't think it was supposed to be a secret, either), and in the beginning, I thought the story was going to be from one POV and it ended up being from another. I also felt like some of the details were described completely clearly, and then a paragraph later the descriptions were vague and had to be deciphered.
I just don't know. It wasn't bad. But I don't think I, personally, liked it.
After discussing it in class, I liked the meaning better. But not necessarily the story itself :/
dllh's review against another edition
4.0
A study in pathology and, maybe, escape from it, told in affecting, crystalline prose.
zelinacarstens's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
nick_jenkins's review against another edition
4.0
Ozick evidently hates Florida almost as much as I do.
matissaflono's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.5