"The Bonfire of Berlin" and "Let Me Go" by Helga Schneider

Helga, as a child was left with her younger brother while her mother left them to go and work as a camp guard at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her father remarried and Helga was left with her step-mother who not only loved her brother and led others to believe he was her own, but rejected Helga and had her lead a most unloved and uncomfortable life, including getting her sent to a juvenile asylum. After coming back "home" to her step mother things do not improve and she has to live along with all the other residents of their block in a small cellar with threat not only of bomb attacks but with starvation, thirst, disease and death. On top of that they live in constant fear of physical attacks and rapes from enemy soldiers stalking Berlin.

When her father returns she gains little comfort from him. She leaves Berlin at the end of the book.

Let Me Go is the sequel to The Bonfire of Berlin, Helga finally as an adult decides to confront Traudi, her mother. She wants to see not only if she regrets her actions as a camp and extermination guard at Auschwitz-Birkenau but to see if she regrets abandoning her post as mother to her two children, which even the Nazi Party with all their evil ideas would have been against.

Helga hopes from this final meeting with her mother to be able to forgive her in some way and it is up to the reader to interpret whether or not she fulfils this. I believe she was finally at peace and had closure to the situation when she finally left her mother, who although in old age and fragile mental state, still had the evil ability to justify and control her actions.

Two amazing books from a different view point than we are used to when reading about Germany in the second world war.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

15 year old Michael falls ill with Hepatitis and is cared for briefly by a stranger, after recovering he goes to thank this stranger and subsequently begins a love affair with her. Slightly strange as she is in her middle 30's and he is a school boy of 15. The story follows this affair and how Michael reads to Hanna (the older woman) finally after a long affair Hanna leaves without warning. Heart broken at first Michael recovers and although he never forgets Hanna, and sets all future relationships against this one, he gains a good education and goes in to study law. It is during this time that he attends some war crime trials and is shocked to see Hanna in the dock, accused of not unlocking a burning church full of Jewish women, of which only a mother and daughter survive. She is accused of writing the report covering for herself and other female guards. Michael knows this is untrue as Hanna is illiterate. Regardless of this he says nothing and Hanna is finally sentenced to life in prison. Over her 18 year sentence Michael records hundreds if not thousands of books onto cassette sending her them to listen to. Only near the end of her sentence does he receive a small note from her so he knows she is learning to read and write. On the day of her release, of which Michael has been called in to help her reintegrate into the real world, Hanna hangs herself and leaves all her worldly goods and money to the Jewish daughter who survived the church fire, who subsequently doesn't want the money so Michael donates it to a Jewish illiteracy charity. All in all this is about sums it up.

I have read extensive material from the holocaust period, visited Auscwitzh and been very interested and horrified by the whole period. This book I didn't particularly value. I found it rather bland and forgiving to the monster that was the guard Hanna. Although I see the point of trying to humanize these guards and make them multi-faceted I didn't feel this was achieved. I know this has been made into a film and many would like to argue with me maybe on the basis of the film's success.I would like to see the film in order to judge for myself. I felt the idea was excellent but the execution of it was not so fluent.

If you are interested in this period then I would recommend it but don't expect too much.

I would recommend The fires of Berlin and Let me go, both by Helga Schneider if you are interested in some further reading. One follows on from the other and they are true accounts of the daughters experience of having a mother as an SS guard, the hatred, guilt and acceptance that she has to struggle with life long. I will write a review of them soon since we have discussed this area.

I am currently reading the Labyrinth by Kate Mosse.

The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld

The Year is 1909. Sigmund Freud and companions have just set foot onto American soil to partake in a number of lectures to spread their theories. Across town a murder and a terrible attack have taken place. The survivor of the attack, a society girl has lost both her voice and her memory. It will take the skills of Dr Younger, with Freud's help to use their genius to help her regain her memory and find the killer. It integrates beautifully a crime thriller, a mystery and a intricately pieced together piece of historical literature to create something so different and so compelling to finish that it only took me 2 days to finish from start to end.

With twists and turns on every page you can't help but be gripped into the scenery and story he so cleverly paints for us. His descriptive skills are second to none and he has accurately described the world around the characters as it would have been early in the 20th Century. This must have been no small feat. When he describes a situation you feel as though you are there in the room with them, standing in the park with them, or holding your breath in suspense for them! Great read. I thoroughly recommend it.

The next book I will review has recently been made into a film starring Kate Winslet. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink.

Ninteen Eighty Four by George Orwell

1984 is written by the same author as Animal Farm. I had read Animal farm in 6th form when I was studying the Russian Revolution and found it both highly intelligent, and relevant to today's society as much as when it was written. I was interested to see if 1984 had the same command and affect over the reader. I was not disappointed. The Book follows the story of Winston Smith. Smith being representative of the society in which he lived in as it is the most common name. In a "Big Brother" society their every move is watched and hear on telescreens and any deviation from what is expected from Big Brother is punishable in the severest forms, often by torture and death.
Inside the not so safe few cubic centimeters of his head, Winston is forming a rebellion, he is committing thoughtcrime by wishing someone, somewhere could overthrow this oppression. He dreams of being loved, being free and being in a society where your every move isn't watched and analysed constantly.
Interestingly Big Brother who is ever present or omnipotent in the novel, never actually appear in person, so whether or not he is an actual person or just a representation to lead the population of Oceania is never known. The population are certainly not given the scope to explore this however, and are expected to love and serve Big Brother in body and mind at all times.
Free enterprise and individualism are none existent in the novel, Winston however is not under the party's entire control, in his mind he still maintains some of himself. He buys a diary on the black market and begins to fill in his thoughts for people of the future to read. He also falls in love and has secret relationships with Julia a fellow worker at the Ministry of Truth, where it is his job to amend and change articles from the past to constantly make them adhere to Big Brother's desires. Unfortunately the ending of the book is not a happy one. As with all my reviews I don't wish to ruin the ending for you but I strongly recommend you read it for yourself. It will change the say you not only view society but how you value or rights as individuals. It casts an interesting slant on our ever increasing "monitored" society bringing forward many debates as the increased CCTV on our streets, ID cards, and any such monitoring the government expects from us.

The next book I am reading is The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld. Review to follow soon!

A Study in Scarlet: Sherlock Holmes, By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

A Study in Scarlet follows the murder of 2 men in London who have both dies at the hands of a cold blooded murderer...or have they? Holmes with his sidekick Watson embark on their first adventure together to discover the facts behind the two murders. Through the clever use of deduction the murderer is finally caught and justice prevails. The book is split into two parts, the criminal investigation and then the explanation and background. The detail is second to none and points he eludes on which you may think insignificant always tie up later in the story. I enjoy reading Sherlock Holmes mystery's and this one didn't disappoint.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

What a brilliant read! I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. Normally a book covering such a wide expanse of years struggles to keep the content so rich and flowing but this classic fulfils this task beautifully. From Jane's troubled and neglected childhood to her growing love and passion for Mr Rochester, the plain girl captures our hearts. Each time I picked up this book I was transported into her world forgetting all my worries and was able to totally absorb myself into the storyline. Not many books do that for me. I found her use of description incredible and could picture so clearly the landscapes, expressions, meals, clothes, colours, smells and rooms she described so articulately.
Even though it was published in 1847, the reader can so easliy relate to the charactor of Jane Eyre which is why I perceive it still to be so popular today. The different themes running through the book provoke much interest, morality, religion, social class, gender relations and even disability are so tenderly approached that they still feel as prominent now as when she wrote them. Jane Eyre tirelessly asserts her position in all the situations she finds herself in and in a male dominated world manages to become a strong and independant woman. Although she finally reunited with Mr Rochester the emphasis is more upon his need for her rather than the other way round and she is with him becasue she hopelessly loves him. In this I found a refreshing change to most love stories, whose main purpse is to demonstrate how the couple simply couldn't live without each other or like that of Heathcliff and Cathering in Wuthering Heights, self destruction commenced when they did not have each other. If I was a little more like the charactor of Jane Eyre I should be proud!

The next book I intend to review is A Study in Scarlet By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I am half way through so it should be finished in the next few days. Until next time............

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

I have wanted to read this book for long while now and am glad I have completed it unscathed. I appreciated that I was reading a piece considered to be of literary genius but upon further research I find that her ideas were not unique to her and the story line echoed that of others around that time. I was familiar with the story of Wuthering Heights but upon reading it I was not compelled to keep turning the page. Although it was written in the beautiful style of language common to their era, the story just didn't grip me.

Heathcliff is such a cold character and uncommonly cruel in my opinion. It is as though aside from Catherine (elder) he has no other room for any form of human kindness or humanity of any sort and I therefore found him rather unbelievable.

Hareton, who is made to seem almost animal like in his conduct due to his unfortunate upbringing by Heathcliff, surprised me most. To find that he and Catherine (younger) are, by the end of the book planning on marriage was so obscure and out of any expectation I held that again it diminished the level of believability for me.

I am glad I have read it and almost feel guilty to write such a review on one of the "classics" but I have to be honest with myself and say that I didn't particularly enjoy it.

I have started reading Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte's most well favored book, and am so far really enjoying it, I will not elude any further than that at this point but to say that there is a marked difference in the content to my liking!