This is a rough book to get through, and one which won't fail to surprise you at various points if you can make it through the journey. It works to offend your sensibilities on various levels, and I think that for most readers it succeeds on some level. Still, the conception and the art of the work are undeniable, and it's certainly worth a read for writers and for readers who want something out of the ordinary, or even simply something striking. It's a fast read, but it's also hard to take at various points, and not one I'd ever feel comfortable recommending to a reader who's not actively seeking something provocative and/or newly striking. It's artfully done, and worthwhile, but it's also not something I'll be able to force myself to come back to. ( )

The peace of psychoanalytic therapy and the horror of Babi Yar combine in the experience of a sympathetic woman ( )

I loved this book from the minute I picked it up and began reading the first "version" of Anna's story. It is a very compelling novel about Freud, his patient Anna, dreams, the Holocaust and heaven.....yes, it's all there. Although there was some controversy over the writer's use of another's words to describe the massacre at Kiev in 1941, I believe the book stands by itself as a great piece of literature. It's certainly a story I will never forget and would be a book that I would consider rereading. ( )

Deep, heady, intoxicating, erotically charged, and finally nearly impossibly sad. This book was a huge best seller, but it has none of the downsides of that. It's intellectially engrossing and the characters are fully formed. This book could be an allegory of the almost simultaneous apex and collapse of European culture in the 1930's. This book is unforgettable. ( )

Unusual book, Second half addresses the horrors of the holocost. Last chapter depicts an interesting portrayal of heaven. ( )