Lois Metzger

Rating: 1

Oh my gosh. I don't see how anyone could possibly get through this book. I don't want to be cruel, but I also feel it is my obligation to save readers from wasting their time and money. I know how hard it is to write a book, but this should never have been published. Who picked this up and thought "Wow! This is great literature!"?

There is no focus. The narration and dialogue read like a random stream of consciousness from a person hopped up on ecstasy. The banter seems like two four show more year olds going back and forth with random thoughts, and the responded somehow always knows what the other is thinking and responds appropriately. This book is so bad that it makes me physically sick. I'm nauseated at the thought that people published this. It is not high quality. The character is a Mary Sue of all Mary Sues, and there is straight telling. When the author does describe, she focuses on the wrong things and goes overboard. One of the sentences was a 50 word jumbled mess. I know this is an arc, but no amount of error correction would fix this. It needs an entire overhaul.

I want a realistic book with a believable character and dialogue that sounds natural! I don't want whatever this excuse of a book is. It's very rare that a book ticks me off, but this one does. I was looking forward to this. Traditional book have an unspoken agreement with the reader that even if they suck they will be realistic. This one isn't, and now I have to doubt the competency of those who gave this book the go ahead. I find it unethical to sell something so poorly constructed. And to think of the bad stigma indie books get...and then to see this... What has the publishing world come to?

I'm going to try to take a deep breath and move on. This must be one of those flukes. It just upsets me when I think that this book got published when so many great books remain in the slosh pile. And before someone accuses me of being a scorned indie who's mad she never got published, I've never even submitted a manuscript. I am a reader, first and foremost, and this is just my honest opinion of this book.

I would like to thank the publisher for the ARC, and I'm sorry I have nothing positive to say.

If you would like to read a book from the publisher that I have enjoyed, try [b:None of the Above|22896551|None of the Above|I.W. Gregorio|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1412996409s/22896551.jpg|26645153] [bc:None of the Above|22896551|None of the Above|I.W. Gregorio|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1412996409s/22896551.jpg|26645153]. I haven't finished reading it, but what I have read was brilliant. show less

I read The Diary of Anne Frank when I was twelve or thirteen years old. At that time, if there were other memoirs or nonfiction works for children about the Holocaust, I wasn’t aware of them. I knew Anne’s diary was an important historical document and that its author had tragically died from typhus in Bergen-Belsen just weeks before the camp was liberated. I felt genuinely ashamed that I didn’t like the famous work, which seemed overly long and often tedious. Its author was show more self-absorbed and boy-crazy and reminded me of schoolgirls I preferred to avoid. It seemed that the thoughts of her much-complained-about older sister, Margot, might have actually been more interesting to read. I have never returned to the diary—although hearing the writer Francine Prose being interviewed about its literary merit made me briefly entertain the idea of giving the book another try.

For many young readers, an actual biography of Anne Frank, like this brief one from 2004 by Lois Metzger, might provide a better introduction to the Holocaust than Anne’s famous diary. For one thing, it offers historical, geographical, and political context in accessible language, giving a better overall sense of the times and conditions than a diary can. For another, it spares the reader from “all Anne almost all the time.” The fact is: Anne really could be insufferable — harsh and egocentric. In synthesizing a number of adult works about her (which are listed at the back of the book), Metzger gives young readers a gift. She provides them with the perspectives of others. For example, she paints a sympathetic portrait of Edith Frank, who was breaking under the strain of the dire situation and evidently depressed. Metzger frequently notes the observations of Miep Gies, the devoted employee and friend of the Franks, who was critical in their managing as long as they did in the Secret Annex. Some of Anne’s girlhood friends who survived the war are also quoted. The inclusion of multiple points of view helps to provide a more balanced impression of who Anne was as a person. They work together to make empathetic narrative nonfiction that sometimes reads like a novel.

Metzger also addresses the psychological importance of the diary to Anne. It was an outlet that allowed the young girl a place for making sense of afflictive emotions and extremely stressful circumstances. Metzger selects the more insightful of Anne’s observations and makes the case that these reflect the young diarist’s emotional maturation and growing commitment to writing as a calling. I’d have to go back to the original work to see how well founded that interpretation is.

There are now many alternatives to Anne Frank’s diary. Metzger’s is a worthy one. show less

In 1939 Lola Rein is almost five when first the Russians occupy her hometown and she witnesses a man being shot. Three years later her father dies after a vicious beating by a Ukrainian gang. In 1943, her mother is shot in a random act by a Gestapo soldier, and Lola is sent into hiding with an Ukrainian family. At first she is hidden in a small room in the house, but is soon moved to a barn where she hides in a hole under the root cellar with three other Jews. She lives in this dark, 6'x6' show more hole for nine months. Finally at the age of nine and a half, she crawls out of the hole and begins her life as a displaced person, searching for any surviving relatives.

Although written for children, I was completely absorbed by this brief memoir. Lola Rein's story is amazing (more about her story can by found at the US Holocaust Museum), and Lois Metzger's writing is clear and fast-paced. There is an annotated bibliography, but unfortunately no photos other than the one on the cover. show less

I don't get a feeling I got with this book very often. I was completely, excuse my French, mindfucked by this from the very beginning and sometimes I needed to take a break and process everything that I've read. It's unusual, strange, weird - however you want to call it - book and it takes some time getting used to it, or it did for me. But once I did, I couldn't keep my eyes off this book. It's a fast read, but so terrifying at the same time that it'll made you question everything that show more you've just read. Anorexia is an eating disorder that mostly gets younger girls, teenagers, and sometimes people forgot it can happen to males, too. This book shows perfectly how it can happen to anyone.

Everything is straight-forward, bold and astonishingly honest. There is no sugar coating, everything is described in detail - Mike's mind, the voice in his head that's probably the most terrifying thing in the story, and his process to having anorexia nervousa, without him realizing it for the most of the book, which is not surprising. I liked that more than anything. It only made me want to finish it as fast as I did and I'm definitely not sorry for picking this book up and reading it in hours time. I'll most likely go back and read this over and over again. There is no way I could give it any less than 5 stars. It's just that good. show less