The Seventh Gate

Sophie Riedesel is a teenager in Berlin in 1932. Other than being too smart for her own good with a biting sense of humor and always ready with a sarcastic remark, she’s a fairly normal young woman of the time. When Hitler begins his rise to power, her life takes a drastic turn. Her father, a scientist and a member of the Communist party with strong beliefs, suddenly switches to the Nazi party and espouses views she never thought he had. Sophie wants to believe he did it to save his job and family, but she isn’t entirely sure that’s the case. She has trouble understanding her father now, and it becomes even worse when her boyfriend, who she’s known since they were small children, also joins the party telling her things she show more doesn’t want to hear.

With all the men in her once-stable life now on the wrong side of her belief system, she takes comfort in her growing friendship with an older Jewish neighbor, Isaac Zarco, and his eclectic and --- according to the Nazi party --- socially unacceptable group of friends, which includes Jews, social activists, and some former circus performers.

As Germany changes, so does Sophie. Her relationship with her father, once open and loving, becomes halting and difficult. Her already strained and distant relationship with her mother, who outwardly doesn’t seem to care for her, turns nasty. Her younger brother, Hansi, a boy who hasn’t spoken in years, is a silent comfort and burden to her at the same time. She shares things with him she doesn’t tell anyone else, secretly wishes he would go away, and deeply wants to understand what goes on in his head.

Sophie becomes more and more involved with Isaac and the work he and his friends are doing to try and stop the growing power of the Nazi party. Isaac and his friends have formed a group called the Ring, which is working to get the word out and possibly stop the atrocities taking place in Germany. When a member of the group is murdered, Sophie, having grown close to Isaac, begins investigating the murder and asking questions in places she shouldn’t. She eventually becomes so involved in Isaac’s life that he begins making plans to send her away before any harm can come to her.

I don’t read much about World War II because I find it such a sad time in human history, but to me this book is an exception. What drew me to it was the mystery thrown in and mixed with the idea of kabbalist mysticism. Sophie is growing up fast in a city hampered with new rules every day, and it was particularly interesting seeing it all happening through her eyes. She takes risks, false steps, and makes mistakes, but sticks to her beliefs even when she knows what she’s doing could bring harm to those she loves. Her life, which once revolved around her boyfriend and obsession with Hollywood movies, is now made up of a group of people she realizes she can’t live without.

Isaac, who is a scholar of Jewish mysticism, begins teaching Sophie what he knows, and her love for Isaac and understanding of what drives him becomes a force in her life she will fight for in ways she never thought possible. Seeing Sophie change from a young girl fascinated by her own growing sexuality into a woman concerned with the political implications of her country’s governmental policies was an interesting metamorphosis in the way it affected her life in a most singular way --- her family and the family she made. It’s Sophie’s ties that make this book so moving.

If you love historical fiction with characters that make no apologies for who they are and what they do, The Seventh Gate is a book you should read. show less

I have read a lot of fiction and nonfiction about WWII and Hitler's rise to power. Each has a different perspective, so it adds to my cumulative knowledge. So it is here, in some respects. It is also in large ways the story of one woman.

Sophie is young in 1932, when the story begins. She lives in Berlin with her father and mother and younger brother Hansi, in an apartment building that also houses Isaac Zarco. Sophie and her family are Christians while Isaac is Jewish. Sophie's father is an outspoken Communist, fighting for rights for workers. He calls Hitler a "village rat-catcher". Thus when Sophie first becomes friends with Isaac her family has no problem with it.

But this changes dramatically on one day, when Sophie's father is taken show more away by the Nazis and returns converted. From then on, Sophie is encouraged to stay away from all of her Jewish friends. But she has a mind of her own and after a while goes back to visiting Isaac and his small group of unusual friends, both Jewish and non.

We follow Sophie as she grows older and begins to understand more about what is happening in Germany. As more and more rights are stripped from Jews, she continues to go to school and to engage in everyday activities.

The novel describes in grim detail events that are part of history now, and well-known. It also attempts to explain how ordinary people could have let this happen. I thought about what we in the US have been through with Donald Trump and the steady trampling on immigrants' rights and the continuing protests and legal challenges mounted to recover those rights. I thought about how I would feel if rights were stripped in the blatant way that the Nazis took them away. I would not be complacent.

In the book, Sophie tries to explain why non-Jewish citizens did so little. The only argument I can grasp is that they were afraid for their own lives. They had reason to be. Some attempted to get other governments to act, but this was such a small group. Would I have gotten out and tried to reach those governments who might interfere? Part of the problem is that there was no United Nations yet, not many agreements among nations. NATO was not born until 1949.

Regardless of how the German people acted, I would have expected more outrage privately. I don't know if Zimler has it right in this novel, if that outrage was not there in the majority of citizens, and in fact that many had gone over to the Nazi side, repeating the propaganda against Jews.

I had difficulty with Sophie's relationship with Isaac also.

SPOILER ALERT!!!---------------------------------Don't read if you don't want to know too much

Sophie acts on her impulses. She seduces Isaac, a man more than 50 years older than she is. I am no prude and no ageist, but I found this very difficult to believe. Sophie had shown her sexual appetite by going after a very attractive young man who turned to Naziism early on. Why did she continue to stay with him when their beliefs were so different? I never understood this. And if she was so addicted to sex with Tonio, then why did she choose Isaac later? I suppose it could have been that they were more compatible politically, ethically, but the novel emphasizes her sexual appetite instead.

It was hard for me to like Sophie or Isaac or anyone else in the novel, except perhaps Vera.

I liked the details of the various events in Berlin during this time, but had difficulty with the characters. Sophie's behavior with Isaac seemed to me the fantasies of a male, honestly, rather than the realistic actions of a young woman. Ultimately I was dissatisfied. show less

"Every so often a book comes along that I recommend to all my friends, last year's was This Thing of Darkness and this is the one for this year. Buy or borrow this book as its certainly one of the best books I have ever read. Its well written and has an engaging central character, Sophie Riedesel, who grows from precocious child to woman during the course of the book.

The book as is set mainly in 1930s Berlin and so is, inevitably, harrowing. Sophie's friends are Jewish and ex-circus performers, some of whom are disabled, and she has an autistic brother, all of whom she tries to protect from the horrific policies that are put in place towards the 'inferior'. I am not ashamed to admit that I cried as these policies began to take their show more inevitable toll on her friends and her family. But this is also a beautiful and enduring love story.

Its also helped me to understand how events in Germany unfolded during the 1930s and and how something similar could easily happen again, if it hasn't already. Zimler shows ordinary people having to decide whether or not to stand up for what they believe is right, in the knowledge that by doing this they would inevitably put themselves, their families and friends in grave peril and how the smallest compromises can lead to the acceptance of a great evil.

I'm sure a few people have been put off reading this book by the Kabbalist framework, don't be, it works and makes sense within the book.

I'm supposed not to be buying any more books until I've reduced my piles of books to be read (which extend along my hall) but I'm now in the process of acquiring other books by Zimler because if they are half as good as this one they will be worth it." show less

Reading the Seventh Gate did not start out easily for me - it is not a romantic or even heroic tale of Germany from the early days of the rise of Hitler through the aftermath of World War II. I found many of the insertions of Jewish (Kabbalist) mythology and philosophy out of sync with the tone and feel of the rest of the book. I was actually pretty sure I didn't like this novel at all but I kept reading, mostly due to a compulsion to finish just about every book I start. Anyway, I am glad I did finish the novel. By the end I came to very much admire the story Richard Zimler put together - the way he wove real characters, each and every one of them with flaws and pearls, to form a very plausible tale of how a community, and country, show more could be taken over with a regime that everyone looking back through history will mark as one of the most evil. Zimler is a very adept writer - the plot and characters develop as the novel goes on, creating a very true to life complexity and a book that begs to be thought of later, after you've finished it. show less