Skeletons at the Feast

It's not often I say this, but for once, LibraryThing's "Will you like it?" appraiser was right. I did not like this book.

I never though I would say this, but I wish that Chris Bohjalian was a horribly inept storyteller. I wish his characters were as flat and unbelievable and as developed as a James Bond character (you know the ones I mean). I wish his book was as shallow as a reality television show host. I wish his story was as boring as watching cars rust. Because if my wishes were granted, then nothing would've happened in Skeletons at the Feast and I wouldn't have met Theo, Anna, Mutti, Uri, Rebekah, Cecile, or Jeanne and none of them would have gotten hurt. More importantly, I wouldn't have gotten hurt. I hate you, Bohjalian. I show more hate you and I hate your book. (But I love your characters. And your book. And you're probably a great person.) show less

Set in Poland near the end of World War II, this book is told in three perspectives. An affluent Prussian family, accompanied by a Scottish POW who has been working on their farm, must flee their home as the Russians advance toward Germany. A Jewish man has been hiding in plain sight by assuming a series of different identities in the German military. A French Jewish woman is serving as forced laborer for the Nazis and is now part of group being marched into Germany. These storylines eventually converge.

The brutalities of war are clearly portrayed. The traumatic content is relieved on occasion by the relationships between family members and love developing between the POW and the family’s daughter. The different perspectives show more highlight the various attitudes toward the Jews. The Prussian family is largely unaware of (or turns a blind eye to) what is happening to their neighbors who disappeared. As with many WWII novels, there is a lot of difficult content, but is consistent with history. I became invested in the story and cared about what happened to the characters. My only slight disappointment is the ending, which strays a bit far afield. I think the author wanted to surprise the reader, but these last-minute twists seldom work well for me. show less

Set in Poland near the end of World War II, this book is told in three perspectives. An affluent Prussian family, accompanied by a Scottish POW who has been working on their farm, must flee their home as the Russians advance toward Germany. A Jewish man has been hiding in plain sight by assuming a series of different identities in the German military. A French Jewish woman is serving as forced laborer for the Nazis and is now part of group being marched into Germany. These storylines eventually converge.

The brutalities of war are clearly portrayed. The traumatic content is relieved on occasion by the relationships between family members and love developing between the POW and the family’s daughter. The different perspectives show more highlight the various attitudes toward the Jews. The Prussian family is largely unaware of (or turns a blind eye to) what is happening to their neighbors who disappeared. As with many WWII novels, there is a lot of difficult content, but is consistent with history. I became invested in the story and cared about what happened to the characters. My only slight disappointment is the ending, which strays a bit far afield. I think the author wanted to surprise the reader, but these last-minute twists seldom work well for me. show less

Bohjalian ventures into the milieu of World War II Germany and tells the story of Anna Emmerich, a German girl living on the edge of Poland and her German family, who are Nazi party members. These are rural German's who are oblivious to the atrocities and turn a blind eye to the disappearances of people around them to relocation. It is the last days of the war, and the family is forced to flee before the oncoming Russian army. Accompanying them is a Scottish POW named Callum Finella who is given to her family to help work the farm, and a Jewish man, Uri Singer, who escapes the Nazi's by cleverly posing as one of them.

The story is unusual in being told from the point of view of the Germans (although this is the second such book I have show more read recently and not through any design to do so). Perhaps the tales of the Allies and those of the Holocaust victims have been exhausted and at this remove we can be more open to the stories of how the insanity of Nazi Germany affected everyday Germans.

The story is told masterfully, without any feeling that anything included is unnecessary or left out. Bohjalian amazes me with his ability to tell stories from so many different eras, with such disparate characters and yet to always seem knowledgeable and at home with his subjects. Stories such as this must always be told, lest we forget how devastating such a war can be and to help us remember that even among the monsters there are people who are just caught up in the circumstances created by others. show less

This book is something of a departure for Bohjalian, since it doesn't take place in the northeast United States of today. Instead, it takes place during the end of WWII in Europe. As in his other books, though, Bohjalian is not afraid to ask difficult questions in subtle but inescapable manner.

Through the eyes of the daughter of a Prussian aristocratic family fleeing the Russian advance, a Scottish POW, and a German Jew who is masquerading as a German soldier, Bohjalian explores the nature of revenge and collective guilt. Interspersed with the story of their trek west through Germany, is the story of a group of women being marched in the same direction from a Nazi labor camp, through which Bohjalian explores hope and survival.

This book show more is not a romance, no matter what the publisher may claim. But it is a compelling and well-told story about the relationships that can develop between people who initially think they're on opposite sides of a war. show less

In the last waning days of World War II, Germany was in chaos. Besieged on western front by the Americans and the British and on the eastern front by the Russians, the German people were forced to flee their homes. Cold, hungry, and pushed beyond exhaustion they struggled to keep ahead of the Russian front though and endless winter. What they faced if caught by the Russians, no matter that most were women and young children, was enough for many to craft suicide plans while others would just give up, long beyond caring.

Skeletons at the Feast weaves together four disparate stories during this tragic and violent time in history; the Emmerich family, a prosperous Prussian family forced to abandon their home; Callum, a Scottish POW who had show more been sent to help work the Emmerich's sugar-beat farm and apple orchards; Uri Singer, a Jewish man who through courage and daring escaped a train headed towards certain death and for two years successfully disguised himself as a Nazi; and Cecile a French Jewess struggling to survive German work camps and forced marches.

This is a bleak and unrelenting portrayal of the Holocaust told through a completely unique perspective. Most of the story is viewed through the eyes of Anna Emmerich, eighteen years old and having lived her whole life in a remote corner of Germany that had for most of her life been ceded to Poland. It is unusual that Bohjalian chose to tell the story through the eyes of a German girl as so often novels regarding this horrific time in history are told through those who suffered the most. Yet the Jews, the Gypsies, and their fellow Nazi victims were not the only people to suffer. The privatizations suffered by Germany's own people as they fled in advance of the Russian advance is an often overlooked piece of history. Their treatment was brutal and no quarter was given for being a civilian, a woman, or a child. The author does not hold back; there are many violent and bloody depictions of rape and murder throughout the novel. It was often difficult to read. Yet none of these scenes felt gratuitous. It was an honest account of what really happened. It serves as a reminder of the cruelty that we humans are capable of, no matter on which side we fight. The epilogue was the single bright source of hope at the end of the novel, a welcome relief after the bleakness of the previous 350 pages. This novel is not for the faint of heart, but it is a must read for any World War II buff. show less

Haunting. I was completely obsessed with the story and the characters while I was reading this. The novel captures the WWII the era -- the fear, the uncertainty, the relentless and unbelievable brutality -- and the lives of common people just...brilliantly. An incredibly written book, overall, that is worth a read for just about anyone.

That said, I had a hard time rating this, vacillating between 4 and 5 stars. I eventually choose 4.5 stars, only because I felt that the inner lives of the main characters, Anna and Callum, were not as well-developed as some of the supporting characters. This detracted from my enjoyment of the novel slightly, particularly at the ending. Still, an amazing and sad book; reading this completely broke my show more heart. 4.5 stars = A grade. show less