I really like how the book moves between the past and the present day, because it shows how the trauma continues to have impacts. Both his father and Mala have concerns about resources and ensuring security of resources, just in different ways. Seeing such a horrid period of history through a personal story is effective too. The constant repetition of "they didn't survive the war" demonstrates the scope of the Nazi murders more than mere statistics do. At one moment, when the father talks about a friend who survived the war but later died of a heart attack and says "so life goes," it reminded me of the Slaughterhouse-Five "so it goes" that is repeated in the book and the numbness that comes from so much exposure to death.
I know the history about these times, of course, but reading about it through firsthand experience from a Jew really makes it even more horrifying—thinking about that it was not only them going through this but so many more people and how a lot of them were murdered. They managed to stay out of the concentration camps for so long, and that has to be the reason why they even survived; otherwise, that wouldn’t have been possible. Vladek was really smart about his decisions so far and very resourceful, but I can’t imagine what it does to the human psyche to be in survival mode for this long.
This is a little difficult to discuss to avoid politics and whatnot, so I’ll try to be as general as I can be.
It’s going to sound weird, but I loved this. WW2 was my favorite to learn about in school, and I really appreciated the authenticity of this telling.
I am assuming the author interviewed his own father for this, and it was the retelling from his own family? If I’m wrong, please tell me.
It was a horrible story with a sad ending. The father always forever living his life as if it’ll all be taken away from him again… never throwing stuff out, not wasting food, being resourceful with things—all things you don’t think much of until it’s something you no longer have.
It was kind of amazing how his father continued to stay on top as much as he could and handled all of the situations in the way he did. Not everyone was that “lucky.” The survivor's guilt and depression was soooooo thick within the written words. I can’t imagine that aftermath or even during.