louise murphy

book 58.

louise murphy's the true story of hansel and gretel
i guess i'd read a good review of this somewhere, b/c it was on my list of books to read even though i remembered nothing about it. foolishly i checked it out of the library w/o paying it much attention. imagine my annoyance when it turned out to be a retelling of the fairy tale that takes place during . . . wait for it . . . the HOLOCAUST! b/c THAT'S never been done before! i found it vaguely interesting when i was about ten and read jane yolen's briar rose, but COME ON! and of course it has every cliche of holocaust fiction: you got your kindhearted gypsies, your adorable/aryan-looking jewish kids, your heroic partisans, your totally warped high-powered nazi, your camps, your torture, your senseless violence and betrayal . . . and none of it is in the least surprising, plot-wise. at least the camps aren't used as the fairy-tale oven analogy, which i was pretty much expecting . . . b/c that would interfere w/ the inevitable happy ending. GUESS WHAT, ms. murphy? THERE WERE VERY FEW HAPPY ENDINGS DURING THIS PERIOD. don't you think writing about something that you have no connection to--when plenty of writers who actually experienced it have written better books than this--kind of cheapens it? what gives her the right to write a story like this? and WHY is the holocaust the inevitable historical crisis around which all these stories turn? can't authors write about cambodia, or rwanda? there are plenty of other historical crises to exploit in fiction, you know!

to be fair, that's not to say this isn't a well-written book w/ interesting characters. i almost wished it had been a movie; there was one very vivid scene during which i'd have closed my eyes (you all know about my fear of needles going into veins, right? i mean, i feel sick just writing this now)--and really, how do you get through a scene like that in a book? i read it w/ one eye closed, cringing. stupid blood transfusions. ugh, i'm going to puke if i think about this more.

but yeah, i have pretty much lost my patience for holocaust fiction at this point in my life. my irrational anger is probably sponsored by a link i saw on metafilter yesterday pointing to online historical archives of the lodz ghetto--i'm pretty sure i found records of my own family being transported, or at least a family w/ my grandmother's unusual name. it's a weird thing to bring up, though: "hey, bubbe, just wanted to call and say hi! by the way, what were the names of your father's siblings? i think i just found proof that they were sent to auschwitz!" yeah, not so much.