2013 book 229

Jillian Cantor's Margot
As a Jewish woman, I kind of have mixed feelings about books where Anne Frank secretly survived the Holocaust (ok, there are only two of these that I know of, but I didn't really like either). Cantor twists the idea a bit by having Anne's older sister Margot survive, instead; I appreciated her efforts to bring life to a historical figure about whom little is known, but analyzing the impulse leads me to some cynical places. THAT SAID, this book is really readable! I couldn't get into Shalom Auslander's recent Anne Frank book at all, but completely devoured this one, which finds Margot Frank living in Philly in 1959, working at a law office and posing as a Gentile. Too much of the story revolves around her lovelife for my own particular tastes, but there is plenty about memory and family and religion and survivor's guilt to balance things out. It feels mean to say that this is a feel-good Holocaust survivor story, but the end really makes it seem that way. But the author is a fellow Penn State grad, so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt on this one, and conclude by saying that it's all very engrossing. B/B+.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 3rd.