Night by Elie Wiesel

Now that it is February, I thought it was about time to discuss the book that I read in January...I guess that is just how it goes sometimes.

I read Night by Elie Wiesel for my first book of 2008. Note to my readers: DO NOT try and read this book while you are in public places or you will look really ridiculous while trying not to cry. I don't know what I was thinking, but I read this book in the airport on my way back from Tulsa.

I know that this is not exactly a new book and that it has been on a lot of highly recommended lists for quite a while now, but sometimes I am slow to these books, especially when Oprah chooses them for her book club.

This is a "memoir" of one man's experience in concentration camps during World War II. This is not the first time that I have read something regarding this topic, but it is most definitely the most life changing.

I believe as we grow and gain more life experience, there are certain things like hate, freedom, and human life that take on a greater value to us, or at least I would like to believe this. When I was younger, the holocaust was a historical event. They were not "real" people, and it did not other effect me other than having to know facts for a test. Now freedom is so precious and so expensive to me. Hate is ugly and something terrible beyond words.

I will not talk about the plot of this book. It is a short read, so you should all go and read a copy.

There are several themes from the novel that I desperately want to touch on, but I am not ready just yet. They are too personal, and I am not quite sure how to express myself. Maybe soon. I promise that one day I will be ready. Maybe I need to re-read, digest some more, and them attempt again.

I will leave you with this quote from the introduction.

"For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time."

Until next time...

image courtesy of amazon.com