Customer Reviews

Bronstein's Children

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Becker's Bronstein's Children is (to use a cliche) a compulsively readable narrative. Becker dramatically illustrates the complex relationship between the older and younger generations of German Jews--the older having lived through Hitler's Final Solution and the younger not understanding why the past constantly haunts them. The chapters alternate between the past and the present, showing that history pervades the very being of those Jews living in Germany after the horrors of World War II. The past is omnipresent both for those who lived through it and those who did not but must live with its consequences and try to understand it.

Becker, who is known for the book Jacob the Liar, starts out with a fascinating premise: a son of a Holocaust survivor, residing in E. Germany, finds that his father and some friends are holding a former concentration camp guard a prisoner in a cabin. It is the 1970's, and the son wrestles with this information. What, if anything, should he do? Unfortunately, the premise is the only worthwhile thing about his book. It just does not deliver. The characters, especially the son, is superficial, not drawn with much, if any, depth. I couldn't figure out why the son even cared about what his father was doing; he didn't seem to care about much else. This book was a real disappointment.