Customer Reviews

Castles Burning: A Childs Life in War

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I write from Budapest, the scene of much of Castles Burning. The reviewer who thinks the book cannot be accurae is entirely wrong. I have researched the places and dates mentioned by Magda Denes and have organised a school tour around such places. You can even find a plaque with her brother's name, Ivan Denes, in Vadasz utca. This is an outstanding book! Tragic, gripping, moving, even humorous at times, and a true picture of an awful time. I'll write more. Meanwhile email me if you, too, are a fan of Castles Burning (and even if you are not).

Magda's story grips you from the start - full of horrifyingly vivid memories told in a straightforward fashion, it examines several years of a Hungarian child's life during and after WWII. Her relationship with her brother and cousin is so intense that your heart will ache for all three children. At the book's conclusion, although you know that Magda will be okay (obviously, if she wrote the autobiography later) but you itch to find out more about this incredibly resillient, intelligent young lady.

Having lived through the same period under somewhat different, but equally harsh circumstances as an even younger child than Magda, I would like to endorse this book as a no non-sense, objective, factual and sober view of a child's world caving in on her during the years of the persecution of the Jews in Hungary, culminating in the final months of the terror. Magda Denes produced a book that needs to be read preferably in one session to sense the continuity of the story and the imperfections of the grownups under such great stress. A wonderful but scary work for people with sentimental hearts and minds!

This is one of the most moving accounts of that time that I have ever read. I admire the courage of the writer to recount it, I admire the fierceness of that little girl, so many years ago. Its haunting beauty stays with me.

This is one of 8 books required for a college course I am currently taking on the Holocaust. After having read Livia Bitton-Jackson and Primo Levi's accounts of their year in Auschwitz, I read Madga's account of her family's hiding during the war and subsequent journey in search of peace and freedom in the ensuing years. I found the first 2 books to be sad and horrifying. They were well written and definitely eye-opening and heart-wrenching. Magda's book is all that plus some. At times she made me laugh so hard I almost cried. I love her sarcasm, her ornery-ness, and her passion for asking questions and defying authority. I think that there is something in her that I connect with - a similar streak of insolence <g>. I love the book and was very sad to find that Magda had passed. I would've loved to have met and spoken with her. I am sure she is currently exchanging verbal barbs with Ivan, who has waited so very long for her to join him.

Dr.Denes accurately and vividly describes almost identical experiences that I had during the first half of the 1940s. Of course, I can not vouch for the accuracy of her conversations and interactions within her own family but as far as the historical events are concerned nobody should have doubts that if anything,due to her wonderful sense of humor, they were understated. I always wanted my children to know and understand what happened during those terrible times.Unfortunately, I do not have Dr.Denese's gift of writing so as a substitute I ordered five volumes of her book to give one to each of my children and my brother's children.Let nobody question the enormity and cruelty and the validity of the events described in this book.They all happened.

I can't begin to say how much I enjoyed this book. Magda Denes
managed to write about the sadness, her Father's desertion, and
the loss of the brother she cherished very well. However the
reason this book is one of my 2 favorite books (about the Holocaust, and I have read many) is how she added humor. Using the eccentric personalities of her grandparents, aunt, and mother
I found her book amazing. I have read her book 5 or 6 times and
will read it again. I was in a doctors office, waiting for him
in the exam room. I was laughing when he entered the room. He asked me what I was reading, and I was embarrassed when I told him it was about a Holocaust survivor. There is no telling what went through his mind. This book should be read. I rate it a 10
star+

When I picked up "Castles Burning", I thought at the back of my mind, "OK another book on the war, another book on suffering, let's see how good this is". It is sad, but true, that coz of the proliferation of literature on the Second World War and the Holocaust, one gets "immune" to the immensity of depravity and suffering in that period of time, when paradoxically, it is meant to make one more aware and more empathetic to the experiences of that time. Magda's book was special. Not only is it written through the eyes of a little girl, it shows the suffering of ALL who have been involved in the war, and tells us that with immediate deprivation and starvation facing you, there just is no time or energy left to think of others' sufferings, though theirs is comparably more serious and threatening. It sounds bad, but that is the truth, that faced with personal suffering, it is often impossible to bother about what other are facing. Magda's growing maturity and her relationship with her brother is well-told. His growth into manhood and her feeling of being left behind is also something all of us would have felt at one point in our lives. Magda's voice is powerful, angry and poignant, esp. when she speaks of her father who abandoned the family before the war and fails to see the wrong in it. Her strength comes through in her desire to survive and her rejection of her father we wonder if we would have come out as well if we had been placed in the same situation. One of the best memoirs of the war years. Readable and touching, Magda's is a voice that will stay with us for a long time.

Magda Denes writes of her experiences in World War II, and how she and her Jewish family deal with deprivation, fear, tragedy, and ultimately, hope. Denes' words flow, and her abilty to comment on her environment and on her own personality lend levity and irony to what could be a very grim story. There are many sadnesses that Denes must overcome, but at the end of the book, one feels uplifted. This book is not only an excellent way for young people to learn about the way and the persecution of Jews, but will appeal to the natural wit of most young people. Mostly, Denes, who has gone on to carve out a successful life for herself, reminds her readers, without hammering them over the head, that this very important time in history must be remembered in order for it not to be repeated. I highly recommend this book for adults and teens alike. It is well-written, poignant, and quite funny at times. One needn't be Jewish to get something from reading it, because it is about the human experience, not just the Jewish experience.

This is a gripping, exceptionally well-written account of a child's life in war. The writing is beautiful and poignant. The reader is so drawn into Magda's world that listenting to her sharp wit in the midst of great tragedy is inspiring. This book will make you laugh and cry. The author's death on the eve of publication makes the book even more heartbreaking.