Customer Reviews

Dawn

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off, this is not Night 2. I naively expected that when publisher's try to frame them as part of a 'trilogy'. Night is absolutely and without bar one of the most fantastic books I have read in my life.

This is not just another chapter of that. And it is not a sequel. It is an incredibly profound, and beautifully written meditation on the journey of many Holocaust survivors -- but not his. This is a work of complete fiction. Many survivors went to Palestine, and fought the British (not the Arabs) to kick them out and thus be able to establish a free Jewish state.

It is the story of a fictional Elishah (who has remarkably similar childhood and Holocaust experiences to those of Wiesel) who becomes one of these freedom fighters, and is ordered to execute a British officer in retaliation for their hanging one of the rebels. It is an account of the night that Elishah passes, knowing he has to become a murderer in the morning, and all of his internal struggles with that. In a particularly powerful lead up to the end, he realizes the power of hatred, how without hatred, terrorist groups like theirs, and indeed any violence against others is almost impossible. He notes how nations are so adept at teaching their people to hate, and even comes to the point of trying to make himself hate this stranger in order to be able to follow his orders.

EXTREMELY powerful and evocative.

One word of caution -- there is almost no action here. This is a thinking book. If you are not up to the mental effort to think and feel along with him, you will not like it.

Very well written...almost Dostoevskian, with a similar sort of religious existentialism. Wiesel makes the best argument I've ever heard for the so-called "cycle of violence"---but unfortunately, it's equivocal. The plot involves a distinction between cold-blooded acts of violence and those committed in the heat of the moment, but the theme depends on ignoring not only this distinction but any distinctions among any uses of force whatsoever (most significantly between an aggressor's initiation of force and the victim's retaliatory use of force in self-defense). Still, the story is very suspenseful and makes an excellent read. Three and a half stars.

Bought this for my husband. He has read all of Wiesel's books. They are all gut wrenchingly real. You will enjoy this book. A definite read!

Dawn is one of the most profound novels I've ever read. In its 80 pages, Wiesel explains the transformation of the Jewish people as a result of the tragedy of the Holocaust. The main character, Elijah, is a deeply sensitive young man, a death camp survivor, completely alone in the world, his entire universe having been snuffed out. Drifting aimlessly and alone after the War, a man shows up at his door one evening at dusk and speaks to him all through the night, asking him not only to give up his life for a cause, but to offer up his soul as well. This man asks him to sacrifice everything he's ever known, every value he's ever held dear, every spiritual teaching he's ever received. The boy was exposed to profound Talmudic teachings in his Eastern European village. He was grounded in a deeply ethical world view. He was taught, for instance, that it's far better to die than to kill unjustly. Now his rabbi, his teachers and all his relatives are gone. This man tells him that such thinking led directly to the destruction of Europe's Jews. He says that the Jews, like every other people, must take a homeland for themselves -- even if doing so victimizes others; otherwise their children will forever be weak and persecuted. By dawn, Elijah pledges everything he still has, his life and his soul, for the cause of Zionism.

Throughout the book, Wiesel offers up the main character's inner struggle. His experience of killing unjustly, of becoming a killer, of giving up his ideals. Ultimately, he must look directly into the eyes of his victim and dispatch not only his "enemy," a man for whom he feels sincere but unwanted empathy, but also (in carrying out the sentence) the deepest parts of himself.

I tried to use this book in a philosophy of religion course I taught years ago. The students and professor became so emotional at times that we had difficulty making any headway. The lesson we learned: weep.

Have you ever had to do something very serious that you did not really want to do? Dawn, is an extraordinary novel written by Elie Wiesel, a surviovor in the Holocaust. Dawn is not in any way connected to Night or Day. Dawn is about responsibility and dity, unlike Night or Day. This novel is about a young boy that has been given the responsibility of executing John Dawson, a British soldier. He holds John hostage and brings him food, I know surprising right? The reason he brings John food is because he does not want John to die with an empty stomach. Later he feels sorrow for John Dawson. What will he do? I would have to say the young boy, main character is my favorite character in Dawn because he changes for the best, I think. This is definitely a novel I would read again because the first time you read it you can not comprehend it very well. I recommend Night, Dawn and Day but I would also recommend it for pleasure read only. You can not do any research on the Holocaust with these three books. I hope you take the time to read them.

"Dawn" is an extraordinary fiction novel. "Dawn" is not in any way connected to "Night" or "Day". Unlike "Night", "Dawn" is all about responsibility and duty. This novel is about a young boy that has given the responsibility of executing one of the British soldiers, named John Dawson. He holds the man hostage and brings him food because he does not want the hostage to have an empty stomach. Later he feels sorrow for the man. It is crazy how he used to be beaten for no specific reason but yet he is beating and starving Dawson for no good reason either. This is an amazing book to read. I definitely recommend it for others but I would read it for pleasure only. It is not the book you would read to find out information on the Holocaust or World War II.

This book would have been better served as short story in an anthology. I thought there was too much padding in order to make this a "short novel". Even as a short novel, "Dawn" barely exceeds 80 pages.

To address the content of the story, the main theme is the futility of the cycle of violence and reprisal. The narrator is assigned to execute a hostage in a nationalistic conflict. The story illustrates the narrator's internal moral stuggle in carrying out his task. There are some flashbacks to the narrator's youth, which I thought used some mixed metaphors and didn't contribute much to the story. But nevertheless, these are largely interpretive to the reader.

Certainly not as good as Night, and probably some of Wiesel's other works. But someone interested in reading more Wiesel might find some value in this book.

Elie Wiesel is a brilliant writer. Like all of his books, this one touched my heart and opened my eyes. I would recommend this book to all readers - even to younger readers. My children are 10 and 11 and they have read this book.

I have read Night and Dawn, and I am awaiting the arrival of Day. Dawn is ok. I can't possibly say it's bad. It's beautifully written, as all of Wiesel's works, but it is more of a character study than a story. It's an easy read, all three books are, they're very short, but very interesting from a historical standpoint, also. I liked Night so much that Dawn didn't quite satisfy me. I have not yet read Day, also called The Accident, but I have a feeling that it will not compare to Night, just as Dawn fell short for me. Perhaps it is because Night has more events over a longer period of time, whereas Dawn slowly covers the event of one night until dawn. It does become more suspenseful in the final chapter. It was good, however I would recommend reading the "trilogy" backwards. None of these three stories coincide, 2 are fictional. So reading them in a different order would pose no issue in understanding them. Save Night, the best for last. The others will seem much better. :)

Also, Twilight is another by Wiesel that has also been associated with these three books, so perhaps add it?
Dawn, Day, Twilight, NIGHT.
Just save Night for last.