Customer Reviews

Echoes

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

"Echoes" by Danielle Steel, is a wonderfully moving and emotional story of a family of strong and caring women, who for generations seem destined to 'echo' the trials and triumphs of their predecessors. It is a saga so filled with characters that attracted me to their inner strength, their courage and magnetic charms, and had me living the danger and hardships of their times. There were times I actually found myself with a lump in my throat or my heart beating faster, as they devoted themselves, sometimes putting their lives on the line for what they loved and believed in.

In 1915, as War began to loom, and her brothers were off fighting, Beata Wittgenstein, a young, beautiful, intelligent German Jewish woman, fell in love with a handsome and caring French officer. Both loved their families and their countries, but the love they had for each other had no equal. Defying their parents,their traditions, and being cut out of the families, never to be allowed contact again, they sought comfort in each other's arms and married. Not an easy life, they managed to make a home and life for themselves and their two beautiful daughters. Beata converting to Catholicism for her husband, but never forgetting her own deep roots.

It was years later, when a second World War loomed that she anguished as her family disappeared into the horrible fate awaiting them by the Nazis. As her oldest daughter, Amadea grew into a beautiful woman and had become a nun, it was only then she learned of her ancestry. She too had to suffer in silence as her mother and sister were taken away, and she herself is forced to live in a concentration camp . Amadea would then go on to become a respected member of the French Resistance, doing what was in her power to fight for freedom and to save other lives from being destroyed. She also finds love and must decide between her devotion to God and the man she loves.

It's a story filled with love. But it is much more than a romance novel. It has adventure, danger, and the all too real horrors of war. It is one that will touch you on many levels, and one that will stay with you for quite a while after the read.

This book is also available in a magnifecent audio edition read by Simon Prebble, that also comes with a bonus audio book of "Fine Things", a lovely romantic story, also by Steel(Read by Richard Thomas):Echoes (Danielle Steel)

Here is a LArge Print Edition:Echoes - Large Print Edition

Enjoy the read....Laurie

When a reader selects Daniel Steel's book he/she is pretty much aware of what to expect. This is an excellent book, and you know that by wanting to know what happens next in the plot. One major draw back of this book is lack of research by author. She selects a topic and does very little to understand the intricacies of the subject matter.

As few other reviewers noted there are a number of things that would most likely never happened in real life. Example: in the beginning of the book while vacationing in Geneva mother is dining in a restaurant with her daughters. If they were an orthodox family they would follow kashrus and not dine in the hotel's restaurant which was obviously not kosher. And, only few pages after that Beata eats her first "non-kosher" meal when she leaves for Switzerland.

Also, number was never tattooed on her arm. Germans were well known for strict adherence to order and them "missing" her is highly unlikely. No Jewish holidays are celebrated except "High Holiday" Yom Kippur. While, Bearta's family was "orthodox" they all had non-Jewish first names, even though it is possible however but it is highly improbable. There were numerous reference to knowledge of languages, however when referring to Wittgenstein their first language was German, then French and English. This is a major flaw in Steel's research. Wittgenstein' first language would have been Yiddish.
Beata converted and her daughter was Catholic, but according to Jewish law Amadea was Jewish and that was simply ignored in the book and only at the very end Rabbi was present at the wedding ceremony, for what purpose? You do not bring in your rabbi for heritage purposes.

Many more instances could be found throughout the text. Good book but very little research.

This book was hard to put down. It holds you from the first page. You fall in love with all the characters and feel your heart ache with their sorrows. And am now trying to find one that can compare.

I don't read Danielle Steel or any romantic novels (other than Jane Austin) but I was given this book as a gift by our babysitter. I'm giving it a 3 stars because DS picked an interesting setting for the book, the plot moves along, and the author demonstrates that she knows a little more about the Holocaust than the average American. I enjoyed the Beata character but was put off by how perfect she is both in appearance and character. Beata's only 'mistake' is that she does not foresee the fate of the Jews in Europe in time to get out. Even this is not a flaw because very few people alive in Europe at that time predicted what the Nazi's would do to the Jews. It was irritating that Beata and her youngest daughter disappear mid-story and we never hear of them again. And it was surprising that after devoting pages and pages to conveying that Amadea is a devoted nun who will return to the convent after the war ends, she is suddenly in a car making violent love to another member of the resistance. The writing is generally poor using nothing higher than 9th grade vocabulary.

Listening to this novel, especially the start made me anxious and nervous knowing what was coming. It hit me how insidious and step-by-step the onset was in Germany... gradually taking away one right at a time from the Jews. Then I was downright sick to my stomach when it hit and the concentration camps were opened and people started getting deported. Any love story definitely takes a backseat to the heartstopping horror of the intimate details of what was happening in Germany under Hitler and the anti-semitic sentiment of Germany's people. I could hardly breathe at times listening to what was happening, not only in the concentration camps, but in the neighborhoods, communities, and ghettos.
I enjoyed the history of the kinder railroad getting jewish children out of Germany into Britain. What a heartwarming action, and the Carmelite nuns history was also interesting, as was the "model workcamp" the Germans were trying to "show off".
But the ending with Amadea and Rupert was lackluster. The end didn't live up to the expectation of the story and so many loose ends. It left me flat after such an emotional story. Simon Prebble's voice and talent is superb!

This review refers to the Unabridged Audio Edition Of "Echoes"(Random House) "Echoes" by Danielle Steel, is a wonderfully moving and emotional story of a family of strong and caring women, who for generations seem destined to 'echo' the trials and triumphs of their predecessors. It is a saga so filled with characters that attracted me to their inner strength, their courage and magnetic charms, and had me living the danger and hardships of their times through this magnificent audio reading by Simon Prebble. There were times I actually found myself with a lump in my throat or my heart beating faster, as they devoted themselves, sometimes putting their lives on the line for what they loved and believed in.

In 1915, as War began to loom, and her brothers were off fighting, Beata Wittgenstein, a young, beautiful, intelligent German Jewish woman, fell in love with a handsome and caring French officer. Both loved their families and their countries, but the love they had for each other had no equal. Defying their parents,their traditions, and being cut out of the families, never to be allowed contact again, they sought comfort in each other's arms and married. Not an easy life, they managed to make a home and life for themselves and their two beautiful daughters. Beata converting to Catholicism for her husband, but never forgetting her own deep roots.

It was years later, when a second World War loomed that she anguished as her family disappeared into the horrible fate awaiting them by the Nazis. As her oldest daughter, Amadea grew into a beautiful woman and had become a nun, it was only then she learned of her ancestry. She too had to suffer in silence as her mother and sister were taken away, and she herself is forced to live in a concentration camp . Amadea would then go on to become a respected member of the French Resistance, doing what was in her power to fight for freedom and to save other lives from being destroyed. She also finds love and must decide between her devotion to God and the man she loves.

It's a story filled with love, adventure, danger, and the all too real horrors of war. It is one that will touch you on many levels, and one that will stay with you for quite a while after the read. Simon Prebble is a masterful story teller. I was surprised that this tale of women was read by a man, but within a short time, I was most impressed with his characterizations. He even manages to pull off a couple of readings of a woman in labor very well, and never going over the top. He seems to add just the right inflections to each person to give them each their own personalities. There are 7 two sided tapes in this unabridged audio edition. So settle in for a nice long story(about 11 hours). The quality and sound of the tapes are excellent.

But that's not all...this edition also comes with a bonus book. Steel's "Fine Things" is included as well. In his mid thirties, Bernie Fine would finally find love. Liz a single mom, with a beautiful little girl, came into his life and changed his world. They formed a wonderful little family. When tragedy strikes though, Bernie must learn to deal with the pain, with life and breaking down the wall he built around himself so he could learn to love again. It's a fairly short, but sweet story(On it's own, I would have gone 4 stars) and although a bit predictable, Richard Thomas, another fabulous voice, has a way of bringing the characters to life.Thomas is able to relay Bernie's love, his pain, and his sense of humor to the listener.

An enjoyable reading. "Fine Things" is 2 cassettes,3 hours(I think this one may have been abridged in some way) and also has excellent sound quality. If you enjoy Richard Thomas' lulling voice, you may want to check out his performance of "Ethan Frome" (ISBN 193105679X ), see my review at that site for details of that audio book.

These cassettes are nicely packaged in a sturdy cardboard tray that slides out from the box. Nice to take on a long trip, or to keep you company around the house or on the treadmill! The ISBN for the unabridged audio book "Echoes" , with the bonus book is 0553757148. If you purchase from an outside seller, you may want to check with them to see if both books are included.(9 cassettes in total)

Enjoy the read....Laurie

I'd never read a Steel book, so I figured I'd give it a shot. But before I finished the first chapter I was brought to mind an image of a dozen men sitting at their typewriters with cigars hanging out of their mouths, churning out the same hundreds of books and laughing at us gullible readers. Their boss comes in, hands them copies of Steel's first novels as outlines. "And if you can't make your word count," he says, "Just repeat yourself or ad commas."

But before I go into my confusion over Steel's bestseller status, I'll break the plot to you: 20-year-old Beata Wittgenstein meets the love of her life while vacationing with her family in Switzerland. The tall, hot hunk happens to be a Catholic Frenchman, and Beata is Jewish. You know how it works. Beata goes against her family's wishes and marries him. Beata is considered dead to her family, especially her father, when she leaves them and her faith. (How many times must Steel remind us of this fact? Apparently never enough.) Beata has 2 girls, Amadea and Daphne, the former of which becomes swept up in the Holocaust. I was expecting (and hoping) that this book would maybe attempt to do the Holocaust a bit of justice and actaully revolve around it, but no, it only gets into the romance of the family. Steel could have just as easily told this story in the present-day, and because she could have she shouldn't have set it during something as potentially sensitive as the Holocaust.

It might be that these books are meant to be quick reads and I'm used to novels, but her writing style alone made me unable to get into the story. She covers an entire chapter going over how stunning Beata looked in her dress. We readers are not stupid, if you say the dress is amazing you don't have to keep pounding it into our heads. Steel tells us one thing then repeats it two pages later... Maybe, if we're lucky, worded a little differently. Oh, but wait - she mentions it again two paragraphs later. And you can't close the chapter without making sure we've got it down. Ugh. It felt as if she couldn't make her word count and I was reading through the chapters of stuffing that got her there.

I'd really like to know who did the editing. Someone else suggested that Steel isn't even writing her own books anymore, and that seems like it must be the case. If the misplacement of commas that we see all too often these days drives you crazy (as it does me), then stay away from this one. Almost every sentence has an innapropriate comma. I'm not exaggerating there. The short, choppy sentence structure throughout the whole book made it seem amatuer and gave me the impression that she writes strictly for quantity. And yes, her research lacked severely. By the middle of this book I wanted to start counting how many times she would repeat "sit shiva."

One star for the plot, which showed potential but failed to make it.

Danielle Steels' new book "Echoes", is her most compelling and fascinating story to date. It is the story of the Wittengenstein family, that starts in the summer of 1915 with Beata Wittgenstin and continues with her daughter Amadea who has taken the vows of a Carmelite nun; then goes into hiding when the Holacaust starts. She then escapes into the French Resistance and meets a man Rupert Montgomery who will help her discover her place in an unbreakable chain between generations... between her family and her future. Danielle Steels' vivid description of Kristallnacht, and the scenes at the Nazi death camp, Therisenstadt, was so real, I felt like I was there. It is a moment of history that is captured as only Danielle Steel could do it. Brava Danielle Steel! I could not put this book down.

As a longtime Danielle Steel reader, I was excited that she finally wrote about a non Christian character. I should have saved my excitement. Almost everything that has to do with anything Jewish in this book is wrong. You don't sit shiva for one night, you sit for one week. Her brother would have never made the reference to getting leave "at Christmas". Yom Kippur is not on the same day each year. There was no mention of Shabbos until the very end when Amadea tried it from reading a book. Shabbos is the most important holiday there is and it happens every week. Everything leads up to it. Mom would have been preparing the dinner, baking the challah, etc. The older kids, even after being away from their parents for years, could have told HER how to keep Shabbos and say the blessings. She goes to her mothers funeral and says the Our Father, then 4 years later she says kaddish for her family. There is not a yiddish word or phrase in the entire book. I could go on and on. In terms of research, like Silent Honor, this one needed much more than it was given.

Put your wallet away! This book was amazing...ly bad. The story itself had possibilities (had it followed a more believable vein), however, it was poorly written in the extreme. My high school English teacher would have run out of red ink, had she graded this novel. (Shame on Random House! Did an editor ever even glance at this before it went to print?) My main complaint is the complete lack of basic language skills, demonstrated in print, and inflicted on the unwary public. This was my first, and last, Danielle Steel novel.