Customer Reviews

The Gates of the Forest: A Novel

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't simply mean "really good" or "rather impressive". I mean this book is quite earth-shaking.

This book does belong to that literary category known as Holocaust Lit. But it's also simply a book about a single boy-youth-man trying to cope with the absurdity and meaninglessness of existence - Gregor as the individual alienated from everything, desperately trying NOT to be alienated. The four seasons of the novel are the four attempts by Gregor/Gavriel to find some possible relationship with his God, with his universe. Don't let the similarities between each season fool you - Gavriel's solution in Spring is not Gregor's solution in Winter. Also, do not believe that the Gavriel of Spring is different from the Gavriel of Winter, or the Lieb of Autumn (though of course, they are all different and, yet, all the same).

This novel is definitely Wiesel's finest (this from someone who worships the man). Absolutely incredible - a new look/experience/way of life.

In response to Sophia's review - and for the benefit of those who might be misled by it - Wiesel's "Gates of the Forest" is powerful not because it is a story of the Holocaust, but because it is a story of Everyman. It is, at its core, a story of grappling with existence, yet without trying to label it as "the Absurd" (Camus), "Nausea" (Sartre), or "Dread" (Heidegger). Sophia, this is so much more than "just another Holocaust story," and I can't help but wonder if your zealous attempt to pigeonhole this incredible opus into that singular genre reflects a deeper fear you have of the themes of this book. After all, if this is "just another Holocaust story," you could explain away any bearing it might have on you as a person. But if it is more than that - and it IS MORE THAN THAT - then the book demands a reaction from you. To all the Sophias out there, this book is a life-changing read, but only if you are willing to live like someone who is alive. Your review saddens me, Sophia, but I am hopeful for you and others like you that one day you will wake up and decide to live deliberately. To those willing to think, this book is worth reading once a year, every year, for the rest of your life.

This is incredible writing. So good, in fact, that I wonder why he has not won a second Nobel Prize for Literature to go with his Peace Prize. I too agree that although this is by nature Holocaust Lit, it belongs with the classics of all world literature by merit of its eloquence and lifetime themes. Such themes are borne out especially in the name/identity crises of Gavriel and Gregor and the mother as sexual person characterized by Ileana. I recommend this book to every lover of great literature, unequivocally.

The Gates of the Forest is a deeply profound philosophical work, yet it reads with eloquence and emotion of a beautiful poem. This book paints images for everything abstract, and renders intangible everything ordinary. Through the mind and spirit of a young survivor, Elie Wiesel reexamines our relationship to God and to one another. He finds meaning where there would seem to be only chaos, and compassion, where there is only insanity. Read this book a million times, and it will still open your eyes in some way.

This book is really deep and wonderful. The best part is the section about God giving man laughter as a mistake. I almost forgot this book had anything to do with the holocuast-its meanings go so far beyond that.

This book was absolutley wonderful. It kept my attention the whole way through. This was the first book of his tha I have ever read, and I will continue to read his books. The book had so much emotion and meaning that I read it the whole way through without stopping.

As with his other fiction, Elie Wiesel has crafted a story that encompasses the Jewish history of suffering, with the Holocaust central to the tale. What separates "The Gates of the Forest" from other
works is its very nature, which consists of a story told through other stories. The main character, known as Gregor and not by his real name, exists and survives merely through the stories that others tell
him and the ones that he re-enacts as he tries to find himself.

Gregor goes into hiding that he might not be captured and sent to the work camps. He is holed up in a cave when he encounters another Jew, one who escaped from the transport, known as Gavriel. Through stories,
Gavriel helps Gregor to understand what is actually happening in the outside world, and sacrifices his own life so that Gregor might live. Gregor then searches out an old family friend, who hides his identitity
from the town by crafting a tale that he is her mute nephew. Gregor serves as a confessor for the townspeople, until he is called upon to enact the role of Judas in the local passion play and the tables are
turned. He then takes refuge with a band of partisans hiding in the woods, at last able to seek justice for his captured friend. Each tale unfolds like a season of Gregor's life, told in flashback, with many
questions raised before answers are found. In the final chapter, the reader meets Gregor as an old man, still searching for the meaning of his life, still searching for his real name, at last able to recognize
the path he needs to follow.

"The Gates of the Forest" will be familiar territory to anyone who has read Elie Wiesel's fiction. He has concerned his literature with the sufferings of the Jewish people, of survivors who are haunted by their
past, by what they did or failed to do. His own experience in the concentration camps and surviving the Holocaust has been a wellspring of creativity for his fictional accounts. The tale of Gregor and those
he encounters is that of every Jew, is that of anyone who has been lost and found their way.

This is the best book I have ever read. It is hard to explain the emotions one goes through when reading it, but it is truly amazing. There is no need to be interested in the holocaust to enjoy it thoroughly.

the gavriel/gregor failure to reconciliate shows a devastating loss of identity for the protagonist. at this point he believes he is a genuine
nowhere man. but...there is a "dot" left in his soul brought out by his
surroundings, the yeshiva boy, & zman shachris - the MORNING prayer time,
a time of resurrection of the spirit. so he dons the phylacteries & says
the kaddish reborn in the memory of Leib the Lion...

Alongside 'A beggar in Jerusalem', in my opinion, this is the author's finest book. It is a rare journey into a vital yet hauntingly esoteric perspective on existence. I truly agree with the other reviews suggesting that this work should not be viewed as belonging solely to the Holocaust genre. The interplay of plot and undertone alongside the sane and the insane allow the mind to soar - and falter.