Customer Reviews

Go Down to Silence

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

 

 

What does it mean to be a young Jewish boy in war-torn, occupied Belgium during WWII? It means that your life suddenly becomes a living hell where you're constantly afraid, always in hiding, and you watch the Nazis (whoever they are) take your father and uncle to the death camps, and you're not even sure what's going on or why you're being hunted. Those were the thoughts that kept going through seventy-one-year old Jacob Horowitz's mind as he waited at the airport for his son, Isaac. He was taking Isaac to Belgium to show him his roots This is a deeply personal, emotional first person story of a young Jewish boy's trials in trying to stay alive while understanding the horrors of World War II. Then, after surviving the war, he grows up into a somewhat bitter old man who realizes he needs to set his house in order before he dies. Very moving and easy to follow, even though the time line jumps back and forth from the past to the present. Well written.

I just happened to snag this one off the "new books" shelf at the library (sorry Mr. Belliveau) and wasn't particularly excited about reading it since I've read so many books on the holocaust and figured this probably wouldn't provide a new perspective. I was wrong. It was gripping text from the beginning and brings up questions about where our sense of right and wrong comes from and how we make the choices that we make. Never once while reading this did it occur to me that this was a "Christian" book. . .I learned that the instant I finished the book and walked to the computer to beg my own redemption by writing a review. In fact, I kept looking at the author's name and wondering if he too was a Jewish man who was using a pseudonym like one of the characters in the story. This is a book about people, both Jewish and Christian, who suffered in WWII and this is the first time I have taken the time to let others know about a really, really good book.

Due to the help of Belgium Christians, Jew Jacob Horowitz survived the Holocaust. However, he never forgot the horrors of the Nazis even decades later. Although his mother pleaded he remember he was Jewish, the terror destroyed his faith in God. Now several decades later, Jacob is a successful Cleveland businessman with two grownup children with families of their own. Jacob and his youngest son Isaac are alienated because he has always refused to mention the horrors he faced during the Nazi abomination. That estrangement seems silly now to Jacob when he learns he is dying and that one of his European benefactors is near death. With his son in hand, Jacob plans to say good-bye to Pierre and hello to his family.

Told in flashbacks, GO DOWN TO SILENCE is a fantastic human drama that will inspire anyone with a soul. The story line is incredible as readers feel Jacob's emotions as his life winds down and he tries one last time for salvation on the spiritual and mortal planes. G. K. Belliveau has written an amazing tale that brings the aftermath of the Holocaust home in a way rarely seen in a novel.

Harriet Klausner

Mr. Belliveau teaches at my college and in fact I was in his class last year. When his book came out I knew I had to read it. I picked the book up and didn't put it down again until 4 hours later when I had read it from cover to cover. It is a wonderful story and I found myself lost in it. I cried when it was over and while I was reading it. It is definitely touching and moving. A wonderful read no matter what the occasion.

I knew Mr. Belliveau would write a great novel. He taught my English composition class this year,and he made writing interesting to me in ways it had never been before. The novel draws the reader into the mind of the lead character. He/she feels the anguish of Jacob Horowitz, as he reflects on the trials of his childhood and mistakes he made. Belliveau does a great job handling the constant "flash backs" between today and the 1940s. He keeps the story line conherent, while not giving away too much in the way of details. The characters are human, not rehashed stereotypes, which is not the norm with stories set in World War II. I found the story gripping and thought provoking. I would encourage those in the Christian community (or non-Christian) to read this book. Like everyone else,Mr. Belliveau will have to beat the odds if he is to make it as a writer. I sincerely hope he does, I would love to see more books by him.

G.K. Belliveau has a wonderful future ahead of him. What a powerful first novel! He brings the characters so alive that you feel like your there with Jacob through all of his experiences. My wife and I just could not put the book down. When most authors try the flash backs they will eventually lose you along the way, not G.K.. As a father it hit me hard the struggles Jacob endured both exterally and internally with relating his past with his sons especially his estranged son Isaac, and the walls that it created through his life. Thank you G.K. Belliveau for a refreshing look at the Jewish faith and the horrible war of the holocaust.

This is an excellent tale of a man, Jacob Horowitz, and his family. His parents and sister, the people who hid him through the war years in Belgium who became so close, they were family, and his children and grandchildren.

But mostly, it's Jacob's story, how the war shaped him, how his decisions and actions formed him, and how, in the dusk of his life, he decided to change his course, change his priorities, change his life.

The story is told in a back-and-forth manner, sometimes telling the story of the present, sometimes the past. There is much detail told though the author doesn't dwell much on any one area or piece of information. He skims over everything with just enough detail to tell you what you need to understand without using too much exposition.

It's amazing to watch the transformation of Jacob - both from innocent child to hardened survivor, and hardened, ambitious victor to vulnerable, ill, lonely old man.

Mostly, though, it's refreshing to read a story about men that has emotion yet isn't at all feminine.

I highly recommend this book.

(*)>

...this book is a refreshing change. It's an actual NOVEL that explores the inner lives of its characters, presents the world realistically (and what a world! World War II Europe!), and doesn't pull any punches in describing the evil of mankind, the complexity of life, etc. This book is not only one of the best American "Christian" novels I've ever read, it's much better than most of the formulaic sludge clogging mainstream fiction shelves these days.

My one complaint is that a character is a writer. I don't like writers who write about writers - but that's hardly a fault unique to Belliveau.

I selected this book to read aloud in the car to my husband, because the back-cover review said it was "fast paced". My husband asked me to stop reading a couple times because it was so slow paced at times. (At those very slow paced sections he actually asked me to read to myself, then fill him in and continue aloud with the faster-paced sections.) We basically enjoyed the overall story, but it was NOT fast paced except a few portions.

Also, I found several holes and loose ends... for example, why did the author have Jacob's younger son Isaac possess the same physical gesture that had been one of the endearing, prominent characteristics of Jacob's favored, first wife, who was not even Isaac's mother? That was confusing and unrealistic. If the author was trying to "say" something, he lost me! And when the Wolf came to Pierre and Yvonne's farm, only to be run off by a few shotguns, NO WAY would he have NOT come back with a "full arsenal" and wiped the place out in a day or so later!

I also don't agree in letting an enemy go free to continue killing and maiming. Jacob should have killed, or at least captured the Wolf when he had that chance, because by NOT doing that, many more people were killed, tortured, etc, including Jacob's best friend who was severely maimed and tortured later on. That left me upset, for the book seemed to suggest that the "Christian" thing to do was to let the Wolf go. The Bible is full of wars led and directed by God, and at times God told them to "spare no one", which included women, children and even cattle at times. War is war, and wars are meant to STOP killings and to STOP evil; Christianity was not well portrayed in this book, in this respect. (On the other hand, the aspect of personal forgiveness of enemies was well portrayed, because war is not meant to be an avenue for personal revenge and hatred.) Don't make Christianity to be spineless do-gooders, it's not. If the author used Pierre's later torture to be indication that Jacob had made a MISTAKE in letting the Wolf go, (as I feel), it was not well developed.

As far as Jacob dealing with his past, etc, I was left unsettled in that department as well... why had Isaac never been taken to Belgium before, but Asher had been, several times? That doesn't make sense. How could it have been that Issac's mother Liza had never told him that Asher was only his half-brother? She wasn't portrayed as loyal to that secret... that doesn't seem realistic.

I do like how Rachael's character was developed with little opportunity to do so, and there are definitely other good aspects of this story, but overall, I wouldn't give it high marks for a novel. I hope this comes across as helpful criticism, which is why I went to the extent I did, to explain specific examples of my criticism.