Mendelssohn Is on the Roof [Paperback]

Jiri Weil (Author), Marie Winn (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 1998

Traces the lives of ordinary people in Nazi-occupied Prague. In this ironic pageant of crossing and recrossing lives, death wins all the battles but ultimately loses the war, defeated by the fragile flowering of courage and defiance.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the Czech author of Life with a Star comes this fierce and mocking portrayal of the changes wrought upon ordinary lives by the Nazi occupation of Prague.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Prague withers under the boot of Nazi occupation. The Acting Reich Protector cruises the city, taking pleasure in its deserted streets, feeling like one with the marshal statues, and suddenly becomes offended by the statue of Mendelssohn atop a building. The Jewish composer must be removed. Meanwhile, the real Jews of Prague are rounded up, the lucky ones sent to a ghetto, the unlucky ones sent east into the unknown. Of course, they are all unlucky, eventually, from the innocent to the collaborators, and even those in the resistance who try to hide their countrypeople from the crushing progress of the "Final Solution." Weil, himself a death camp survivor, writes an unblinking portrait of the Prague he knew. The many characters humanize an inhuman world and make personal the broader struggle of death and hatred.
- Paul E. Hutchison, Pequea, Pa.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press (November 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810116863
• ISBN-13: 978-0810116863
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #312,509 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Slavic

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Humor and Pathos Mixed Beautifully in World War II Prague, November 28, 1999

By 

Richard L. Goldfarb (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mendelssohn Is on the Roof (Paperback)

In short vignettes, the author explores the difficult choices faced by the people of World War II Prague, from Reinhard Heydrich (never named by name) to individual soldiers, civil servants and Czechs and Jews of all stripes. Some episodes are absurd and full of humor, particularly the moment when the workers try to identify which statue on the roof is actually Mendelssohn's (they choose the one with the largest nose and are about to make the maximum possible error when they are stopped in the nick of time). Others are almost painful to read, such as the choices of a Jewish scholar hired to work on the museum built to illustrate the lives of his people; he realizes the purpose is to describe a people who are to be eliminated from the face of the earth.

Unlike many Holocaust novels, this book presents its points in a subtle and wonderful manner. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very moving portrait of Prague during WWII, April 28, 1997

By 

Frank Lynch "frank_lynch" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mendelssohn is on the Roof (Hardcover)

This book opens with a black humor scene: how to remove the statue of Mendelssohn from the Prague concert hall during the Nazi occupation? From there, it shifts to short portraits of the gestapo, guards, ghetto residents, children, etc., all living in Pragu and trying to succeed/survive. It has been a long time since I have read a book so moving as this, and I highly recommend it

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Brilliant, June 2, 2005

By 

Craig Fisher (Carrollton, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mendelssohn Is on the Roof (Paperback)

There isn't a "plot" per se. The book is a series of scenes involving a host of Jews, Czechs and Nazis in the Czech Republic during WW@ as the Nazis empty Prague of the Jews. The book is both darkly comic and deeply tragic. It is the best book about the holocaust I've read since it covers the sort of day-to-day lives of the Jews before the camps and also the very effortless translation. It is a quick and easy read but filled with a lot of poignant moments. In particualr what it does well is puts the reader into the mind and thought process of Jews who were victimized by the Nazis not just as victims but also as accomplices.

If there is a short coming, it is that Weil uses a lot of the Nazi nomenclature for places and groups and titles for people so readers without a strong knowledge of the Holocaust might be confused by the byzantine number of Nazi offices and organizations (this BTW is a real stregnth of the book for those familar with the system since it highlights how fragmented and fuedal the Nazi state was).