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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
To be or not to be,
By
This review is from: The Accident (Mass Market Paperback)
As usual, Elie Wiesel has taken the experiences of his life in the concentration camps and instilled those experiences into his main character. As he says in his introduction the story springs from his imagination, "I speak for my protagonist, but he does not speak for me. He has lived through some of my experiences, but I have not lived through his." And those experiences are what motivate and frustrate the main character throughout the course of this novel.
"The Accident" tells the story of Eliezer, a survivor of the death camps, who cannot forget his past. He is constantly haunted by his memories and those who have died, so much so that he cannot even live his life. So when he his hit by a taxi one summer evening, the reader is unsure whether it was on purpose or if it was an accident. As he lies in his hospital bed, not necessarily fighting for his life, his story fluctuates between the past and present, allowing the reader to enter into his suffering and understand his misery. As always, Wiesel's writing is full of questions. For a Jew who survived the horror of the Holocaust, these questions always include how God could have allowed this to happen. Eliezer is convinced that God uses humans as toys to manipulate and enjoy their sufferings. He is finally brought to terms with his inability to live and what he needs to do in order to leave his past where it belongs and move ahead with his future. "The Accident" is a quick read, full of daunting questions and fearless searching that typifies Wiesel's writings.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not just a depressing story. . .,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Accident (Mass Market Paperback)
The journalist Eliezer, a WWII Nazi concentration camp survivor, steps in front of a cab while crossing the street and the reader is left to speculate whether the occurence was an accident, or attempted suicide. Many who read the novel may comment on the depressing outlook of this survivor from one of the worst atrocities of western civilization. As he describes flashbacks of his experience throughout the nomalcy of his everyday life before the accident, and afterwards while hospitalized, the reader is confronted with the ir-reality that he endures. The weighty psychological effects of the holocost described in the first book of the trilogy "Dawn," where he directly tells the story of being taken into the concentration camps at a young age, follows him ominously. But it would be a great disappointment if this is all the reader examines in the novel, because it is also a story of companionship and romance. The author, while cynical, is also humorous and honest in his view of the world, of God, or the Jewish faith, and the relationship that he gains with his doctor. It is also a touching story about a love relationship. His relationship with Kathleen, dedicated to him - before and after the accident - is a genuine, caring, and witty relationship between two people that endure together through the worst. Anyone who reads it could only hope for something as genuine. The depth of thought and horrorific imagery of a mind that has experienced such atrocities in his youth is evidently what catches the readers attention, and may make for a depressing read, but there is more that this novel has to offer: casual humor, introspection, and insight. An honest story to be appreciated at many levels.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely magnificant!,
By jkshephe@iupui.edu (Indianapolis, Indiana) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Accident (Paperback)
This book is good as it examins theory of god as far as medicine is concerned. It is one of my favorite books by Wiesel, and I've read 24 of them
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