Customer Reviews

See Under: LOVE: A Novel

5 star:		(13)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ever since I have read Avraham B. Yehoshua's "The Lover" I have been a keen reader of Israeli literature, among great Hebrew writers such as Yehoshua, Oz and Shabtai, who wisely construct a fascinating description of a fragmented country, quilted of religions, faiths, ideology and culture and scarred by war and trauma, Grossman still stands out as an amazing craftsmen of words, plot and memories. This book does not deal merely with the Holocaust, but with the inability to deal with this unbelievable atrocity by those who survived it, their children, and the world. Never have I read a such a sophisticated book, such a genius and original use of genres and plotlines, and yet readable and sweeping. It would have been described as a page turner, but it is impossible to read it without pausing to breathe deeply and ponder. However you feel about this book, one thing is for sure - You wont be the same person. In my opinion, reading this book has made me a better person.

Shocking, thrilling, amazing. A must.

It was hard to read this novel. Grossman presents us with mysteries and references that require both faith and patience -- they are amply rewarded. Part of what delays the intrepid reader is the time required just to absorb, to make connections, to take deep breaths, to sob. The horror and disgust that one expects in a holocaust novel are there, but what pulls us up short are the compassion and, yes, love that emerge in the most unlikely places. It would be no help to read a synopsis of this book or to have a guide to its mysteries, because you read it in your heart and in the aqueous subconscious. Reading is always an act of love, a tryst of imagination with the writer. When it really goes well, when the miracle occurs, a child, a book is produced between them. It hovers luminously in the aether - real, profound, fleeting. See Under: Love invites us to into that relationship, helps us visualize it, and transforms our sense of what this world really is. There is plenty to study, learn, and analyze in Mr. Grossman's incredible work, but my first reading was a sacred experience. This book sat on my shelf for about eleven years. I gave a first edition of it to a young man obsessed with the holocaust who died a year later of a mysterious disease. I thought picking it up would mean acknowledging his absence - instead it reassured me of his presence. Prepare to be surprised.

I am not much on book reviews, but I feel moved to tell everyone willing to listen how marvelous and seductively compelling this novel is. Every moment in the narrative is captured perfectly by Grossman's mixture of the esthetic and literary with the painful reality of the Holocaust. Please read it! I have no idea why this novel is not more widely known and more lavishly praised.

As an Israeli who have read it in Hebrew, I would like to add a few words. One thing: this book is entirely different if you read it in Hebrew. It losses a lot in the translation, and not because the translation is bad, rather that the combination of different layers of very special Hebrew combined with Yiddish, along with the cultural context, makes it a book that is an impossible mission for the translator. Of course, you can't ask someone to learn Hebrew just for this book (and this still won't be enough, because he has to be born again as an Israeli and grow up here to understand everything...), but the book has numerous universal aspects that can be translated, and it's still, even after the translation, a must-read.
And now, for the book itself (if there is such a thing the book itself...).
This is by-far the greatest Israeli book that I have ever read. I had one feeling that went along with me throughout the journey: I don't know how the hell he did. I just don't know. Like a magician that makes a trick you just can't figure. The scope. The depth. I cannot describe this book. It defies space and time. It is a masterpiece.

For any who reads and allows this book to really get into their consciousness, I believe it will alter the way one thinks and feels about the past (and current) century's greatest heartbreaks. Without sentimentality or easy new-age evasions, Grossman asks how ordinary people are drawn to collaborate with "evil" and what are the possibilites for redemption and forgiveness. Shortly after writing this book, Grossman was moved by his own conclusions to begin visiting Palestinian refugee camps in Israel which led to his next book, "The Yellow Wind."...

Words fail. I beg anyone who has been considering buying into Jonathan Safran Foer's hype to instead find themselves a copy of this, the book from which he appears to have stolen most of his ideas, instead.

All hyperbole aside, this wonderful book has few equals. It demands attention, and reflection, and time, and it rewards those willing to invest those things in it beyond compare. Nothing short of a meditation on the way our lives are impacted by the moral calculi of others, and the way our own actions reverberate throughout the generations.

This is not a book for the casual reader and I had no idea of the roller coaster ride it was was going to be. It is dense, disturbing, convoluted and delves into the territory that is thought of as "magic realism". Primarily, it deals with the holocaust, not a pleasant topic at any time. But I have never read anything that ever comes close to this writer's deep, complex and highly imaginative world view.

The book is divided into four sections. The first is set in Israel in 1959 with a 9-year-old boy named Momik. His parents and everyone around him are holocaust survivors. They are emotionally scarred and never discuss the topic with him. But he hears whispers, and phases like "the Nazi beast" make him think there is an animal of that name. This section is written in a stream of consciousness inner dialog and really felt like it was coming from a young boy. His sentences are long, some of the taking up a whole page, but they are imaginatively conceived and paint a picture of the inner workings of his mind.

The next section is harder to understand. By now, Momik is grown and has a wife and a baby. During this time, he is researching the death of Bruno Schulz, a Polish-Jewish writer who was killed by the Nazis. There is a lot of magic realism here and the author goes a little wild with Momik's searching under the sea and observing an underwater unreal world.

The third section was, to me the most interesting as well as the most horrifying. This is a flashback about Momik's great uncle, Wassernan, a writer of children's tales, who we first meet as a confused elderly old man in the first section. Here, he has just been transported to a concentration camp and is confronted with a Nazi commander who was acquainted with his captive's early writing. The Nazi commander keeps the writer alive so that he can create a story with the same characters that he had developed so many years ago. What follows is a Sheherizade tale with a twist because lines of power get blurred between the Nazi and the Jew.

The last section is a dictionary/encyclopedia, where the author elaborates in great detail on a variety of words and phrases. Here is where his imagination really soars. The one word I can use to describe this is "fascinating".

This is the most complex book I have ever read. I loved it and hated it and couldn't put it down. It took me to places inside myself that I never knew existed. And it made me admire the absolute genius of the author. Of course, it is not for everyone. I just know that, even though there was much of it I didn't understand, I was standing in the shadow of greatness. And I will never forget it.

This book is one of the best books I have read in Hebrew. It is technically impressive, emotionally moving, and intellectually intriguing. In short - highly recommended.

Unlike many other books dealing with the holocaust and its effect on the second generation, this book finds a subtle yet powerful way to penetrate the cliches and taboos of the subject.

The book contains four parts, each dealing with various aspects of life, death, history and the holocaust, and each approaching these subjects from a different point of view and using a different mode of writing.

I don't think I am qualified to write a review of this piece of art. Think Toni Morrison on LSD, or maybe Falkner writing in Hebrew as Isaiah, composing in a way never before conceived, about of all things, The Hollocaust! I guess this most twisted example of human depravity requires such a book. However, if I had not read Mr. Grossman's beautiful love narrative, " Someone to Run With" I would not have known at first if it was a work of genius or a tale told by an idiot, and might not have hung in there long enough to declare it the former - 5 stars! However, a second reading may be required to understand the nuances.

If I would only have the joy to read one book in my lifetime, it should be See Under: Love.

See Under: Love took my breath away, moved me to tears and touched me in the tenderest reaches of my soul. It is brilliant, imaginative, engaging and humane. The way characters, themes and time wind into each other transport the reader to a place far beyond the mundane. I loved every word. Immediately upon finishing, I went back to the first page to reread. My second reading was more deliberate and careful, and I caught much that I had overlooked in my first pass. I am sure that I will reread it again and again.

I originally bought this book after Jonathan Safran Foer enumerated it in his "Five Most Important Books" for an August 2007 Newsweek piece. Foer called it, "The novel of the 21st century" though it was first published in English in 1989. I thank Jonathan Safran Foer for his own works and, here, this recommendation. And in turn, I hope that I can pass this rare jewel on to others. This is my first review (well, not really a review which is elsewhere on Amazon but a recommendation) but I am compelled to do so. Months after the reading, I find myself thinking about See Under: Love and feeling grateful that I experienced it. This is not an easy book to read but the rewards are multifold. And when you are done, read the transcript of a talk that the author gave for a San Francisco Symposium at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0411/is_1_51/ai_85068470 for even greater insight.

David Grossman has taken the worst that man has to offer and spun it into a magical, magnificent ouevre which will touch you with the human spirit and make you proud to be alive.