The Subtenant / To Outwit God (2 Books in 1) [Paperback]

Hanna Krall (Author), Jaroslaw Anders (Translator), Lawrence Weschler (Translator), Joanna Stasinska (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This fine volume brings together two pieces by Polish journalist Krall. The first, never before available in English, is an eerie, semi-autobiographical novel detailing the narrator's relationship over nearly four decades with the subtenant, the Jewish girl who is hidden from the Nazi occupiers by the narrator's family. This family (which bears the same name as that of the author, though in reality Krall herself was the hidden child) is also Jewish in origin but chose Polishness long ago. In Krall's skilled hands, the tale becomes a disconcerting study of ethnic identity and compromise, of good and evil. She draws contrasts through sharp oppositions-Polishness vs. Jewishness and brightness vs. darkness. The postwar resurgence of anti-Semitism is thus exposed in a sly narrative. The second piece, an interview with the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Marek Edelman, complements the novel. It deals almost as much with Edelman's life as a cardiologist as with the war. Although both works are sensitively translated, the format of the second makes it sometimes difficult to know who is saying what. Even so, this volume is a powerful indictment of the consequences of hatred.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A well-respected Polish journalist, Krall survived World War II as a child by hiding in a succession of Polish homes. The Subtenant , the first of two works in this volume, is his semiautobiographical novel about the experiences of a young Polish Jew during the Nazi occupation. Krall presents the horrors of the war as a surreal comic nightmare, with "brightness" and "blackness" as the prevailing forces. To be born into the right Polish family gave one privilege and brightness; to be a Jewish child hidden in gentile homes isolated one in blackness. The story has several voices--some of which carry the character's moral and political dilemmas into the present. To Outwit God , the other work in this volume, was previously published as Shielding the Flame: An Intimate Conversation with Dr. Marek Edelman, the Last Surviving Leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ( LJ 8/86). Provoked into a fascinating discussion about heroes and heroism, Edelman gives an eyewitness account of the Jewish uprising and conveys his dedication as a physician and Solidarity activist. The two works together form a strong memoir of Jewish survival in the Holocaust and provide background for modern Polish opposition movements such as Solidarity. Recommended for most collections.
- Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, Md.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 247 pages
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press; 1st US edition (November 19, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081011075X
• ISBN-13: 978-0810110755
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #652,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surviving the Holocaust and Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during WWII, April 14, 2008

By 

Eugene Tenenbaum "reluctant reader" (Bronx, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Subtenant / To Outwit God (2 Books in 1) (Hardcover)

"Outwit God" is the same as "Shielding the Flame: An Intimate Conversation With Dr. Marek Edelman, the Last Surviving Leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising" under ISBN-10: 0030060028. It is a first class account of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising - a very small Jewish resistance against Nazis during the Holocaust of World War II - from its only surviving leader. There is no better information on the subject. It was well written and reads smoothly, but the subject is... death.

"The Subtenant" is a less known novel about surviving the Holocaust of a Jewish girl rescued from imminent death at Nazi's hands by a Polish family. It is semi-biographical, since Hanna Krall was also such a girl, and the Polish family bears her name. The main theme is a search for identity - shaped by tragic events - and the complicated Polish-Jewish-German relations during the World War II and following years, including 1968 starting another persecution of Jews in Poland. Krall depicts a deeper background of family's history and place, and writes her fiction like a fictionalized reportage: speeds up using ellipsis mark (3 dots), develops details into motif, comments from a position of author. Her strength lies in mixing truth and fiction, and not in a sophisticated construction.