16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Extraordinary Accomplishment!, April 28, 2002
...This book is something quite remarkable: a trip to Poland taken through the eyes and ears and hearts of father and daughter Ruth and Edek Rothwax. Rarely have I encountered two characters so perfectly realized. As the child of Holocaust survivors, Ruth is a symphonic collection of tics, habits, rituals and agonies; she's an emotional land mine, filled with unanswered questions, with answers to questions she didn't know existed, with a somehow genetic knowledge of events that pre-date her existence. Loss and sorrow and a fear of love/attachment are as much a part of Ruth as her vital organs.
Edek, astonishingly, is a man who never walks when he can run; who can eat massive quantities of food and yet always find room for a little something more. Despite his age (eight-one) and the horrors of the first third of his life, he is a man with an enormous capacity for love and kindness, for empathy and, of course, for a bottomless sorrow that cannot suppress his innate optimism and his fundamental decency.
Too Many Men (an unfortunately misleading title--my only, minor, quibble with an otherwise enormously compelling book) has many wonderfully ingenious aspects to it, not the least of which is the lovely idea that a woman could create a successful business based entirely on her ability to write letters for any and every occasion. This is not only a bit of acutely relevant social commentary on a lost art, it is also, for many of us, representative of the ultimate dream career. It is a brilliant invention.
The fact of Auschwitz (scene of the murder of some 22 million people) being turned into something very like a theme park as a result of Spielberg's Schindler's List is enough to make one's blood chill, and this is conveyed powerfully through Ruth's ever more horrified reactions to what she sees and hears as she and her father travel there, revisiting the places (including Birkenau) where her parents were imprisoned during the war.
There are moments of mad humor throughout the book that have the effect not only of lightening the burden of a father and daughter working hard to reconnect to each other, but also of the true horror of the historical facts of the genocide--all of which are stored in the brain of a woman who cannot get enough information about the atrocities, in a neverending effort to comprehend how and why this could have happened.
This is not difficult reading, which is a testament to author Brett's immense talent and humor, but it is enormously important reading--not just for those interested in the lasting effects of the Holocaust, but for anyone who admires a finely crafted book.
My highest recommendation.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific Read!, March 27, 2002
I thoroughly enjoyed Brett's novel, even though the ending left me wondering what would happen next. I enjoyed the gutsy Ruth and her unforgiving attitude about what her parents had endured. Sometimes she seemed to go over the top and I would think--"Lighten up!", but the overall effect was necessary for her character.
I loved her Father, who made me laugh and remember my grandparents, also from an East European country, who (although they lived in the states for many years) still pronounced many words in their wacky endearing way.
The Hoss character I still can't put to rest. But, it made the novel interesting, even if I don't quite understand why Brett used this device and what we're actually supposed to assume he was. Was he just the imagination of an overwrought angry Jewish woman, determined to relive her parents pain? Whatever. Hoss still provided an avenue for Brett to give us another perspective that would otherwise be unavailable to today's writer. And, in that sense, I applaud Brett's imagination.
I did feel Brett cut the ending short, making me think there must be a sequel coming. But maybe this is just another one of her devices to keep the reader wondering and thinking about the book.
There were any number of coincidences in the book that could be seen as too fantastic to believe. But, even so, this was a really great read! Very deceptive title, especially for the nonreader. My husband was very curious because I don't read "romance" novels and he couldn't figure out what kind of book I was reading late into the night!
Keep 'em coming Lily!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous, Fabulous, Fabulous!!, September 27, 2002
I was up nights reading this book and was really miserable when it ended because I was so into these characters. I felt like I knew them well and wanted to know more about them. Ruth Rothwax, the daughter of a houlicaust surviver wants to take her father back to Poland, where he has not been since his family was taken by the Germans to a concentration camp. Her father goes on this journey with his daughter, although he's not really sure why she is so adament about going there -- after all, his memory of the horror of that time is with him every day and he doesn't need to go back to Poland to relive it. Ruth, however, a very successful business woman living in New York City, needs to know what happened and had always received very little information from her parents (her mother was also in a concentration camp) because it's not something they will talk about. The journey that Ruth and her father take is a breathtaking example of a realtionship between a father and daughter, as well as a very vivid history of what really took place in Poland during WWII.
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