The Wall (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Only a true novelist could breathe warmth, compassion, humor, into what a historian would necessarily have pictured as a stark, hopeless, tragic series of events. Only a sensitive novelist could compel us to embark upon such a fearful adventure as this and remain until the end." -- The New York Times

"A searching, heroic story." -- The Atlantic -- Review

Review

"Only a true novelist could breathe warmth, compassion, humor, into what a historian would necessarily have pictured as a stark, hopeless, tragic series of events. Only a sensitive novelist could compel us to embark upon such a fearful adventure as this and remain until the end." -- The New York Times

"A searching, heroic story." -- The Atlantic

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (March 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394756967
• ISBN-13: 978-0394756967
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #151,016 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wall is basedon solid facts of history., June 26, 1998

By A Customer

Hersey is probably America's greatest unrecognized writer. Hersey probably didn't care. The Wall drove me to my local library where I soon found the names of many of his fictional characters. The Jewish historian who hid his writings in milk cans has a name. He died in 1944. Milk cans were still being found in the 1950's according to my research. How did the son of Protestant missionaries to China write this Jewish story? It was easy---Hersey loved them very much. His characters are largely doomed to the fate the Nazi's inflicted upon them. But you cry for them--we lost those wonderful people because they were Jewish. Hersey writes with a pen in one hand and a lightning bolt in the other. This is a great read, filled with compassion and a skill with words that is nearly gone from today's garish bestsellers.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This story sticks to your bones, September 14, 2004

By	annette (Columbus, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wall (Paperback)

You can read the other reviews to get an idea as to what the story covers, but I want to share with you my experience as to the impact of its delivery and tale. I read a lot. And it's rare for a book to make me laugh out loud or cry tears. At first, I neither liked nor cared for any of the characters. At the end, I cried; hard. I've never had a story affect me this way.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE POWER OF THE TRAGEDY., September 22, 2002

By	Boris Zubry "Boris Zubry" (Princeton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a very deep and powerful historical novel involving Poland, Jews and the Germans. I think it was published even before the Schindler's list became widely known. This is the story of the condammed Jews in the Polish ghetto trying to fight back without any help from the outside and not for the survival (it was impossible and they knew it) but for the remains of dignity and for the right to die standing tall. Mila 18 by Leon Uris comes to mind when you read "The Wall".