Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Far Above Other Holocaust Novels, August 19, 2005
This is a compelling and riveting novel about life before, during, and after internment at Auschwitz. Although written as a work of fiction, it is soundly grounded in at least three truths: It is based on a brave and heroic Dutch woman who actually existed; it is well researched and, therefore, contains excrutiatingly factual detailed information about life in the infamous concentration camp, Auschwitz, including even the inhumane deportation by train ride to the site; Like most exceptional fiction in contains truths that transcend the story itself and carry the brand of universality, revealing both the depths of evil to which humans can plummet and the indominatable spirit which can enable a person to rise above and survive through the most adverse of circumstances imaginable.
The writer's style tends to be sparse and Spartan, particularly when focusing on the deportation and concntration camp experiences. I don't know whether this reflects the customary voice of the author's fiction or whether it was strategically adopted to fit the narrative of this story. I suspect the latter. Be that as it may, the style is judiciously adapted to the story at hand. Any other approach would have have been contaminated by romantic commercialism.
Sofie Rijnfeld, the heroic woman who existed in real life and is depicted in this story, is not a saint. When she voluntarily leaves with her six step-daughters for deportation she believes she is simply being sent to a "labor camp," never envisioning the horrors ahead. Yet when she enounters the atrocities that abound at Auschwitz, she rises to the occasion and becomes the bulwark of moral support for her step-daughters, despite her own suffering. At times, she feels resentment towards Jan, the husband she loves and left behind, for now she imagines him living comfortable as they all did before the German army entered the picture. She bitterly reflects on how he should have insisted that she stay behind since she was not mandated for deportation, as were her step-daughters. Not once does she think that his fate might have been different than she imagines. I mention this because I believe these understandable thoughts humanizes this indubitably brave woman with an irrepressible spitit to do good and to survive. These observations of her humanness in no way mitigate the heroism and valor that she exhibits.
I will not recapitulate the story here, as I don't wish to dilute the reader's experience of the novel. However, I will venture to say that the reader is likely to find herself immersed in the story as if in a trance that has transported her to the narrative that unflolds in the story itself.
The story that is told in "Far Above Rubies", by Cynthia Polansky, has the potential for a life-transforming experience regardless of the reader's background.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Far Above Rubies, April 30, 2002
FAR ABOVE RUBIES is a powerful, chilling true story. Cynthia Polansky re-creates "Tante Soof," the incredible Sofie Rijnfeld, who survived the ordeals of Nazi imprisonment at Auschwitz. The author's narrative skill brings us to tears of admiration, rather than just the usual tears of sadness, hopelessness, and dim remembrance that accompany many holocaust stories. Her characterizations are both gripping and real. And what a plot! Who ever heard of anyone voluntarily going to a concentration camp? But that's what Sofie did. Her six beloved stepdaughters were called up for deportation, wrenched from their comfortable Amsterdam home. But Sofie would not let them face the Nazi horrors alone. Her heroic efforts to protect them live on in this memorable novel. Cynthia Polansky's rubies truly do sparkle.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Enlightening Look At How The Holocaust Started, December 13, 2004
We all know the Holocaust was an unbelievable act of barbarianism, but how did the people of Europe sit back and let it happen? In Far Above Rubies, the facinating early story of the implementation of the Holocaust in occupied Holland is a window into a seldom told story of our recent world history.
The story in Auschwitz is chilling, but made even more so by the seemingly random events that can mean life or death. The list posted in the dining hall of the next day's deportees, for example. Cindy Polansky's skill at describing these seemingly trival events, and their deadly import, is chilling.
When the war ended, what happened next. Surprisingly, Polansky reveals the truth that not all Jews had been rounded up. Some, in rural parts of Holland, had made it through the war in their own homes with comparative ease. How the concentration camp survivors re-entered life after the war is a fascinating second story that is also seldom written.
This is a great book, and very enlightening for its description of both the pre- and post-war views of Jewish life in Europe. Highly recommended.
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