Louisa
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.65 (860 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0399146598 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 384 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-11-30 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Characters are loosely yet carefully drawn, and the realm of childhood is particularly vivid. It's as if Zelitch hasn't decided if she wants a first-person narrator or an omniscient one. Set in Hungary and Israel after the Second World War, Louisa breathes modern life into the Old Testament. --Ellen Williams. Nora remembers herself as a teenager, smoking with a boy in a graveyard: "Dizzy still, heart beating fast, I stared up through the trees for a while. Once again, the daughter-in-law, Louisa, is an alien--a German among Jews, a resilient and practical woman who finds jam for scones when no one else can, who charms enemies and authorities with her singing vo
A Customer said An elegantly written and moving novel. An elegently written and moving novel Louisa is superb! Elegantly written, Simone Zelitch managed to capture her characters, time, and setting with such authenticity that I felt I was there in Hungary and Palestine. Don't look for traditional heroes in this book--neither Louisa nor Nora are selfless characters. Yet, both demonstrate an inner strength and resilience that allows their survival, and even growth, during untenable times.. A Customer said Impressive. This book consumed my every free moment for three days. Being very familiar with the biblical story of Ruth, I thought the novel might be too predictable- but I was wrong. The intense characterizations, detail you can almost smell, and narrative pull combined to provide a very satisfying read.. A kaleidoscope of fragments. Like small pieces of glass rotating and reflecting new patterns, Zelitch's story of the Holocaust, Zionism, and the founding of Israel appears in fragments and rotates upon itself. Scenes move back and forth in time, between characters, between Hungary and Israel, and between first and third person narratives. The reader must work hard here to connect these fragments and to see how all the characters relate to each other, but gradually, the fragments evolve into a whole picture with a depth, scope, and hist
Stranded in a new land that asks them to look to the future, both women are forced to face the past and the responsibility each bears for what they have lost. Louisa must teach her how to forgive.. In Louisa, Simone Zelitch brings to life, with all the authority and inventive power of an old master, a story of hidden passion, broken dreams, and unexpected reconciliation. What is she protecting behind that wall? The past, and its secrets. But Bela fails to appear, and the women enter an absorption camp for immigrants to await an uncertain future. "I smoked my first cigarette when I was six years old. How will they fit into a society that does not believe in looking back? Louisa, the German, proves a genius at self-invention,in many ways the perfect Israeli. Now where the hell can I get a cigarette?" The year is 1949 and Nora, a prickly, strong-willed survivor of the Hol