Another Monday another book review. Yep book review not album. Gotta change it up now and then. I wasn't that much into reading after high school. I swear those assholes have a god given gift to throw you off reading forever. I still shiver remembering the crap they made us read. So depressing that slitting your wrists open seems like a joyful event. Listen I get literatury geniuses and all that but for fuck sakes not everything should be force fed down kids throats. To be honest if I was a teacher, I wouldn't give two fucks about what you're reading, can be that garbage of 50 shades of (fucked up) grey. I don't care. You're passionate about it? You like it? Good for you. Read that. I don't understand this bullying and opression and forcing kids to read heavy, depressing, difficult books that throw them off reading for a life time. Like, really I don't.
It took me quite a while to get back into reading as a hobby. I'd say fanfiction played a role in that as well. Lol. Hey some writers are really talented and my SPN family will understand if I only say one thing ''Elvis''. Yeah that one killed me. Over the years though I found literature that I enjoy most. I read heavy books now too. I enjoy crime novels, but honestly romance and fantasy is my favorite genre because let's be honest, real life is a horror story. No need to read about those as well. I am that much of a ''girl'' to like Twilight as dumb as it is. And the Shadowhunter series. I like teen cute books like ''Love, Simon'' and ''Everything, everything''. And I absolutely love Hemingway and Poe.
Sometimes you have to step out of the comfort zone though, read different books, historical books. Try different stories. You know what they say? Those that read a million books lived a million lives. Some lives I'd rather not live. Not all history is pretty. Actually I suppose most history is not pretty. So for a change I went into this book.
It was a gift. And I found myself really enjoying it. I don't know I guess I'm a sucker for impossible / forbidden love. But only the ones that end up happy. I don't like stories with tragic endings. Same reason as above. This book was on bestseller list for the longest time and slammed for being heavily inauthetic. I mean. Okay. Yes. I see why. I can't imagine many things in the book being legit. I mean perhaps the main character in the story was in fact this lucky. Managed to survive many times where others would be shot on site. Managed to get by rather easily given how most prisoners were actually treated…It seems just a bit…far fetched you know? But if all is true…then all I can say is he had some seriously powerful guardian angel looking after him.
The story says to be ''based on the powerful true story'' of Lale Sokolov. Lale was a Slovakian Jew who was forcibly transported to the concentration camp Birkenau in April 1942. Upon discovering that he speaks several languages and with some help and luck he became the tattooists helper and later the ''Tatowierer''. Imagine that permanently marking fellow prisoners. The tattoo nobody would want and a permanent reminder even years after. Maybe this ''tattooist story'' shocked me a bit more because it's more personal. I had an aunt in Auschwitz, along with her mother and grandmother and chances are high that it was Lale who tattooed them upon arrival.
The story of Lale is a two and a half years long imprisonment story of someone who witnessed horrific barbarism but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. The type of compassion that surprised me, I am not used to so much selflesness from humans. Lale was actually a real hero, he risked his own life using his privileged position as the tattooist to exchange jewels and money other prisoners stole for him for food and medication, which kept prisoners alive.
I had a pretty good insight in the horrors described in the book since I've actually been to Auschwitz and there are just things you can't unsee and things you can't forget. The entire atmosphere of the place is gloomy, heavy, dark, it hits you full force from the moment you walk under that creepy sign ''Arbeit macht frei''. And though it was a hot summer day on the day we visited it, the sun did little to uplift the heavy feeling. It was the first time in my life that I was dead silent, or better shocked into silence for good two hours after leaving the place. I don't know if anything shocked me as much as all those shoes, hair, and that god awful gas chamber which had scratches like nail marks on the walls. And call me crazy but I swear you can feel and smell the horror in there. I remember this tree in a museum in Berlin, where you could write something and hang on it. It's a holocaust memorial museum, I remember writing something along the lines of ''May it never happen again'' and hanging it on the tree. Thinking back through these memories makes it even harder for me to understand the Neo Nazi movment today. How could anyone support something like this? Only a real psychopath.
I suppose the story as dark as the place is. As dark as the era is. As horrible as the thematic is. As disgusting as this part of history is…and as tough as the novel is to read. It's above all a story of hope and a love story. As it says on the picture above ''I tattooed a number on her arm. She tattooed her name on my heart''. Love story of love on first sight. Lale claims to have fallen in love in that first encounter when he tattooed a number on the girls arm. Without knowing who she is, her name, where she came from, any backstory. Only her number. Later on we learn the girls name is Gita, and the novel follows how they fell in love and how they managed to survive. Probably love kept them alive. Maybe the promise of a life after. A happy one.
There's a thing Lale said that made me really feel stupid ''If you wake up in the morning, it is a good day''. It puts things into perspective. He managed to remain positive (for the most time) in a death camp and here I am complaining over lockdowns, uneployment and empty bank accounts. Which yes are awful as is but things could be so much worse. We rarely appreciate what we have and me included. I should count my lucky stars daily for the few good things in my life and focus less on the ugly.
What I loved was that they had no plan, no idea where the other was and yet they met after being released from Auschwitz. Lale waiting on a train station in Bratislava where survivors were sent to for weeks till she came. (Of course marriage, and a happily ever after follows.) How romantic is that? Does that still exist today? That moment, the airport moment, being chased down an airport and begged not to go? Or just have love professed in front of everyone. Still waiting for that. Well…even if it would it couldn't happen now. Or actually come to think of it ever. I am terrified of flying, I'd probably swim to the US if I could. I guess there's a simmilar romantic statement in my life. My boyfriend told my friend the other day that if we argue and I'm angry at him and refuse to talk to him all he does is tightens the lids harder so he knows I'll have to come ask him for help. It's both ridiculous and completely cute. And it made me fall in love a bit more.
And here I am completely off topic again. Trust me to be able to come from world war to love in a heartbeat. Then again. Love is war. To sum it up. The book may be flawed, things may not be as accurate as you'd want them, but it's also heart breaking and beautiful and I really enjoyed this venture into different literature. Got about 15 more books on my ''to be read list''. Some classical literature and some fantasy and romance. I'm never sure, are y'all into these or should I stick to music reviews? Well either way, I imagine it's going to be ''business as usual'' in the next post because it's going to be…yes you guessed it. New Bosses album. I'm so excited omg.
Alright another week of lockdown, I never imagined I'll be saying those words in the first place tbh. Hope you spend it doing something you love, with someone you love. Or like me with a bottle of Jack. Cheers guys.
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