It's April again. This year, Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, is on April 27th. The synagogue book club reads their one Holocaust novel in conjunction with Yom HaShoah observance. I'd gotten a list of lots of novels and memoirs. Restricting myself to novels, I selected a few that were considered more uplifting than completely distressing and this was high on the list. The group voted and selected The Seven Year Dress by Paulette Mahurin.
I'm curious to learn if others in the group felt this was uplifting. The Tattooist of Auschwitz was a Holocaust novel that I considered uplifting. This one, not so much so.
What would have really made this book would have been if Mahurin had given some information about how much of this story was based on the actual experience of someone she knows or why she was inspired to write this novel. I'll do some research before the book club meeting, but it would have been nice to have that information as part of the experience of reading the novel.
Helen's story of the 7 years that she was either in hiding or as a prisoner in a concentration camp was slightly different than others that I've read. So there should be something to discuss her. But the novel didn't live up to the slight hype that it received. I hope the group won't be angry at me for suggesting this one. They weren't thrilled about Color Me In. Thinking someone else should make the book recommendations for awhile.
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