25
Aug
2009
The Apple by Penelope Holt
I don’t remember the Oprah controversy that inspired this book, but some people might. Two Holocaust survivors went on Oprah, after having been married 50 years, and recounted the story of how they met during WWII. The problem? They didn’t meet until twelve years after the war ended.
Herman Rosenblat wrote a memoir about his time spent in various concentration camps as a teenager. He wove into his account the story his wife told him about meeting a boy in a concentration camp. So great was their connection on the night that they first met, and she first told him the story, that he felt that he was the boy.
Of course, he wasn’t.
Not really.
But that seemed to be what everyone liked best about his story. So he left it in, was exposed as lying, and his memoir never got published.
Then comes along author Penelope Holt, who writes a novel all about it. Why a novel and not a piece of creative nonfiction? The only guess I can make is that if she screwed up some details, she didn’t want to get criticized like Rosenblat. But then, why not change the names in the story, and actually make stuff up yourself? She had a lot of material to work with here, but it seems that she stuck to the truth, and labeled it a novel.
While there were a lot of harrowing accounts of the Holocaust in this book, it was a quick read, sort of in a YA style. Unfortunately, what was most interesting, what the novel claims to be about (the controversy) wasn’t really discussed until the very end. I think that I got a good understanding of why Rosenblat didn’t feel the need to take the story out, especially when it started to become the hook of the novel, what his agent, publisher, Oprah, are so interested in, and it still rang true in his heart.
Disregarding the controversy, the hook of the novel, I think that Herman Rosenblat had a beautiful story of love–but of a different kind: brotherly love. As the youngest in the family, his three older brothers took care of him in the camps, often sharing what little food they had with him, as he was still growing.
But I guess that had been done before, and people are suckers for a good romance.
Apparently, people are suckers for a good controversy as well. And this book left me a little unsatisfied in that department.
You can learn more from York House Press
*UPDATE: While the ARC labels this a novel, when it debuts next week it’s going to say “based on”, to more accurately show what it is.
Buy The Apple on Amazon
If you like this book/author, you might like:
(my reviews in blue)
Maus by Art Spiegelman
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Night by Elie Wiesel
Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski
Fire on Water: Porgess and The Abyss by Arnost Lustig
Survival In Auschwitz by Primo Levi
Good War: An Oral History of WWII by Studs Turkel
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
North to Freedom by Anne Holm
Poland by James Michener
Other works by Penelope Holt:
With Allen Bailey:
Singing God’s Work: The Inspirational Music, People, and Stories of the Harlem Gospel Choir
Interesting review! Kind of bizarre that she did a novel out of the story!
Well, that goes to show you how much time I invest in T.V. , next to none apparently. I remember seeing an interview with the Rosenblats on the late night news but hadn’t an inkling about the controversy. Didn’t something weird go on with ‘A Million Little Pieces’ too? Sounds like Oprah is having some bad book-luck!
Sometimes authors use a novel or screenplay to support political or social beliefs; or to cry out for morality and ethical principles. This is no more clearly evident than with Holocaust books and films. Whenever we stand up to those who deny or minimize the Holocaust, or to those who support genocide we send a critical message to the world.
We live in an age of vulnerability. Holocaust deniers ply their mendacious poison everywhere, especially with young people on the Internet. We know from captured German war records that millions of innocent Jews (and others) were systematically exterminated by Nazi Germany – most in gas chambers. Holocaust books and films help to tell the true story of the Shoah, combating anti-Semitic historical revision. And, they protect future generations from making the same mistakes.
I wrote “Jacob’s Courage” to promote Holocaust education. This coming of age love story presents accurate scenes and situations of Jews in ghettos and concentration camps, with particular attention to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. It examines a constellation of emotions during a time of incomprehensible brutality. A world that continues to allow genocide requires such ethical reminders and remediation.
Many authors feel compelled to use their talent to promote moral causes. Holocaust books and movies carry that message globally, in an age when the world needs to learn that genocide is unacceptable. Such authors attempt to show the world that religious, racial, ethnic and gender persecution is wrong; and that tolerance is our progeny’s only hope.
Jacob’s Courage has been reviewed extensively. Called, “gut wrenching and heart rending,” this love story takes the reader deep into ground zero of the Holocaust, encompassing the reader with constantly churning emotions. Despite the abject terror of this book, it also reveals the triumphant spirit of humankind and demonstrates how ordinary people can perform extraordinary acts of courage when the lives of loved ones are on the line.
Charles Weinblatt
Author, “Jacob’s Courage”
http://jacobscourage.wordpress.com/.
pictures of our hero herman rozenblat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aju4dybTZsc
did herman rosenblat recently change his religion converting to christianity?
it has been reported on other blogs that herman rosenblat converted to christianity. i wonder if this is something that ms. holt helped initiate?
In answer to Tom Spitz and Lorin Schneider, the insane rumor that Herman Rosenblat converted to Christianity was started by an unstable, psychotic person who has made this comment on several sites, under a variety of aliases. His only future is to wind up in a straight-jacket. How can anyone take him seriously?
kubiek, you keep on suggesting there is something wrong if rosenblat converted? there is nothing wrong if he did. why are you so special? seems like you are defending a lair and some writer who tried to whitewash his hoax.
We posted your review on War Through the Generations.