Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Harper (2006), Edition: First Edition, 528 pages
Description
A New York Times Notable Book * Winner of the National Jewish Book Award * Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award * A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist "A gripping detective story, a stirring epic, a tale of ghosts and dark marvels, a thrilling display of scholarship, a meditation on the unfathomable mystery of good and evil, a testimony to the enduring power of the ancient archetypes that haunt one Jewish family and the greater human family, The Lost is as complex and rich with meaning and story as the past it seeks to illuminate. A beautiful book, beautifully written." -- Michael Chabon In this rich and riveting narrative, a writer's search for the truth behind his family's tragic past in World War II becomes a remarkably original epic--part memoir, part reportage, part mystery, and part scholarly detective work--that brilliantly explores the nature of time and memory, family and history. The Lost begins as the story of a boy who grew up in a family haunted by the disappearance of six relatives during the Holocaust--an unmentionable subject that gripped his imagination from earliest childhood. Decades later, spurred by the discovery of a cache of desperate letters written to his grandfather in 1939 and tantalized by fragmentary tales of a terrible betrayal, Daniel Mendelsohn sets out to find the remaining eyewitnesses to his relatives' fates. That quest eventually takes him to a dozen countries on four continents and forces him to confront the wrenching discrepancies between the histories we live and the stories we tell. And it leads him, finally, back to the small Ukrainian town where his family's story began, and where the solution to a decades-old mystery awaits him. Deftly moving between past and present, interweaving a world-wandering odyssey with childhood memories of a now-lost generation of immigrant Jews and provocative ruminations on biblical texts and Jewish history, The Lost transforms the story of one family into a profound, morally searching meditation on our fragile hold on the past. Deeply personal, grippingly suspenseful, and beautifully written, this literary tour de force illuminates all that is lost, and found, in the passage of time.… (more)
Media reviews
Mendelsohn verdient grote waardering voor zijn intensieve speurtocht en zijn pogen leven en lijden van 6 van de 6 miljoen concreet vorm te geven, maar jammer is het dat hij in zijn weergave van ontmoetingen en gesprekken de eigen persoon te veel op de voorgrond plaatst, te vaak tussen de lezer en
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het eigenlijke verhaal in gaat staan en zich hierbij verliest in talloze en overbodige details. Deze kritiek laat de waarde van dit boek als een aangrijpend menselijk document echter onverlet. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member cbl_tn
My interest in family history came from listening to my paternal grandmother's stories, which were often sparked by one of the objects that belonged to one of the relatives – a plate, a piece of jewelry, a photo album, a scrapbook, a diary. Daniel Mendelsohn's interest in his family's history
Years of research allowed Mendelsohn to fill in many details on his family tree. As he filled in more and more details about other family members, Mendelsohn began to feel that he needed to learn more about his great-uncle Shmiel to complete the family tree. In order to find what could still be known about Shmiel's family and their fate, Mendelsohn needed to talk with the surviving remnant of Bolechow's Jews who were old enough to remember the Jäger family from before the war. Accompanied most of the way by his photographer brother Matt, Mendelsohn traveled to Australia, Israel, Sweden, Denmark, and Ukraine to meet people who had been there and to find out what they knew and what stories they had heard.
I was particularly struck by this passage:
It's different to write the story of people who survived, because there's someone to interview, and they can tell you these amazing stories. As I said these words, I thought of Mrs. Begley, who had once looked coldly at me and said, 'If you didn't have an amazing story, you didn't survive.'
My problem, I went on..., is that I want to write the story of people who didn't survive. People who had no story, anymore.
That passage sums up how this book differs from other books I've read about the Holocaust. It's not a survival account. It's about six individuals who didn't survive.
This is an inspirational book despite the grim subject matter. Mendelsohn frames his journey with meditation and commentary on weekly Torah readings (parashat) from Genesis. Along the way, he develops a stronger bond with his brother, forms new friendships, and discovers long-lost relatives. The journey is as meaningful as the destination. Highly recommended for readers with an interest in family history, Jewish genealogy, the Holocaust, and the history of Ukraine (formerly eastern Poland), particularly the town of Bolechow/Bolekhiv.
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seems to have developed in much the same way. His maternal grandfather told stories of the Jäger relatives who had emigrated from Bolechow, at the time a Polish town, to the U.S. His grandfather treasured the pictures and letters that were the only reminders left of his oldest brother, Shmiel, and Shmiel's wife and four daughters. While the rest of the family made new lives in the U.S., Shmiel decided to stay in Bolechow, where he was a “big fish in a little pond”. Shmiel and his family perished in the Holocaust along with almost all of Bolechow's Jewish residents.Years of research allowed Mendelsohn to fill in many details on his family tree. As he filled in more and more details about other family members, Mendelsohn began to feel that he needed to learn more about his great-uncle Shmiel to complete the family tree. In order to find what could still be known about Shmiel's family and their fate, Mendelsohn needed to talk with the surviving remnant of Bolechow's Jews who were old enough to remember the Jäger family from before the war. Accompanied most of the way by his photographer brother Matt, Mendelsohn traveled to Australia, Israel, Sweden, Denmark, and Ukraine to meet people who had been there and to find out what they knew and what stories they had heard.
I was particularly struck by this passage:
It's different to write the story of people who survived, because there's someone to interview, and they can tell you these amazing stories. As I said these words, I thought of Mrs. Begley, who had once looked coldly at me and said, 'If you didn't have an amazing story, you didn't survive.'
My problem, I went on..., is that I want to write the story of people who didn't survive. People who had no story, anymore.
That passage sums up how this book differs from other books I've read about the Holocaust. It's not a survival account. It's about six individuals who didn't survive.
This is an inspirational book despite the grim subject matter. Mendelsohn frames his journey with meditation and commentary on weekly Torah readings (parashat) from Genesis. Along the way, he develops a stronger bond with his brother, forms new friendships, and discovers long-lost relatives. The journey is as meaningful as the destination. Highly recommended for readers with an interest in family history, Jewish genealogy, the Holocaust, and the history of Ukraine (formerly eastern Poland), particularly the town of Bolechow/Bolekhiv.
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LibraryThing member Kathleen828
"The Lost" goes on my "20 best books I have ever read" list. I will have to displace something else to put it there, but its depth and power demand a place.
Daniel Mendelsohn tells the story of his search for information regarding the fate of his great-uncle, and that uncle's wife and 4 daughters.
Mendelsohn sets out to find the facts about their deaths, and this books recounts that search. But it does very much more than that.
Constructed as a memoir, a detective story, a meditation on life and on the Torah, full of pain and life-altering coincidence, this book is a marvel. The writer's voice is compelling, and concrete, yet he deals in and with shadows, rumors, whispered confidences, secrets, lies and confusion.
Sorrow, loss, identity, grief and joy all comingle in this masterwork. Who are we? Who is our family? Where do we come from? How does our living and our dying impact our descendants? How can we recover those we have lost?
I could not put this book down. Page by page, chapter by chapter, Mendelsohn peels back layers of history and time, memory and forgetfulness, until at last we know what happened to the six. And in the process of following Mendelsohn's search, we ourselves are changed.
Daniel Mendelsohn tells the story of his search for information regarding the fate of his great-uncle, and that uncle's wife and 4 daughters.
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The family knew that all 6 had perished in The Holocaust, but they had no details. They were not only lost to the family, but their humanity and their stories, were also "lost."Mendelsohn sets out to find the facts about their deaths, and this books recounts that search. But it does very much more than that.
Constructed as a memoir, a detective story, a meditation on life and on the Torah, full of pain and life-altering coincidence, this book is a marvel. The writer's voice is compelling, and concrete, yet he deals in and with shadows, rumors, whispered confidences, secrets, lies and confusion.
Sorrow, loss, identity, grief and joy all comingle in this masterwork. Who are we? Who is our family? Where do we come from? How does our living and our dying impact our descendants? How can we recover those we have lost?
I could not put this book down. Page by page, chapter by chapter, Mendelsohn peels back layers of history and time, memory and forgetfulness, until at last we know what happened to the six. And in the process of following Mendelsohn's search, we ourselves are changed.
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LibraryThing member spounds
There are books you stumble upon that seem to strike a chord deep within you. I was only three pages into The Lost: The Search for Six of Six Hundred when I knew this was that kind of book. I can’t even remember how I found out about it. Some book site recommendation, probably, but whoever or
Why did I enjoy it so much? First, author Daniel Mendelsohn’ story seemed so familiar. Like me, Mendelsohn grew up in a large extended family that told him lots of stories about growing up in a small town, about brothers and sisters, about parents and grandparents, about decisions great and small that eventually lead to him and his life. Early on Mendelsohn caught the genealogy bug and from a young age started charting the family tree, also like me.
Where our stories diverge is where Mendelsohn’s takes off. As a youngster he is shown pictures of a great-uncle, his wife and four daughters who, he was told, “were killed by the Nazis.” At a certain point Mendelsohn decides to find out exactly what happened to them, and so armed with tidbits that he had gathered from relatives over the years he begins a journey that will take him literally to the four corners of the earth to find answers. The stories he hears, the facts he gathers, the friendships he makes are all nterwoven masterfully and truly did turn this book into a page-turner for me.
But it isn’t just this one story that Mendelsohn tries to tell. A trained classicist, he breaks the narrative throughout the book to analyze passages of Genesis and their parallels to the story he his telling. Using both centuries-old and modern commentary as a starting point, Mendelsohn brings his own perspective to the ancient story and his more modern one, struggling to find meaning in acts that seem incomprehensible.
This is a really great book! Highly recommended!
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whatever did the recommending hit the nail on the head. This will go down as one of my favorite books.Why did I enjoy it so much? First, author Daniel Mendelsohn’ story seemed so familiar. Like me, Mendelsohn grew up in a large extended family that told him lots of stories about growing up in a small town, about brothers and sisters, about parents and grandparents, about decisions great and small that eventually lead to him and his life. Early on Mendelsohn caught the genealogy bug and from a young age started charting the family tree, also like me.
Where our stories diverge is where Mendelsohn’s takes off. As a youngster he is shown pictures of a great-uncle, his wife and four daughters who, he was told, “were killed by the Nazis.” At a certain point Mendelsohn decides to find out exactly what happened to them, and so armed with tidbits that he had gathered from relatives over the years he begins a journey that will take him literally to the four corners of the earth to find answers. The stories he hears, the facts he gathers, the friendships he makes are all nterwoven masterfully and truly did turn this book into a page-turner for me.
But it isn’t just this one story that Mendelsohn tries to tell. A trained classicist, he breaks the narrative throughout the book to analyze passages of Genesis and their parallels to the story he his telling. Using both centuries-old and modern commentary as a starting point, Mendelsohn brings his own perspective to the ancient story and his more modern one, struggling to find meaning in acts that seem incomprehensible.
This is a really great book! Highly recommended!
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LibraryThing member ursula
The author's very personal journey to find the stories of 6 members of his family who were killed in Poland during the Holocaust has much to offer about the bigger picture as well. He tells the story much like his grandfather told stories, looping forward and back, away from what you thought was
At times, the book meanders or repeats itself in ways that are less charming, but overall it keeps things moving even with a tough premise - it's hard to find specific answers when so many people who could tell the stories are dead (if not in the war, than in the 60 years between then and when Mendelsohn started seriously researching). For me, that was probably the most poignant part - that we often don't pursue asking questions until the people who could answer them are no longer with us.
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the main action and then back again. We learn about life in a small Polish town before the war and the hell that visited there during the war. But we also learn about the first section of the Torah and interpretations of it through the ages. It might seem irrelevant, but the cycles of destruction and rebirth of human society are very relevant to discussions of the Holocaust.At times, the book meanders or repeats itself in ways that are less charming, but overall it keeps things moving even with a tough premise - it's hard to find specific answers when so many people who could tell the stories are dead (if not in the war, than in the 60 years between then and when Mendelsohn started seriously researching). For me, that was probably the most poignant part - that we often don't pursue asking questions until the people who could answer them are no longer with us.
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LibraryThing member Thisisme663
An amazing book, the best I've read in a while. This book reinstilled in me a desire to reach back into my own familys history.
It also opened my eyes to the holocaust, a thing more complex and far-reaching than I thought possible.
Many, many stars for this book.
It also opened my eyes to the holocaust, a thing more complex and far-reaching than I thought possible.
Many, many stars for this book.
LibraryThing member jcbrunner
The Lost is an outstanding book that goes well beyond a family history. The extensive portrait of the extended Mendelsohn-Jäger clan living in Long Island and Florida can be at times a bit frightening to someone more used to nuclear families. This is a tale of large families (Daniel Mendelsohn
Woody Allen's portrait of a Holocaust obsessed New York Jew fits Mendelsohn to a T. Since his childhood, Daniel Mendelsohn had developed an odd obsession with genealogy, discovering the personal histories of his relatives impacted by the Holocaust. Linked to this is a creepy obsession of spending time in the company of old people, already as a teenager but also while traveling in Europe where he eschews visiting a city's highlights in order to score another interview with an often less than willing Holocaust survivor. His sightseeing is often marred by insufficient preparation. A simple Wikipedia search would have revealed that Theodor Herzl was buried in the Döbling cemetery not the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna. Vienna's Zentralfriedhof is lodged between the industrial zone, the airport and an oil refinery. No wonder that upstanding citizens such as Theodor Herzl did not want to be buried there. The Zentralfriedhof is almost situated in Vienna's equivalent of New Jersey. For marketing purposes, Vienna's administration reburied some of its heroes (such as Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven) in the Zentralfriedhof and even set up empty memorials for others (Mozart). Sometimes, the lack of a systematic approach is vexing. Serendipity often comes to the rescue.
The search quickly turns into a hunt, a mystery of a true crime. What had truly happened to Mendelsohn's grand-uncle and his daughters in 1941 and 1942? Mendelsohn unveils layer upon layer, giving faces and stories to name and places - a task better not left to the professionals: regarding his relatives, the database of Yad Vashem was filled with errors, partly due to the Galician-Polish-Ukrainian multi-linguistic environment. While the re-discovery of his relatives' life and death as well as the stories of the Holocaust survivors is a worthy endeavor in itself, Mendelsohn enriches it with a meditation and analysis of the first books of Moses. Jewish history as a tale of suffering starts early with God evicting and punishing the first humans and later wiping out most of humanity and nature in the flood. Sodom and Gomorrah only continues the story of a jealous and vengeful God. Even the God-fearing and righteous will suffer. Mendelsohn's research reveals quite a number of skeletons in the family closet. Reality is complex and non-fiction offers the best tales. Like an excellently choreographed firework, Mendelsohn's hunt pays off magnificiently, with tiny build-ups aggregating into big reveals. Given Goethe's Faust's famous agonizing over the correct translation of the first lines of Genesis, I found the discussion of its Hebrew translation issues (and its surprisingly frequent non-conventional approaches) very interesting. Another topic I have so much to learn about.
Where Mendelsohn's book could have benefited from was a more general introduction to the Eastern European area, recently labeled "Blood lands". Unfortunately for its inhabitants from Poland to Hungary to Austria to the Adria, the clashes through the centuries between the East and the West proved to be very bloody. Wiping out villages and cities used to be an all too familiar occurrence. Like Mendelsohn, I have often wondered why, for instance, the inhabitants of Hainburg, Austria, did not flee prior to the Turkish invasion of 1683. The Turks wiped out nearly all of the 8.000 inhabitants. Joseph Haydn's grand-father was one of the few survivors. While The Lost ultimately is a personal search for the history of his relatives and the Holocaust, a wider discussion of the violent nature of mankind would have been quite in order. The Holodomor, Stalin's starvation of millions of Ukrainians occurred just on the other side of the border from Bolechow. Since time immemorial, Eastern Europe has seen a lot of suffering (emigration has always been the best strategy). Homo homini lupus. Mendelsohn shies away from its full discussion and implication. This is especially bothersome in his mentioning of Abu Grhaib's "abuses said to have taken place". Call it torture and it is so amply documented that its denial or questioning is just sad. Together with mentioning Evian only as a mineral water, the continued whitewashing of US involvement in blocking Jewish emigration is not helpful in educating the next generation of Americans. Apart from this all too common blind spots, this is a spectacular achievement that is a fast-paced, revealing read. Highly recommended.
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himself has four siblings, one (Matt) contributing the photos of the book) living intimately together, with aunts, uncles and other relatives staying in for extended periods of time. Woody Allen's portrait of a Holocaust obsessed New York Jew fits Mendelsohn to a T. Since his childhood, Daniel Mendelsohn had developed an odd obsession with genealogy, discovering the personal histories of his relatives impacted by the Holocaust. Linked to this is a creepy obsession of spending time in the company of old people, already as a teenager but also while traveling in Europe where he eschews visiting a city's highlights in order to score another interview with an often less than willing Holocaust survivor. His sightseeing is often marred by insufficient preparation. A simple Wikipedia search would have revealed that Theodor Herzl was buried in the Döbling cemetery not the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna. Vienna's Zentralfriedhof is lodged between the industrial zone, the airport and an oil refinery. No wonder that upstanding citizens such as Theodor Herzl did not want to be buried there. The Zentralfriedhof is almost situated in Vienna's equivalent of New Jersey. For marketing purposes, Vienna's administration reburied some of its heroes (such as Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven) in the Zentralfriedhof and even set up empty memorials for others (Mozart). Sometimes, the lack of a systematic approach is vexing. Serendipity often comes to the rescue.
The search quickly turns into a hunt, a mystery of a true crime. What had truly happened to Mendelsohn's grand-uncle and his daughters in 1941 and 1942? Mendelsohn unveils layer upon layer, giving faces and stories to name and places - a task better not left to the professionals: regarding his relatives, the database of Yad Vashem was filled with errors, partly due to the Galician-Polish-Ukrainian multi-linguistic environment. While the re-discovery of his relatives' life and death as well as the stories of the Holocaust survivors is a worthy endeavor in itself, Mendelsohn enriches it with a meditation and analysis of the first books of Moses. Jewish history as a tale of suffering starts early with God evicting and punishing the first humans and later wiping out most of humanity and nature in the flood. Sodom and Gomorrah only continues the story of a jealous and vengeful God. Even the God-fearing and righteous will suffer. Mendelsohn's research reveals quite a number of skeletons in the family closet. Reality is complex and non-fiction offers the best tales. Like an excellently choreographed firework, Mendelsohn's hunt pays off magnificiently, with tiny build-ups aggregating into big reveals. Given Goethe's Faust's famous agonizing over the correct translation of the first lines of Genesis, I found the discussion of its Hebrew translation issues (and its surprisingly frequent non-conventional approaches) very interesting. Another topic I have so much to learn about.
Where Mendelsohn's book could have benefited from was a more general introduction to the Eastern European area, recently labeled "Blood lands". Unfortunately for its inhabitants from Poland to Hungary to Austria to the Adria, the clashes through the centuries between the East and the West proved to be very bloody. Wiping out villages and cities used to be an all too familiar occurrence. Like Mendelsohn, I have often wondered why, for instance, the inhabitants of Hainburg, Austria, did not flee prior to the Turkish invasion of 1683. The Turks wiped out nearly all of the 8.000 inhabitants. Joseph Haydn's grand-father was one of the few survivors. While The Lost ultimately is a personal search for the history of his relatives and the Holocaust, a wider discussion of the violent nature of mankind would have been quite in order. The Holodomor, Stalin's starvation of millions of Ukrainians occurred just on the other side of the border from Bolechow. Since time immemorial, Eastern Europe has seen a lot of suffering (emigration has always been the best strategy). Homo homini lupus. Mendelsohn shies away from its full discussion and implication. This is especially bothersome in his mentioning of Abu Grhaib's "abuses said to have taken place". Call it torture and it is so amply documented that its denial or questioning is just sad. Together with mentioning Evian only as a mineral water, the continued whitewashing of US involvement in blocking Jewish emigration is not helpful in educating the next generation of Americans. Apart from this all too common blind spots, this is a spectacular achievement that is a fast-paced, revealing read. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member tigermel
I went through different phases during this book. First i couldn't get into it, then it was ok but not great, then sometime around page 250 i got completely sucked in and ended up loving this book. it is a 5. I think it is the way the story is written. the author put little asides in, like "or so
The author begins by telling stories of his childhood, the stories of things that happened to him and things that his family, especially his grandfather, told him. Mendelsohn knows his grandfather's brother, Shmiel, and Shmiel's wife and four daughters, all died during the Holocaust. No one knows exactly how and when. Mendelsohn begins researching these lost family members and about the city of Bolechow, Poland, where they lived. The search takes him all over Europe, to Australia and Israel as well. I can't say too much about what he finds as it would take away from the story. It is a great story though.
Here's a quote:
To be alive is to have a story to tell. To be alive is precisely to be the hero, the center of a life story. when you can be nothing more than a minor character in somebody else's tale, it means that you are truly dead.
I do wish that the pictures had captions. Mendelsohn talks about a lot of people, in his family as well as others he speaks to about the Jagers, and he only randomly posts the pictures but none have captions. sometimes it doesn't matter because he's just described the person in the picture or the picture itself, but other times it is strange because he's talking about the girls and the picture shows several of them. How are we supposed to know which is which? Maybe that is part of his story, the uncertainty of what you think and what you know.
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we thought then" or "until i found out differently" and such. at first, you just want to know what actually happened and the asides are annoying but as the book unfolds it makes more and more sense.The author begins by telling stories of his childhood, the stories of things that happened to him and things that his family, especially his grandfather, told him. Mendelsohn knows his grandfather's brother, Shmiel, and Shmiel's wife and four daughters, all died during the Holocaust. No one knows exactly how and when. Mendelsohn begins researching these lost family members and about the city of Bolechow, Poland, where they lived. The search takes him all over Europe, to Australia and Israel as well. I can't say too much about what he finds as it would take away from the story. It is a great story though.
Here's a quote:
To be alive is to have a story to tell. To be alive is precisely to be the hero, the center of a life story. when you can be nothing more than a minor character in somebody else's tale, it means that you are truly dead.
I do wish that the pictures had captions. Mendelsohn talks about a lot of people, in his family as well as others he speaks to about the Jagers, and he only randomly posts the pictures but none have captions. sometimes it doesn't matter because he's just described the person in the picture or the picture itself, but other times it is strange because he's talking about the girls and the picture shows several of them. How are we supposed to know which is which? Maybe that is part of his story, the uncertainty of what you think and what you know.
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LibraryThing member kaulsu
I am so glad I read this book. A classmate of my son's father was killed at the Pentagon on 9/11 and my reaction was similar: I needed to put a face on that tragedy. More than any other history I have read, Mendelsohn has put a human face on the tragedy of the depravity of World War II. He also put
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a face on the generosity of spirit of that same time. Show Less
LibraryThing member michalsuz
An excellent book, though suffering from over-indulgent editing - the Biblical commentaries should come out, and the whole thing is too long.
But a fantastic read and teaching about the reality of the Holocaust and how it continues to reverberate down the generations.
But a fantastic read and teaching about the reality of the Holocaust and how it continues to reverberate down the generations.
LibraryThing member pine1211
Extremely detailed account of 1 man's journey to find out what happened to his uncle under Hitler. It is a study in relationships between Ukranians and Jews under Hitler. Also it reveals the difficulty many of the survivors continue to have in relaying the memories and stories of what happened
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during the WW II. The author also weaves a religious theme throughout the book with references back to Genesis and the events occurring in the early part of the world. Show Less
LibraryThing member ZoharLaor
This book is a fascinating personal journey for the author to find what has happened to six members of his family during WWII. As someone who is very interested in his own family's past I found this book enthralling and enlightening, as well as personal. The story which the author tells is
The book has its flaws, in my opinion. The author weaves in narrative of rabbinical scholars which I thought distracted from the story (even though interesting by its own merit - but just out of place).
Even though I found the narrative distracting, but it is in italics so it's easy to skip if you choose.
Since this is a biographical novel on several level (the uncle, the cousins, those who knew them and the author himself), I felt it would have been more profound if the author would have shared more of himself. After I finished reading the book felt I knew the long departed Uncle Schmiel better than the man who is telling the story about his own search.
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authentic, rich, deep and engrossing.The book has its flaws, in my opinion. The author weaves in narrative of rabbinical scholars which I thought distracted from the story (even though interesting by its own merit - but just out of place).
Even though I found the narrative distracting, but it is in italics so it's easy to skip if you choose.
Since this is a biographical novel on several level (the uncle, the cousins, those who knew them and the author himself), I felt it would have been more profound if the author would have shared more of himself. After I finished reading the book felt I knew the long departed Uncle Schmiel better than the man who is telling the story about his own search.
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LibraryThing member HenryKrinkle
Lee Child sums up "The Lost" better than I could:
"The words “truly great book” set a very high bar, don’t they, in the context of the last couple of centuries. Therefore I’d have to pick “The Lost,” by Daniel Mendelsohn. Nonfiction, but only incidentally. It’s a memoir, a Holocaust
Amen.
"The words “truly great book” set a very high bar, don’t they, in the context of the last couple of centuries. Therefore I’d have to pick “The Lost,” by Daniel Mendelsohn. Nonfiction, but only incidentally. It’s a memoir, a Holocaust
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story, a detective story, both a rumination on and an analysis of narrative technique, a work of Old Testament and ancient Greek historiography, and a work of awful, heartbreaking, tragic suspense. A book of the decade, easily, and likely a book of the century."Amen.
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LibraryThing member RubyA
I just couldn't do it. I know I'm supposed to be interested but...yaaaawwwnnnn.
LibraryThing member thornton37814
This is the story of Daniel Mendelsohn's search for his maternal grandfather's brother, Shmiel Jager. His grandfather had told him stories of the family, but he became interested in learning more. His search led him to many countries and to the ancestral hometown of Bolekhiv, Ukraine on numerous
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occasions. Gradually through bits and pieces from different individuals who knew Shmiel's family, he is able to piece together the story. I was somewhat disappointed in the story. It's more about the search than it is about the lives of those he was researching. As a genealogist, I would have preferred to read the account of his family as it had been synthesized and pieced together (with footnotes attributing each piece to the proper source and noting discrepancies and how they were resolved). This, however, was not the direction in which the author chose to go. I found that I was constantly trying to remember what he'd learned 100 or 200 pages back that had bearing on what he was learning from his current interviewee. I felt that the book was a lot longer than it needed to be, but much of this may have had to do with my perspective on how the book should have been written. There is a lot of information here, and while I am not as happy about how he chose to present it as some others are, I am happy that he did put his family's story in print. I enjoyed the pieces of commentary on Genesis which were often based on the Jewish commentary that Friedman wrote. Show Less
LibraryThing member mjlivi
This is a tough book to review - parts of it were as moving as anything I've read this year, but there was something about the author's style that dragged at times. The diversions into discussions of the Torah, the slightly odd foreshadowing of revelations to come and the sidetracking into stories
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that seemed irrelevant to me left me a bit frustrated. But in many ways it's a stunning read - the focus on the author's relatives provides something concrete that is often lost in the overarching horror of the holocaust. Some parts were almost unreadably upsetting and will haunt me for a long time. Show Less
LibraryThing member MarthaHuntley
The Lost is a very long and rich book, well worth the investment of time to read it. I'm not sure everyone would like The Lost as much as my husband and I do, but we both think it is superb and one-of-a-kind. In it, the author, a relative of a family of six who were killed by the Nazis in the
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Holocaust, in their little native town in Poland, represent the six million Jews who perished. Each had a specific personality and life story, and death story too, and Daniel Mendelsohn, a writer, out of curiosity, respect, and love for his grandfather, brother of the patriarch of the slaughtered family determines to find these things out and write them down. He succeeds to a large (and very moving) extent. So the book is the story of the six, and of the six million - it is a history, a multi-biography, a witness; it deals with the ups and downs of historical research, of the vagaries of language and the limitations of language, it tells of victims, survivors and unimaginable evil, it even goes back to the Bible to bring up the genesis faith stories. Really a wonderful book. Show Less
LibraryThing member nhalliwell
I read The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn a few years after it was first published in 2006. It was a very powerful book. I learned quite a bit. It was the kind of book that stayed with you. When Audiobook Jukebox offered a copy of the audiobook narrated by Bronson
Daniel Mendelsohn grew up surrounded by older relatives who survived the Holocaust either because they got out of Europe in time or by luck or divine intervention they survived the Nazi’s. Daniel knew this. He knew about the events of World War II. What he did not know if why elderly relatives would begin to cry when they saw him and mention he looked like a person Daniel did not know. Shmiel Jäger was Daniel’s great uncle. Shmiel, his wife, and four daughters did not survive the Holocaust. When they died, how they died and why they died were not know. The only know was “they were killed by the Nazis.”
The Lost is the story of Daniel learning of his lost family and as adult his quest to find them. They were not “killed by the Nazis” of meticulous records. They were not all killed at the same time or the same place. In his quest to find their fates, Daniel and his family learned an incredible amount. They learned about Ukrainians who turned in neighbors. They learned about Poles who hid Jews. They learned about the non-Jews who lost their lives trying to save lives. They learned about the unending cruelty that accompanied the last moments of so many people. The hardback edition contains photographs from the author’s family. There is a certain level of heartbreak, which thank whatever Gods you believe in we do not experience often, on seeing two smiling teen girls and knowing their death will come before they experience love, marriage, and motherhood.
When I read the book, it was powerful. I expected the audiobook to be the same. It was not. Bronson Pinchot’s narration is masterful and devastating. Pinchot is fantastic at the accents. Whether it is Daniel’s mother’s New York accent or his grandfather’s Yiddish, they are clear and believable. The voices, whether male or female, old or young, are very well done. He creates Daniel’s voice but he also creates so much more. He infuses every word with emotion. But there is a power within Pinchot’s narration that the listener must be prepared for. I was driving and thankfully could pull over for a moment. When Pinchot describes what they believe happened to his one relative, a teenage girl, who was rounded up by the Ukrainians at the direction of the Nazi authorities, held with a thousand other people, naked, without food or water or access to facilities, made to watch their rabbi have his eyes cut out and a cross carved on his chest, then taken to the forest where group by group they walked onto a plank over a pit, to be shot and if God was merciful, they died immediately; if not they lay wounded under covered by other bodies and eventually earth. That was difficult to read. Pinchot’s narration contains so much rage, sadness, and horror that it is devastating to hear. Bronson Pinchot should have the 2016 Audie just for that passage alone. If you have to chose between reading The Lost or listening to Pinchot’s narration, take the narration. The power of his performance will stay with you.
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Pinchot, i requested it. It had been years since I read the book so I would refamiliarize myself with the story while enjoying the narration of Bronson Pinchot. It did not quite work out as planned.Daniel Mendelsohn grew up surrounded by older relatives who survived the Holocaust either because they got out of Europe in time or by luck or divine intervention they survived the Nazi’s. Daniel knew this. He knew about the events of World War II. What he did not know if why elderly relatives would begin to cry when they saw him and mention he looked like a person Daniel did not know. Shmiel Jäger was Daniel’s great uncle. Shmiel, his wife, and four daughters did not survive the Holocaust. When they died, how they died and why they died were not know. The only know was “they were killed by the Nazis.”
The Lost is the story of Daniel learning of his lost family and as adult his quest to find them. They were not “killed by the Nazis” of meticulous records. They were not all killed at the same time or the same place. In his quest to find their fates, Daniel and his family learned an incredible amount. They learned about Ukrainians who turned in neighbors. They learned about Poles who hid Jews. They learned about the non-Jews who lost their lives trying to save lives. They learned about the unending cruelty that accompanied the last moments of so many people. The hardback edition contains photographs from the author’s family. There is a certain level of heartbreak, which thank whatever Gods you believe in we do not experience often, on seeing two smiling teen girls and knowing their death will come before they experience love, marriage, and motherhood.
When I read the book, it was powerful. I expected the audiobook to be the same. It was not. Bronson Pinchot’s narration is masterful and devastating. Pinchot is fantastic at the accents. Whether it is Daniel’s mother’s New York accent or his grandfather’s Yiddish, they are clear and believable. The voices, whether male or female, old or young, are very well done. He creates Daniel’s voice but he also creates so much more. He infuses every word with emotion. But there is a power within Pinchot’s narration that the listener must be prepared for. I was driving and thankfully could pull over for a moment. When Pinchot describes what they believe happened to his one relative, a teenage girl, who was rounded up by the Ukrainians at the direction of the Nazi authorities, held with a thousand other people, naked, without food or water or access to facilities, made to watch their rabbi have his eyes cut out and a cross carved on his chest, then taken to the forest where group by group they walked onto a plank over a pit, to be shot and if God was merciful, they died immediately; if not they lay wounded under covered by other bodies and eventually earth. That was difficult to read. Pinchot’s narration contains so much rage, sadness, and horror that it is devastating to hear. Bronson Pinchot should have the 2016 Audie just for that passage alone. If you have to chose between reading The Lost or listening to Pinchot’s narration, take the narration. The power of his performance will stay with you.
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LibraryThing member Bookish59
Daniel is very close to his mother's father, old-worldly, meticulous and the family story-teller. Daniel learns much from him but, of course, doesn't fully appreciate or understand this treasure until he is older. After his grandfather dies, Daniel researches basic family genealogy. Daniel wonders
Daniel decides to find and write Shmiel’s story. Over many years he performed multi-faceted research, studied family photos and letters, visited, and spoke with and interviewed family members as well as strangers from Bolechow who knew a little something about Shmiel, Esther or their daughters, or who had ‘witnessed’ or ‘heard about’ an occurrence to Shmiel, Esther or their daughters. Daniel pieced together not just their pre-mature, abrupt, horrific murders by the Nazis and Ukrainians but the beauty of their friendships and daily lives. Mendelsohn’s thoughts and feelings coalesced into a greater understanding of his grandfather’s hidden anguish and guilt, and the unwillingness to speak of Shmiel, the brother he couldn’t save.
Using analysis of the weekly Parshiot read in synagogue on Shabbat to counterbalance his family’s painful story is brilliant. Especially meaningful to Daniel are the Torah segments about divisiveness between brothers; perhaps because Daniel had broken his brother, Matthew’s arm when young. And perhaps because he realized the guilt his grandfather suffered.
I both enjoyed and was saddened by everything Daniel shared but did feel the book ran on too long.
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why such a good story-teller didn’t tell stories about his older brother, Shmiel, his wife and their 4 daughters. Daniel decides to find and write Shmiel’s story. Over many years he performed multi-faceted research, studied family photos and letters, visited, and spoke with and interviewed family members as well as strangers from Bolechow who knew a little something about Shmiel, Esther or their daughters, or who had ‘witnessed’ or ‘heard about’ an occurrence to Shmiel, Esther or their daughters. Daniel pieced together not just their pre-mature, abrupt, horrific murders by the Nazis and Ukrainians but the beauty of their friendships and daily lives. Mendelsohn’s thoughts and feelings coalesced into a greater understanding of his grandfather’s hidden anguish and guilt, and the unwillingness to speak of Shmiel, the brother he couldn’t save.
Using analysis of the weekly Parshiot read in synagogue on Shabbat to counterbalance his family’s painful story is brilliant. Especially meaningful to Daniel are the Torah segments about divisiveness between brothers; perhaps because Daniel had broken his brother, Matthew’s arm when young. And perhaps because he realized the guilt his grandfather suffered.
I both enjoyed and was saddened by everything Daniel shared but did feel the book ran on too long.
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LibraryThing member terrylynn
Good story but at times tedious. A good way to begin understandin the Talmud
LibraryThing member jonfaith
There may just be a vertical hierarchy in our popular understanding of the Holocaust. At the top, however uneasy, are the Survivors: it is through their testimony that we know to never forget. Their is also a measure of merit in having outwitted or simply survived the minatory machinations of the
If only life was that f*ck*ng simple.
Mr. Mendelson constructs a marvelous investigation sixty years after the fact. His training as a classicist lends a unique angle to his research. The idea of using Dido as an apt metaphor is astonishing: victim and exile, she prospers from her wits only to kill herself. If ever an example antiicpated the Survivor, this is it.
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Nazis. below them are the victims, particularly present when the doltish ask "why they went like sheep, why they didn’t fight back, why they didn’t heed the signs in the 1930s?" Below that mound of evidence is nefarious mass of perpetrators, willing executioners, ordinary men, the devil incarnate and the betrayers. If only life was that f*ck*ng simple.
Mr. Mendelson constructs a marvelous investigation sixty years after the fact. His training as a classicist lends a unique angle to his research. The idea of using Dido as an apt metaphor is astonishing: victim and exile, she prospers from her wits only to kill herself. If ever an example antiicpated the Survivor, this is it.
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Subjects
Awards
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Biography — 2006)
National Book Critics Circle Award (Finalist — 2006)
National Jewish Book Award (Winner — Biography and Autobiography — 2006)
Salon Book Award (2006)
Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award (Finalist — Non-Fiction — 2006)
Sophie Brody Medal (Winner — 2007)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Nonfiction — 2006)
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Nonfiction — 2006)
Original language
English
Original publication date
2006
Physical description
528 p.; 6.13 inches
ISBN
0060542977 / 9780060542979
UPC
000060542977
Local notes
2015-16 Reading Circle selection