Rating: 
Summary: THIS BOOK WAS THE BOMB
Review: When my 9th grade English teacher made us read this book, I was seriously dreading it! It looked so boring. But to my shock, I loved it. I felt for Trudi. She must had a rough life, but went on! I loved this book. I feel I could tottally relate to all the characters in a way. There was alot of symbolism, the birds, the stones, and the river. Thanks! I loved this book!
Rating:
Summary: On my top 10 list of all time!
Review: This book really put me there! Such a heart wrenching story, unfortunately so true to life.
Rating:
Summary: Memorable, haunting, beautiful
Review: This book has stayed with me since I read it last year. I couldn't put it down. I didn't find it dull at all! It's been a long time since a book has touched me this way.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've read....left a lasting impression
Review: Simply put, I loved this story and the character of Trudi Montag. It was interesting to read a novel which takes place during World War II from the perspective of the people in a small German town. Although this is a novel, there is no doubt there is truth in the characters described. I went and bought her book Floating in My Mother's Palm in order to read more about these same characters.
Rating:
Summary: Hegi does a craftsmanlike job.
Review: This book has a great deal to offer. Readers gain new perspectives on life in Hitler's Germany. It becomes plain how difficult it was to dissent and how easy it was for Jews to miscalculate the threat to their lives. Although it can be read on a literal level, this is not a light book. It is filled with devices, images, and symbols. Readers should prepare to be absorbed by a challenging piece of literature.
Rating: 
Summary: First book I couldn't finish
Review: In all the books I have ever read, I have never decided not to finish one. I decided not to finish this one because it was becoming a chore to read it everyday. I got about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through, and I really tried to care about he characters, but then I realized that if I never read another word, I couldn't care less what happens in the rest of the book!!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent; profound look at the human condition
Review: I read Stones from the River almost a year ago, and it is still resonating with me. After reading other reviews, most of which I agree with wholeheartedly, I felt compelled to voice my opinion, and response. Those few people who did not enjoy this book clearly did not understand the statement Ms. Hegi was making. Comments about self-pity and lack of compassion for a dwarf are offensive; the book beautifully chronicles the human condition in wartime Germany. I hope for those of you who "didn't care" about Trudi Montag that you never find yourself faced with persecution; Trudi Montag wasn't just short, nor was it just about Germany in the 30's and 40's. Ms. Hegi is speaking about greater themes that affect the entire human race; Trudi is judged BECAUSE she was born with physical deformity, and because she was born into Nazi Germany--this book could have spoken about someone in Africa, born blind. It is a universal message, highlighted by the atrocities of war. Comments calling the book "retarded" have obviously come from someone who has missed the beauty and depth of this piece, and doesn't grasp the insight behind this examination of the human spirit.
Rating:
Summary: Did not expect to enjoy it - BUT I could not put it down
Review: Although it started a bit slow, as story progressed it was a wonderful read. Such a well-written book with lots of symbolism. I will read more of this author.
Rating: 
Summary: Gunter Grass filtered through psycho-babble
Review: I suppose if you haven't read much holocaust literature, this is better than nothing. You'll get to ask yourself how it was that a village could turn against some of its citizens, as so many did. The author doesn't give much of an answer, however. Worse, the writing style is so weak that the story itself hardly holds interest. The author hovers omninscently, telling us what is inside the heads of her characters with such a consistently flat voice that she does not succeed in conveying any personality. The dwarf metaphor might be effective if she had really let go and given her character power, but instead she sounds like someone telling her story in a therapy session. The pacing is clumsy, perhaps because the author will not let us hear from her characters directly, but must narrate all from some distant point, so time is spent equally on all subjects, significant or otherwise. Perhaps because the characters are so flat, many events seem unbelievable. Story-telling and secrets are supposed to be the central theme of this book, but aside from the inference that the author likes to tell stories, there is really no story here at all, only a dreary recitation of mildly titillating events.
Rating: 
Summary: A literary oxymoron
Review: Mesmerizing yet dull. A page turner but slow. Trudi the Zwerg is rejected by all but accepted by all. Her peers don't include her in their school activities but confide in her. A three-year-old with a memory that is developmentally impossible. Oxymorons that make sense! An oxymoron. But throughout the book, I felt it was nisnamed. It was an Apologeia for religionists. Religion demands blind faith and makes vulnerable to manipulation those whom it entices. It was difficult to believe that the Catholic majority were so tolerant of the surprisingly sizable community of educated Jews in their midst up until the Hitler era. Hegi avoided the irony of the tryst between Catholic-dwarfed-love-shunned Trudi and Jewish-half-blind Max. Their love affair was not credible. Max was talented and ostensibly brilliant, but it was not enough that he loved Trudi because she was unique. It simply was not enough. George was three-dimensional from the time he was a long-curly-locked boy raised in girl's clothing. Her rose-chested friend (whose name I forget) was three-dimensional. Her friend's eventually-suicidal husband was. Even the dentist was. Ingrid was. But Max wasn't. He had been a teacher who was found out. Granted Max was not brought up on the village with the others, but it was not credible that Trudi would NOT have explored and learned his secrets as she did those of others . . . and should have shared them with us, the readers. It was as if . . . if even Trudi, this deformed woman, secretly immoral -- at least immoral as measured in that era -- could secretly love a Jew, Max, so could the rest of her fellow Germans. It's just that they couldn't, says Hegi, show their love or respect or concern for the Jews' safety because they were in fear themselves. Hogwash or does it wash? Ironically, the book's majesty is that it raises all these questions. It makes us think. Brilliant? No. Fascinating? Yes. Just not for the obvious reasons! It left me suspicious. Nevertheless, at least Hegi allowed her villagers to admit that they knew that genocide was taking place. That is more than the people from Dachau did, even though the camp Dachau was just down a straight road lined by slender trees (name I forget, begins with an "L" I think), bordered by a flat plane of farm acreage between the town and the camp, and edged by rows and rows of chimneys soaring out of the ovens and leaving an unbearable stench which lasted years after the camp was long empty. At least Hegi didn't say, We didn't know. But then she wasn't born during WWII, depriving her of the opportunity to learn about shame (none in her novel). It's possible, though, that she felt the rejection -- a young postwar German emigre -- that Trudi felt. Whence Trudi was born.
|
