Book Blog #141: Night by Elie Wiesel

Title: Night
Author: Elie Wiesel
# of Pages: 120 (hardback)
Genre: Memoir, Classics, Holocaust
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Synopsis: Night is a work by Elie Wiesel about his experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945, at the height of the Holocaust and toward the end of the Second World War. In just over 100 pages of sparse and fragmented narrative, Wiesel writes about the death of God and his own increasing disgust with humanity, reflected in the inversion of the father–child relationship as his father declines to a helpless state and Wiesel becomes his resentful teenage caregiver.
Review:  I feel cheated.

I read the "new" translation of this book (in English) by Elie Wiesel's wife, Marion Wiesel. While I felt I could learn from Elie's story, I felt as if significant parts of it are missing.

Is it the translation that is the problem? Maybe. Is it the changes the author made to the new edition? This is more likely the reason. In the preface, he says he took out parts of the end of the story about his father and the Liberation because they were "too personal, too private." I am thankful that he did include an excerpt of what he removed because I realize what I have missed by reading this version.

The "personal" and "private" parts of the book are what I wanted to read about. It's these parts that really connect with me, not the inexpressive words Elie replaced them with.

For this version, I give three stars. But a book with the old excerpts leaves me wondering how much better the original is and wanting to see more of the book that allowed  Elie to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

For those of you who have not read this book: it reminds me a lot of Animal Farm. It's short (but far from sweet) and easy for the masses to understand. However, a significant amount of meaning is lost (even to me; there are section of this book that I feel I do not fully understand) unless the reader looks for importance of every aspect of the book. Yes, it is one of THOSE  books (sorry people who are reading this for school!).

The reader needs to be pretty aware of the background/history of the Holocaust, or at least be willing to learn along the way. Another reason why I lacked a connection with the book was my difficulty UNDERSTANDING: the Holocaust, the religion, the war. If you don't do your research, this book will be even less meaningful.

I do recommend reading this  book (don't expect a happy read), although perhaps not this version.