Word: wiesel
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...saddened." "I am disappointed." Wiesel describes his emotions in terms that are distant, spare. Often he describes his actions and reactions as if from the outside, as a biographer might. The "I's" could be changed to "he's." When explaining his opinions, he often quotes himself. But beneath these simple phrases lies an ocean of emotion. In each description of an encounter, Wiesel embeds a new clue and connection to his own motivation and intensity...
Alone, the words in And the Sea is Never Full might be too dry--alone they might be spare enough to be uncommunicative. But these words are part of a larger message. Wiesel has described his formative years in the first volume of his memoirs, All Rivers Run to the Sea. He has given his testimony in Night, recalling the loss of his family and his childhood to the Nazi concentration camps at Birkenau, Auschwitz, Buna and Buchenwald. Memory requires honesty--Wiesel needed to describe his experiences in the camps. But he has given his description, and as he points...
...Still, Wiesel argues that no history can replace the living memories of the Holocaust survivors; it can only provide a poor approximation. Yet, And the Sea is Never Full reads more like a history than like a set of thoughts. It relies on analysis, the ordering of events, cause and effect. Wiesel worries about saying too much, and though he is powerful and compelling, he is a distant writer. His books are not emotionally intimate. This is not a fault. But we need the intimate accounts too--the people who will go further and tell us more, who will provide...
History dominates Wiesel's memoirs. When he speaks of the present or the future, the Tragedy is his spoken or unspoken backdrop. When he describes his travels and meetings on behalf of victims, of Jews and of memory, the backdrop and players are the events and names of tomorrow's history books. The list of Wiesel's acquaintances is impressive--United States presidents and Israeli prime ministers, other Nobel laureates, Francois Mitterrand, Mikhail S. Gorbachev and many others. Wiesel does not attempt to recount the history of the past 30 years, but he calls on it. He provides his reactions...
...part, Wiesel weaves his personal and social memory together seamlessly. His memories flash by or linger, their movement evoking the river and sea of his titles. The beginning of the book is restless, hopping from name to name and from event to event. He pulls us, splashing, along the surface of the years. But he soon slows and we sink deeper--into his thoughts about living in the Diaspora, a tension that will return again and again. He delves into long discussions of Reagan's actions in the Bitburg Affair and of French president Francois Mitterrand. His thoughts are fascinating...