The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
Posted: 10 Apr 2013, 15:04
I was apprehensive about reading this book, but I got it as a recommendation from my husband's grandma. She's sweet, but she and I do not have the same taste in books. She's offered me several recommendations and I've mostly just smiled and gave the typical response most booknerds do when someone gives them reading advice, "I'll have to check it out!" ..Aaaand I never do. But, this one I figured I'd take chance on. I hadn't read a Jodi Picoult book since My Sister's Keeper, and it was great, but I didn't necessarily feel inspired to go out and pick up every other one of her books at B&N. I have to say I was intrigued that she was writing historical fiction of sorts. Maybe she does this a lot (as I mentioned I'm not a Jodi Picoult-anite...Picoult-ion whatever). Anyways, the brass tax of it. Jodi Picoult uses her signature wandering narrator technique to tell the story of lives that have intertwined between today's modern world and that of Germany and Poland during the Holocaust.
Sage Singer avoids the public eye as much as possible, working through the night as a baker and hiding behind her hair to cover up a large facial scar. When she does venture out during daytime hours its to visit a grief counseling group to try to process her mother's death. There she meets 90 year old Josef Weber. The two strike up an unlikely friendship and Josef slowly opens up to Sage about his past. Sage, a non-practicing Jew, is shocked to learn that this old man, who frequents her bakery and shares half of his pastries with his dachshund, was once an German SS officer. Trying to process this information and deal with the insurmountable task that Josef asks of her, Sage becomes closer to her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor. Slowly, Sage begins to draw out her grandmother's story that she has hidden away. Sage struggles as she tries to understand if she can forgive Josef, if she even has a right to forgive Josef, and what that forgiveness would mean for her and her family.
I'm so thankful that I actually followed up on this recommendation because it kept me enthralled from beginning to end. Similar to My Sister's Keeper, Picoult tackles some extremely tough subject matter and allows you to see all of the gray area rather than the black and white of things. The book flows seamlessly through the narrators, each with their own voice, and has the ability to provide some really surprising twists and turns that will keep you flipping through the pages.
Has anyone else read this? What were your thoughts?
Sage Singer avoids the public eye as much as possible, working through the night as a baker and hiding behind her hair to cover up a large facial scar. When she does venture out during daytime hours its to visit a grief counseling group to try to process her mother's death. There she meets 90 year old Josef Weber. The two strike up an unlikely friendship and Josef slowly opens up to Sage about his past. Sage, a non-practicing Jew, is shocked to learn that this old man, who frequents her bakery and shares half of his pastries with his dachshund, was once an German SS officer. Trying to process this information and deal with the insurmountable task that Josef asks of her, Sage becomes closer to her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor. Slowly, Sage begins to draw out her grandmother's story that she has hidden away. Sage struggles as she tries to understand if she can forgive Josef, if she even has a right to forgive Josef, and what that forgiveness would mean for her and her family.
I'm so thankful that I actually followed up on this recommendation because it kept me enthralled from beginning to end. Similar to My Sister's Keeper, Picoult tackles some extremely tough subject matter and allows you to see all of the gray area rather than the black and white of things. The book flows seamlessly through the narrators, each with their own voice, and has the ability to provide some really surprising twists and turns that will keep you flipping through the pages.
Has anyone else read this? What were your thoughts?
