Official Review: Béla's Letters" by Jeff Ingber
Posted: 08 Apr 2016, 23:03
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Béla's Letters" by Jeff Ingber.]
4 out of 4 stars
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Béla’s Letters by Jeff Ingber is a historical novel that takes place primarily during the first half of the twentieth century, during World War II. The book is structured around a collection of letters that Béla Ingber, the author’s father, received during his lifetime and is based on true events, written from Béla’s perspective.
Prior to the outbreak of World War II, the Ingber family lived in Munkács, Czechoslovakia. The population of Munkács was nearly half Jewish before the war. As the war progressed, the Ingber family faced anti-Semitism, labor camps, the loss of family members and friends, and deportation to Auschwitz. The story follows Béla from his teen years prior to the war’s outbreak through the war and its aftermath, including the search for surviving family members and immigration to the United States.
I found this book both heartbreaking and beautiful. It’s a story of one Jewish family during World War II, and it’s a story of love. The Ingbers seemed to be a close family who cared for one another. They were pulled apart by the war, yet stayed in contact as much as they could. In the middle of this turmoil, Béla still managed to find love with a woman he would eventually marry. After the war, they found refuge in the United States where they struggled with a new culture and language, continued with life, and remembered those who were no longer with them.
The amount of research done for this book must have been incredible. There is a lot of detail about the settings, including Munkács and Budapest, as well as the war itself and what life really must have been like for Béla and his family. There is such detail and humanity in the characters that I almost feel as though I met them and felt their losses. It was interesting to read this personal perspective not only about the devastation of the war and Holocaust, but also about how the family was affected by the events leading up to it, the eventual deportation of the Jewish families from their homes and how the survivors coped in the decades after the war ended. This story is well-written and the letters are a wonderful way to weave together the span of events at a steady pace and illustrate pieces of the writers’ lives and their love for one another.
I also liked that, as someone who has little knowledge about Jewish customs and celebrations, I didn’t have much problem understanding them in the book—they were either explained or well-illustrated in the scenes. I thought that the family’s continued observance of their holidays and customs throughout the persecution and horror showed resilience and faith.
I rate Béla’s Letters by Jeff Ingber 4 out of 4 stars. I thought the writing was wonderful and that the story and the letters themselves were fascinating. There were many times when I didn’t want to put this book down. I would recommend Béla’s Letters to anyone who likes historical fiction or is interested in the history of WWII and the Holocaust. This is the kind of human story everyone should read. I will be recommending it to my friends and family.
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Béla 's Letters
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4 out of 4 stars
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Béla’s Letters by Jeff Ingber is a historical novel that takes place primarily during the first half of the twentieth century, during World War II. The book is structured around a collection of letters that Béla Ingber, the author’s father, received during his lifetime and is based on true events, written from Béla’s perspective.
Prior to the outbreak of World War II, the Ingber family lived in Munkács, Czechoslovakia. The population of Munkács was nearly half Jewish before the war. As the war progressed, the Ingber family faced anti-Semitism, labor camps, the loss of family members and friends, and deportation to Auschwitz. The story follows Béla from his teen years prior to the war’s outbreak through the war and its aftermath, including the search for surviving family members and immigration to the United States.
I found this book both heartbreaking and beautiful. It’s a story of one Jewish family during World War II, and it’s a story of love. The Ingbers seemed to be a close family who cared for one another. They were pulled apart by the war, yet stayed in contact as much as they could. In the middle of this turmoil, Béla still managed to find love with a woman he would eventually marry. After the war, they found refuge in the United States where they struggled with a new culture and language, continued with life, and remembered those who were no longer with them.
The amount of research done for this book must have been incredible. There is a lot of detail about the settings, including Munkács and Budapest, as well as the war itself and what life really must have been like for Béla and his family. There is such detail and humanity in the characters that I almost feel as though I met them and felt their losses. It was interesting to read this personal perspective not only about the devastation of the war and Holocaust, but also about how the family was affected by the events leading up to it, the eventual deportation of the Jewish families from their homes and how the survivors coped in the decades after the war ended. This story is well-written and the letters are a wonderful way to weave together the span of events at a steady pace and illustrate pieces of the writers’ lives and their love for one another.
I also liked that, as someone who has little knowledge about Jewish customs and celebrations, I didn’t have much problem understanding them in the book—they were either explained or well-illustrated in the scenes. I thought that the family’s continued observance of their holidays and customs throughout the persecution and horror showed resilience and faith.
I rate Béla’s Letters by Jeff Ingber 4 out of 4 stars. I thought the writing was wonderful and that the story and the letters themselves were fascinating. There were many times when I didn’t want to put this book down. I would recommend Béla’s Letters to anyone who likes historical fiction or is interested in the history of WWII and the Holocaust. This is the kind of human story everyone should read. I will be recommending it to my friends and family.
******
Béla 's Letters
View: on Bookshelves
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