The Passenger

Good morning fellow readers!! Sorry I missed all of you last week! Between not sleeping (and not being too inspired by the books I had read - to be perfectly honest!) and life.. I just couldn't do it last week. But! It's a new week. The sun is shining. Birds are chirping. And I have a run on the books right after this!! (As well as after about 20-30 minutes of stretching.. but, that's besides the point. I am SUPER excited to be able to run again - as those of you who truly know me already know.) Alright! Sorry! All that sunshine and running potential had me distracted; (and the crew of city workers cutting down a pile of trees behind our building probably doesn't help either!) but I'm here for the books now!

The Passenger was the single book I finished last week. Written by a Jewish man who had experienced Kristallnacht, I expected more from this book. While I had thought it would be more about the actual experience of that terrible night - this book focuses on Otto (a Jewish man and business owner) who is essentially on different trains for the vast majority of this book. While this novel does indeed focus on his distress at having had storm troopers enter his home (which he had escaped); the simple prose just didn't capture the intensity of the situation as much as I had anticipated.

The one thing that is paramount in this book is (of course) the attitude of Germans towards Jews at this point in time. The opening chapters have Otto dealing with friends and business associates (non Jews), and even the way these people are speaking to him rubbed me the wrong way. This would have been true to this period in history, and truly sickened me to think that even friends and partners would treat their Jewish counterparts in such a manner. The slurs that were actually acceptable are appalling. And, as a Jewish man; Otto (for the most part) feels fortunate to even have these connections.

As the story progresses; he is refused help by his ayran brother in law, betrayed by his business partner - and even finds himself recoiling from assisting a Jewish acquaintance who appears far more Jewish than he (as Otto is able to pass for a non Jew). Thankfully, he catches himself in such behaviours and makes amends.

I wanted to love this novel. Instead, I rated it a mere 2 stars. I will admit, it was great to read something by a Jew written during the period directly after Kristallnacht took place. I just expected more.