Summary
From the writer, humanist, activist, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize comes a timely and gripping story of guilt and innocence -- and of the peril of pronouncing judgments. A plane en route to Tel Aviv is forced down by bad weather, and some nearby residents provides refuge for five of its passengers: Claudia, who has left her husband for a new love; Razziel, a religious teacher who was once a political prisoner; Yoav, a terminally ill Israeli commando; George, an archivist who is hiding a Holocaust secret; and Bruce, a would-be priest turned philanderer. Their host, who calls himself the Judge, forces them to face the truth of their lives and pronounces that the least worthy of them will die.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review:
"Wiesel's stark memoir Night (1960) is one of the classic Holocaust narratives. It's the current choice for Chicago's hugely successful citywide book discussion. But much of what Wiesel has written since then, both fiction and nonfiction, reads like commentary on that first elemental account of a boy in the camps. His latest novel is part thriller, part Talmudic discussion, and part TV Survivor game. It's about five airline passengers who are stranded in an upstate New York house when their plane en route from New York to Tel Aviv is brought down in a wild snowstorm. At first they're just glad to find shelter. But why are they locked in? Are they hostages? Their savior says he's the Judge and that they must play a "game" to decide which one of them must die to save the others. As they talk about themselves and remember crucial turning points in their lives, Wiesel weaves in Jewish history and mysticism with the characters' personal memories, and he raises the big existential questions about life and death and memory and guilt and forgiveness, with lots of metaphors about scapegoat, fellow traveler, messenger, etc. The portentous ethical debate is like a lesson, especially when the Judge articulates that evil makes him happy. It's the survival stuff that holds you. Even though this was first published in France in 1999, the standoff story will certainly strike a chord in today's nervy, post^-September 11 world. --Hazel RochmanAdult Books Young adult recommendations in this issue have been contributed by the Booklist staff and by reviewers Nancy Bent, John Charles, Tina Coleman, Patty Engelmann, Sally Estes, Connie Fletcher, Diana Tixier Herald, Judy King, Renee Saito, Regina Schroeder, Karen Simonetti, and Candace Smith. Titles recommended for teens are marked with the following symbols: YA, for books of general YA interest; YA/C, for books with particular curriculum value; YA/L, for books with a limited teenage audience; YA/M, for books best suited to mature teens."
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review:
"There are two strains in Nobel Peace Prize$winner Wiesels work. One is testimonial. Beginning with his classic, Night, Wiesel has made himself one of the great witnesses of our time. The other strain derives from Wiesels fascination with parables and fables. In the 1950s, when Wiesel became known, the allegorical mode (suitably fitted out with existential meanings, as in Sartres No Exit) enjoyed a brief vogue. His latest novel even refers to Sartres play as it portrays a sort of metaphysical hostage taking. A plane bound from New York to Israel is forced to land in a snowstorm in Connecticut, and five passengers are taken to the house of a local man who has the delusion that he is a judge in a capital case. As the guests respond to the judges more and more personal and insinuating questions, their characters are revealed. Claudia, a pretty theater press agent, wants to get out of the situation by complying; Bruce, a self-described playboy, opts for childish defiance. George, an archivist, and Yoav, an Israeli soldier, respond in more restrained ways. The most thoughtful figure, Razziel, is the principal of a yeshiva. His impressions provide the frame of the drama. Each character, caught in the facts of his or her past and oriented toward future projects, must confront a present threat that crystallizes their existences. Wiesel is obviously closest to Razziel, whose past experiences in a Romanian prison and interest in mysticism mirror, in lightly fictionalized form, factors in Wiesels own life. There is a certain creakiness about the plot, reminiscent less of Sartre than of the Twilight Zone; the story seems more suited to the stage than the novel form. However, the authority of Wiesels public persona always invests his writings with interest. 40,000 first printing. (Aug. 27) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
| Subjects |
Guilt
-- Fiction.
Large type books.
|
| Publisher |
Thorndike, Maine :Center Point Pub.,2003
|
| Edition |
Center Point large print ed. |
| Other Titles |
Juges.
|
| Contributors |
Strachan, Geoffrey.
|
| Language |
English
|
| Notes |
Originally published in France as Les Juges by Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1999.
|
| Description |
223 pages (large print) ; 22 cm
|
| ISBN |
1585472921 (lg. print : lib. bdg. : alk. paper) :
|
| Other |
Classic View |
