Book - A Child al Confino
Monday, 28 March 2011 22:23
Enrico Lamet
Amazon Product Link
Product Description
Eric Lamet was only seven years old when the Nazis invaded Vienna—and changed his life and the lives of all European Jews forever. Five days after Hitler marched in, Eric Lamet and his parents fled for their lives. Unable to remain together, the family split—he and his mother hid out in Italy, while his father returned to his native Poland and an even darker fate.
In this remarkable feat of memory and imagination, Lamet recreates the Italy he knew from the perspective of the scared and lonely child he once was. We not only see the hardships and terrors faced by foreign Jews in Fascist Italy, but also the friends Eric makes and his mother's valiant efforts to make a home for him.
In a style as original as his story, the author vividly recalls a terrible time yet imbues his recollections with humor, humanity, and wit. With a rare compassion toward friend and foe alike, little Eric Lamet shows us that there is light to be found in the darkest places—and that we should remember the good as well as the bad.
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This was a very interesting read. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I was originally a little worried as I usually do not read non-fiction, much less biography-sort of works.
Timeline in the story is mainly chronological, except for a few parts where the author writes about certain habits or happenings over a duration of time. Even though there are such time jumps, the book was not at all confusing, and was still easy to understand.
I was also amazed at the number of languages used throughout. I was also surprised to see some of the Yiddish sounded so similar to German.
Despite being a war-time book, this was not all tragedy and sadness... there were many humorous parts, like how Lamet wanted long pants, got them, but tore them when he fell already soon after he got them. Or when his mother went to the tailor with a friend, and the tailor switched the cloth and made the wrong suits for the boys.
It was also very interesting to read about the chance meeting with his mother's friend Bertl. I would love to learn more of this woman's story too.