CAUTION: If you're easily upset/distressed by images/details of suffering, I'd advise you to not read this blog post.
'The Storyteller' Review
Here's the synopsis without giving too much away:
In the story are the main characters Sage Singer, Sage's grandmother Minka who is an Auschwitz survivor, Josef Weber, an ex Nazi officer under a false name, his brother, also a Nazi officer (won't say the name as it'll spoil the story) and Leo, a Department of Justice Nazi hunter. Sage, who's mother died three years ago is an insecure and lonely young baker. She's insecure due to the scar that runs down her face from a car accident, and uses this to push people away. She's so adamant to be on her own that she works night shifts in the bakery and doesn't commit to romantic relationships as she feels she's not good for anyone, instead she favours those who are not committed to her, vice versa. One day, in the bakery, she meets Josef Weber, who asks Sage to forgive him and to kill him for his sins when he was a Nazi, as he feels he deserves to die, and cannot bear the curse of guilt that has weighed down his shoulders for the past 70 years. Can she forgive someone who could have abused her grandmother and made her life hell all those years ago? Does being forgiven by one quarter-Jewish young girl count for all of those killed?
There is so much more to this story, but you'll have to read to find out. When I first read Jodi Picoult's blurb I thought, well that doesn't tell me a lot. However, now I realise why she's done that. You really have to read to see all of the twists and turns, to detail them in the blurb would kill the story. These twists and turns in the story make us repeatedly question our own judgement on morality. Another thing that the story portrays is that we're all capable of being monsters given the right circumstances, but some of us will still choose to reason with our heart over our head, making us 'less' of a monster, but does that make our other actions forgivable?
Another area Picoult explores is how the Holocaust not only affected those there at the time, but how it affects us today. In this sense, the title 'The Storyteller' really sums up what the book is all about. Not the story itself, but how it's told, and how it creates the void between our lives and the story. This is shown very well not only through the story Sage's grandmother tells of the Holocaust, but also when she shows her the scar from her radical mastectomy, as she highlights how much of her body is left rather than focusing on loss. When Sage remembers this, along with what her grandmother endured in Auschwitz, she realises that she should be confident and enjoy her freedom of identity, to not dwell on the past and to be seen as a person, rather than a number as her grandmother once was. We often take advantage of the freedom we have, as of course, it is a right. However, when you hear of stories like this you realise that in other people's eyes, even today, what you have is really a privilege that shouldn't be wasted or ignored.
My Visit to Auschwitz
Thank you for reading this post, let us never forget but always learn from these tragedies of humanity.
Louise x