This book will break your heart, rob you of breath, and stun you in the most unexpected ways. Set in Warsaw during WWII, there was already the promise of tragic events to occur, and Diane Ackerman's novel did not disappoint on those notes. What I wasn't expecting were the little moments of humor Ackerman managed to sneak into this story about the characters (both human and animal) who lived in and moved through "The House Under a Crazy Star". Those humanizing and relate-able moments only made it more devastating when tragedy struck those characters.
And strike, it did. Again, and again, and again. No spoilers here, if you lived in Warsaw during this time, things were not going to go well. Probably some of the most painful scenes were actually reading about the fate of the zoo animals when the bombings began - and continued - and then some of the atrocities that befell the ones (un)lucky enough to survive the bombings. WARNING: If you have a hard time reading about animal cruelty or slaughter, this might be one to skip. I did a lot of skimming through these moments, and have serious reservations about watching the film for fear of what scenes the director may have decided to include.
Probably the remaining 75% of this book focuses more just on the sheer ingenuity and perseverance of the Polish citizens who refused to give up fighting and refused to surrender their humanity. The underground resistance was one of the most well-organized and successful groups of people I have ever read about. And Jan, the zookeeeper, both terrified and impressed me with his daring determination to "pull one over" on the German Nazi's at every available opportunity. There are many moments where I pictured him as a sort of Polish Jack Sparrow - a good man with a good heart, turned land-locked pirate in the face of monstrous people who'd forgotten how to be human. He wasn't a perfect man, and far from a perfect husband, but I truly believe he was a good man and always tried to do the right thing.
History buffs will enjoy the numerous passages where Ackerman brings us out of the plight of Antonina, the zookeeper's wife, and shares with us some cultural background or history of some relevance at that time. It doesn't take long to realize that these breaks aren't merely to infuse a history lesson into her novel, but to feed us clues about what might have been motivating the various characters on either side of this struggle during that time. It was fascinating reading about the historical nuggets and then putting those gems together to understand a little bit what was causing the different people involved to do and say what they did.
This story has its villains, it has its heroes, and it has animals. Many perish, but some are saved in the most unbelievable and surprising ways. Many of the villains were only too eager to take the credit for their deeds, while the heroes almost seemed embarrassed by the attention their heroics garnered after the war. That is probably best exemplified in the passage below:
"Jan always shied away from praise and underplayed his bravery, saying such things as: 'I don't understand all the fuss. If any creature is in danger, you save it, human or animal.'"
No comments:
Post a Comment