Genre: Historical Fiction
Publishing Year: 2011
Publisher: Harper Teen
Rating: 3/5
Synopsis:
Fourteen-year-old Karl Stern has
never thought of himself as a Jew. But to the bullies at his school in Nazi-era
Berlin, it doesn’t matter that Karl has never set foot in a synagogue or that
his family doesn’t practice religion. Demoralized by relentless attacks on a
heritage he doesn’t accept as his own, Karl longs to prove his worth to
everyone around him.
So, when Max Schmeling, champion
boxer and German national hero, makes a deal with Karl’s father to give Karl
boxing lessons, Karl sees it as the perfect chance to reinvent himself. A
skilled cartoonist, Karl has never had an interest in boxing, but as Max
becomes the mentor Karl never had, Karl soon finds both his boxing skills and
his art flourishing.
But when Nazi violence against
Jews escalates, Karl must take on a new role: protector of his family. Karl
longs to ask his new mentor for help, but with Max’s fame growing, he is forced
to associate with Hitler and other Nazi elites, leaving Karl to wonder where
his hero’s sympathies truly lie. Can Karl balance his dream of boxing greatness
with his obligation to keep his family out of harm’s way?
Review:
Overall, I enjoyed this book, but
I couldn’t help but feel disappointed when I finished it. Karl has taken
definitive steps toward manhood by this point but in many ways, he is still a
frightened boy. I feel that this book is more of a coming to age novel, than
historical fiction.
Still there is something to be gleaned from
its pages. I have heard the stories of several Holocaust survivors in person
and still many more that I read about in school. My World History class in high
school went over the causes of WWII in detail and of course, the Holocaust came
up multiple times. Whenever Nazi Germany was brought up, the conversation
immediately turned to either the concentration camps or Kristallnacht.
There
was never much discussed about what led up to Kristallnacht, and I think that
is where a good deal of this book’s power lies. It answered many of my questions.
I always wondered if there were Jews who had abandoned their faith before the
Nazi party rose, and if those Jews existed, where they still identifiable or
could they slip under the radar. Every book about this time focuses on the
Jews, but what about the homosexuals and the Gypsies, among others. Where they
treated the same?
Karl is a nonobservant Jew and
most others; he has none of the stereotypical features. Still his heritage is
eventually revealed and he is expelled from his school. I didn’t encounter a
Gypsy character in this book although they were mentioned but there were two
homosexuals. The Countess and Fritz. Fritz turns out to be a weak character but
I genuinely like the Countess, and his bravery on Kristallnacht. The book
didn’t go into much detail about his own hardships although it is hinted that
his business is beginning to suffer. Still he ends up risking himself to help
Karl and his sister, Hildy. He is a strong character and extremely likeable.
This novel spans about four years
and I felt the transitions were a bit rough. One minute Karl is fourteen and
the next he’s sixteen and having his heart broken and then he’s seventeen and
his father is finally treating him like a man. Otherwise the story did flow
well and I found it to be a good read.
The ending left me dissatisfied
even as I realized that it was much more realistic than any happy ending would
have been. Hildy and Karl are on their way to America leaving their parents
behind in Germany and once in America they will be split up. They have hope but
their difficulties are hardly over. Maybe their parents will join them in
America or maybe their father will be sent to a concentration camp and likely
that their mother will fall back into her manic-depressive state. I am not a
happy camper at the moment.
For everything negative, I’ve said
about this book there is a upside. I could not put this book down for all its
faults. Sharenow is a wonderfully powerful writer and when I was reading this
book, I was in the book. As I read I made several comparisons of this novel to
the Rocky series and I think any reader who is familiar with them will notice
similarities as well.
I won’t be rereading this book,
but it did serve to stir my interests in the Nazi-era again so I consider my
time spent reading this book well worth it.
Question: When choosing a
historical fiction novel to read do you prefer books with a heavy focus on war
and soldiers or those that do not?
