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The problem is not: to be or not to be. But rather: to be and not to be. What it comes down to is that man lives while dying, that he represents death to the living, and that's where tragedy begins. God, what a disappointment. After loving Night and Dawn, I expected I will love Day as well. But whereas the previous novels had very strong messages, this one didn't really tell me anything rather than 'after a hellish life of Holocaust and torture, one can't simply love again and be happy.'Hones
Description: The publication of Day restores Elie Wiesel's original title to the novel initially published in English as The Accident and clearly establishes it as the powerful conclusion to the author's classic trilogy of Holocaust literature, which includes his memoir Night and novel Dawn. "In Night it is the 'I' who speaks," writes Wiesel. "In the other two, it is the 'I' who listens and questions."In its opening paragraphs, a successful journalist and Holocaust survivor steps off a New York
Brief, but deep, this read has me pondering on how our lives can be lived in response to our previous experience - and causes a reader to consider whether allowing that to continue by taken no changing action, or whether it is mostly inevitable, or whether one really has the power to move the path directionally. Is awareness the key? Are determinative actions long-lasting, or temporary?Why does this remind me a little of Lost Horizon?Still pondering and thinking.
This book tore my heart out. Now, I'm lying on my bed and I feel like crying. The author had suffered so much and had witnessed so much suffering. Can one ever come back from that? Can one ever succeed in living a normal life? This book seems to answer "no", but that "no" is ambiguous towards the end. I hope it's not a "no". I hope the true answer is "yes". I don't know enough about Elie wiesel to know if he found a "yes" or not. I hope he did. I hope we can put our suffering behind us, individu...
Elie Wiesel’s Day (once entitled The Accident), the third and final book in his Night trilogy of memoirs, is causing some clenching in my brain. After reading Night some two years ago — which was by far the most resonating and heart-breaking of the three books — my entire mindset concerning the suffering and guilt associated with Holocaust survivors has shifted: witnessing that type of human destruction and atrocity on such an astonishing scale can rip the humanity right from a person’s core. De...
How can a book told from the perspective of a nihilist, someone who is the very definition of survivor's guilt, be so incredibly moving? Day, the final book of the Elie Wiesel's Night series is full of gems. I can't remember ever re-reading so many sentences because they were so profound, so full of the stuff life is made of, which is astounding coming from the narrator.Night was dark, horrific, yet very moving. Dawn raised serious moral questions both on a personal level and a societal level. W...
This short novel is powerful, at times harrowing. The writing is compressed, the tone conversational. One would not think the language capable of handling so many large themes--God, the Holocaust, Hell, Suffering, Love--that the author freights it with. Yet it is the very lightness of the language that buoys the subject matter. There is even a touch of humor, albeit of a very black gallows variety. The writing is deft. It possesses a wonderful contiguity, a narrative cohesion as the incidents un...
I was disappointed with this one even more than I was with “Dawn”. “Night” is powerful and the other two are a definite let-down and depressing. I cannot understand why these three books are part of a trilogy. The last two are a bit muddling and all over the place. I almost abandoned both of them.
3.5The one big flaw in this work is one I mentioned in my last read: didactic dialogue. The narrator’s thoughts I could believe in, though they were a bit tedious at times, but much of the dialogue did not feel real. What does feel real is the suffering of a man who saw human beings at their worst. He survives by communing with his dead, and engaging superficially with the living. This novella was once called The Accident and I wondered why the title was changed until I got to the penultimate pa...
Originally published in English as The Accident, this final volume in the trilogy is a cross between the autobiographical Night and fictional Dawn insofar that it draws heavily on events from Wiesel's life to build a fictional novel about a Holocaust survivor (who even shares the author's name) grappling with survivor's guilt. The Eliezer in Day only superficially engages with the living; he lost everyone he loved and went through unimaginable hardship, but even so, life goes on... even though h...
Argh...I didn't love this one. I started this one yesterday afternoon and as I went to finish it this morning, I didn't really want to. I'm glad I did though. Once I was able to settle into it, it was smoother sailing.I enjoyed the writing when it came to emotion. That was my favorite part. So I added a star for that.
A little more biographical than the second book.I thought the idea of being living history was interesting - especially the way that was carried over into to into his mental state.
I think Night is wonderful and Dawn has an interesting discussion on terrorism, but there wasn't a whole lot in Day that hit me hard. It seemed a lot more meandering and less focused than the previous two books.It almost feels like a cross between a novel and nonfiction. It's very clearly not nonfiction, but Wiesel seems to be taking a lot from his life. Not only do they share a past, but Wiesel himself was in a car accident, the same as the narrator. He says the suicide aspect was fiction, but
I made the mistake of reading reviews before reading this book ,and I have to say that I am amazed at the number of poor reviews. Day is one of the most eloquently written books I have ever read and to achieve this status with such simple prose in dealing with so many complicated subjects is amazing! So many times reviewers said this book is "depressing". I disagree. This book is informative, it gives us a glimpse into human nature that is NEVER TO BE SPOKEN. It is more acceptable to discuss th
I didn't "really liked it" as 4 stars by GR is identified, but the sublime writing that can be found throughout this short novel deserves the rating. This small book could probably be read in a day by most in this community. I needed to read slowly and reflect on what I was reading and let some of the words burn themselves in my brain. Just as I have to think more about how best to review this book. So full review to come (I hope!).This novel with an original title of The Accident was written in...
CW: Holocaust/genocide, depression/suicide ideation, discussion of child rapeSurvivor's guilt, the short story."Day" deals with how to move on after trauma and the unimaginable, after living through and surviving a genocide that everyone you knew and loved didn't. Or rather, it's about whether such a person can truly be said to have survived, to be living, when the dead surround them and invade them with every breath and every thought.This is not an uplifting story and it doesn't provide any ans...
dnf at page 19i really liked the first book and i so wanted to read and like the last two short reads of this trilogy.
Years ago I read and taught Night and Dawn. I came to Day/The Accident only yesterday.Published in 1961, this edition has a short preface by Wiesel who says it is his story - and not. "I speak through my protagonist, but he does not speak for me."I think the book's core is captured in the Hamlet reference. The question is not "to be or not to be," but "to be and not to be."I think of the Shoah series and interviews with survivors, their children, SS guards and their descendants. I think of the i...
“Where would you like to go?” Kathleen inquired.She pretended not to have noticed how pale I was. Who knows, I thought. She too perhaps will learn how to lie.“Far,” I answered. “Very far.”“I’ll go with you,” she declared.The sadness and bitterness of her voice filled me with pity. Kathleen has changed, I told myself. She, who believed in defiance, in fighting, in hatred, had now chosen to submit. She, who refused to follow any call that didn’t come from herself, now recognized defeat. I knew tha...
The writing was profound and beautiful. I just didn't like the main character. I understand that he is a holocaust survivor, but he was obsessed with death and his grandmother. To the point that he was comparing everyone to her. It was sickening and disturbing. There is a scene with the death of a baby, and a part where he says that God wants to sleep with 12 year old girls, and it just left a sour taste in my mouth.