I don't know if I should actually give this a rating since I did not actually finish the book... I barely started it. But I just can NOT wade through it, and after I realized that I had skimmed 50 pages without absorbing much, I put the book down. I'm sure the book is very good for some people, but I am just not one of them.

Sorry Wiesel, I just couldn't stick with it. I'm sure it's lovely...somehow, but the first 1/8th was a little painful. Get into it. Give me something! The jacket promises a surprising Dénouement, but I needed a little more sense in the exposition.

This book is beautiful. I felt as if every line should be deeply reflected upon, and stored away. This book will inspire you and empower you to find beauty, forgiveness and meaning in even the darkest times.

Ok so I was expecting something different than what I got. What I got was yet ANOTHER going on and on about how a mother's avocation should have been been her vocation and how that screwed up her son. I know that is NOT what this book was about. I would be better off with a book written about Doriel's mother as that is subject matter, I am interested in. The women of the Resistance. And Dr. Thérèse Goldschmidt was slightly annoying in constantly thinking her patient was falling for her, really?

a little odd...have put it down for now but would like to finish it--will give it one more chance, since I love Elie Wiesel so much.ok...had to put this book down. Way to depressing. I can understand how Doriel's life had led him tot his point, but real life has enough sadness, so I don't need to get this kind of depression from a novel. LOVE Wiesel but not this book.

Absolutely horrible. On page 17 and I can't even continue. How is he a Nobel prize winning author?

I had a hard time with this book. I listened to the audio book while working on projects around the house. I feel that if I had started reading the book, I would never have finished it.The story deals with some very deep and troubling issues. This fact together with a discontinuous time-line and a narrator who is a professed madman made this a difficult story. The story is based around the relationship that develops between the narrator (currently in his 60's)and his therapist. I found the relat...

I took some time and read some reviews of this book online after I finished and I walked away feeling like everyone missed the thrust of the entire book. The NYT review called it aphoristic and simplistic. I'm always interested when the entire novel gets ignored in favor of the aphoristic and simplistic views of one character, like the character is the font of truth. Most plotting is about character interactions and in this book there is nothing simplistic or aphoristic about those interactions

When I first started this, I was frustrated because it felt more like reading a philosophical text than a novel. After reading for a while, I realized that this is how I was supposed to feel--this is how Doriel feels all the time; he's frustrated, stuck in his head, philosophically wondering why he has survived and what his purpose is. I found it interesting that at times, the reader serves as the analyst, as Doriel is often speaking directly to "you", the reader. However, I was a little stumped...

Really like the psychological journey

"...if surprises didn't exist, life would be nothing more than a bad novel about mediocrity." (p. 37)Elie Wiesel does a great job taking you through the inter-workings of Doriel's (the main character) mind. Readers then have the pleasure of seeing Doriel through the eyes of his psychiatrist, Therese Goldschmidt, as she follows along on this journey in an effort to cure Doriel of his self proclaimed "madness." All the while, I, as the reader, found myself on a journey through my mind and past on

I had hoped for more, after all that soul searching. I did not find this book profound or uplifting, but tiring and discouraging- demoralizing. The first 100 pages were so hard to get through, afterward it became easier, but the author seemed to go in circles. Most of the time I had no idea what he was trying to say or where he was going. I had a hard time feeling any connection with the main character- despite all the tragedy he lived through, I never felt emotionally connected.

A Mad Desire to Dance by Elie Wiesel is one of those "I know I should really like this, but I don't" novels. You know the kind. It just hangs out on the book shelf, the great name of its author exuding an ethereal glow, biding its time until its dark powers of persuasion ensnare you. Wiesel had garnered my attention through his memior Night. While I had no misconceptions about A Mad Desire to Dance being a totally different work and fiction at that, I had no way of knowing that I had perhaps sel...

I made a drastic decision with this one: I stopped reading and tossed it aside.Now, that's something I usually don't do. Even if I don't like a novel, I seem to find the stamina to push through.I just couldn't go on with this one. There's nothing that appeals to me. At. All.During my read I hit a wall, three times. I paused my reading, and read another book, just to get going again.Today I returned to the book for a fourth time. Determined to push it to end.After some 20 pages, every joy I find

Rating: 3.5* of fiveLike any other Wiesel book, this is well worth reading. Don't be put off by the philosophy-student-at-2am first 50pp. Chapter 3, starting on p51, begins a different phase of the book and it's a much less claustrophobic experience after that.Wiesel is justly famous for the memoir "Night". He's not a novelist, frankly, and a less talented writer would have turned this same story into the literary equivalent of waterboarding. Things like, "At times, in an involuntary and unpredi...

That was one weird book. The story of a self-proclaimed "madman", told mostly through his rambling stream-of-conscious therapy sessions, I had no idea what was going on for the first 100 pages or so, and even once I started to understand the plot, I found it hard to figure out the chronology as it skipped around so much. There was also way to much about his inner struggle with his Jewish faith, as I, as a non-Jew, had no idea what he was talking about. In the end, I found some chapters that were...

I've spent an hour or so trying to figure out how the review for this book should go.My rating is not based on the literary quality of the book. It's based on how the book made me feel. While parts were thought-provoking, the majority of the book dragged my spirits down so low that just reading it put me in a perpetually bad mood.The only redeeming parts of the book were from the therapist's point of view, but even then the feeling of helplessness and waste was overwhelming.It's not an easy read...

I like the way Elie Wiesel writes and goes deep with his questions. I think he speaks through Doriel, in some way. How much he suffered to express the pain and sorrow in a calm voice? Also, Dr. Thérèse seems to be he, Elie. Both are voices of the same man, one is afraid and haunt while the other inquire and scrutinize.The novel include some other small stories about ephemeral characters that decelerate the whole story and contribute in nothing. The madness isn't rude nor illogical, just oppressi...

This book follows the psychoanalysis of a Jewish survivor of World War II Poland whose family was killed in the war and who is convinced he is mad. While the analyst finds him a troubling patient because he resists letting her explore his memories, he also is so lucid that it's hard for him to seem really insane to the analyst despite his troubled mind. I found it an interesting journey through the main character's memory and the ending was very hopeful and shows that a lot of the time, one's pr...

Usually, I want answers. I want books with characters who ask so many questions and struggle to find something they didn't have before. Maybe they need closure, or they need happiness, or they need a cure. This book asked so many questions. This book IS questions. It's one man asking questions that drive him to question his own existence and his own sanity. Sometimes, it's the written account of his therapist asking him questions, but really it's her asking herself questions about herself, not e...