This month is a little different because there are two parts to the novel and no good way to separate the novel into three parts.
So let's focus this week on some things that you as readers would like to;
bring up
discuss
ask Jon questions about.
Then next week we'll cover the rest of the novel.
Take it away!!!
Jon, I'd like to understand what triggered your desire to write this book. I went back and re-read your interview with Deb, and I didn't see the answer. Books about the Holocaust always feel like they sit on shaky ground, as you mentioned - don't want to trivialize the horror, but there's a need to bring the horror down to a level where it can be read about and understood. I think you've done a wonderful job of it, by the way, but I would like to know why you chose that setting.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elaine
Hi, Elaine -- Other than what I told Deb, the most important thing is that I'd found myself reading Holocaust nonfiction over a period of years, and as I did I found myself often kind of reflexively looking away. It seemed to me that the horrors of that time and place were so great that there's almost a human impulse NOT to look at them squarely. So I decided that if I could use what I know about making fiction to create something that would make people see the truth about that period, I'd be doing everybody a favor. Does that make sense?
ReplyDeleteHi Jon, Yes, actually, that makes a lot of sense. I've had a really hard time making myself read your book. NOT because of anything related to the writing, simply because the subject is so difficult. It's one of those things that I find myself thinking about a lot, and yet not wanting to explore it further. Your book does make it a little easier to investigate... Thank you for your response, and for writing your book.
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