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23rd out of 28 books
—
4 voters
The Speed of Light
by
Elizabeth Rosner (Goodreads Author)
Every family has a story. Every story, eventually, must be told.
For most of their lives, Julian Perel and his sister, Paula, lived in a house cast in silence, witnesses to a father struggling with a devastating secret too painful to share. Though their father took his demons to the grave, his past refuses to rest.
As adults, brother and sister struggle to find their voice...more
For most of their lives, Julian Perel and his sister, Paula, lived in a house cast in silence, witnesses to a father struggling with a devastating secret too painful to share. Though their father took his demons to the grave, his past refuses to rest.
As adults, brother and sister struggle to find their voice...more
Paperback, 272 pages
Published
April 1st 2003
by Ballantine Books
(first published 2001)
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"There are so many languages, and so few words to say what we mean" - just one of the lines from this book that struck a chord with me.
Brother and sister Julian and Paula Perel grew up in a home with deep sadness. Their father, a holocaust survivor, had memories too grim to share, but his children seemed to absorb his pain and it dominated their lives. Julian became a scientist, but could barely leave his apartment, working in solitude on a scientific dictionary. Paula tried to ease her father's...more
Brother and sister Julian and Paula Perel grew up in a home with deep sadness. Their father, a holocaust survivor, had memories too grim to share, but his children seemed to absorb his pain and it dominated their lives. Julian became a scientist, but could barely leave his apartment, working in solitude on a scientific dictionary. Paula tried to ease her father's...more
Nov 04, 2010
Adrianna
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Everyone with a heart.
Recommended to Adrianna by:
You'd laugh.
Gillian Anderson made me do it. Even more than the idea to dye my hair red, this was the best idea she ever planted in my brain. The first time I read this book I cried and so I did on the second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. The voice of the three characters are so distinct that I barely needed the different font to differentiate. I believe in tiny miracles. I also believe that I still have more than 30 bookmarks for 30 different sections of the book that I go back and re-read whenever I start to...more
This novel has 3 narrators: a brother & sister, children of a Holocaust survivor who refused to talk to them about his Holocaust experience; and a housekeeper who was the sole survivor of a Latin American army's destruction of her village. All 3 have very different ways of coping with their inherited grief. The sister throws herself into her life out in the world as an opera singer; the brother almost totally withdraws from the world (I identified with him more than a normal person should);...more
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This novel is very interesting. I have to admit that it was slow at first, and a little hard to get into especially with the three narrators. The version of the book I read had an interview with Rosner, and it was very interesting to hear about the thought process. I was especially impressed with the research she did for Sola, especially since that was something she wasn't familiar with before writing the book.
However, I would have to say that I was a bit unfulfilled. I appreciate Rosner leavin...more
However, I would have to say that I was a bit unfulfilled. I appreciate Rosner leavin...more
It's like that moment after everything has broken and fallen apart and will never be okay again, and then out of the silence comes an unspeakably beautiful birdsong, hollow and sorrowful and triumphant, and everything ceases to exist outside the song.
Actually, it's almost exactly like that, except not at all cliched. If you started with that image, and wanted to write a story around it, and were an incredibly gifted poet who decided to turn your gifts to novel-writing, this is the book you woul...more
Actually, it's almost exactly like that, except not at all cliched. If you started with that image, and wanted to write a story around it, and were an incredibly gifted poet who decided to turn your gifts to novel-writing, this is the book you woul...more
Dec 10, 2012
Nancy
added it
I enjoyed this book. It alternates between three very distinct characters who each has a story to tell. The book went in a direction I was not expecting, but the end result was satisfying. You realize, at the end of the novel, that sometimes the bravest thing we can do in life is to reach out to another person. Sometimes, though, that act is terrifying, and we back away. I also like the book's approach to dealing with the past. Sometimes we are haunted by ghosts that are not our own. Family hist...more
A brilliant novel of an introverted brother, world-class opera singing sister, and their housekeeper from a Central/South American country. The narrative is told linearly from each character's point of view in first person, but there is no overlap in the narrative -- the point of view leap-frog's from one character to another. Rosner uses different type fonts to indicate the different narrators. A haunting book that approaches the horrors of the Holocaust from the perspective of the children who...more
May 20, 2009
Cynthia
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who has not read about the Holocaust enough
Shelves:
book-group
I enjoyed the three main characters of this book, Julian, Paula and Sola. Julian was far and away my favorite character--I loved the descriptions of his routine and his logic and cheered when he was able to step out of his rigid routine and away from the shadows of the Holocaust. Sola has her own shadows, which was a really good way to make this not-another-completely-depressing-Holocaust-story, but some of her demons could have emerged a bit earlier in the story, maybe with foreshadowing. I tho...more
An interesting read---a quiet and subtle book. The story is told in the first person by three different characters---Julian, an odd, reclusive, extremely introverted scientific genius who works from his apartment---his sister, Paula who lives in the downstairs apartment to watch over him. She is outgoing and an aspiring opera singer. They are children of a silent, grieving, broken father who is a Holocaust survivor. Julian has absorbed his father's grief and trauma while Paula has escaped it by...more
2.5 stars, grudgingly rounded up to 3 because I really couldn't give this the same rating I gave to "A Thousand Splendid Suns." (See what happens once you start with grade inflation?)
Initially, I found the rapidly shifting viewpoints jarring and annoying, and I felt like I just wanted to get into one person’s story and perspective. After a while I did get used to it and found that it moved the book faster; despite that, it’s not my preferred reading style. This was compounded by the fact that I...more
Initially, I found the rapidly shifting viewpoints jarring and annoying, and I felt like I just wanted to get into one person’s story and perspective. After a while I did get used to it and found that it moved the book faster; despite that, it’s not my preferred reading style. This was compounded by the fact that I...more
I'm not sure why I liked this book. I actually thought one of the characters (Paula) was incredibly underdeveloped considering how many sections of the book were done from her perspective.
I fell in love with Julian and wanted him to be able to live a normal life. Sola's story was heart wrenching and her friendship with Julian admirable.
Not something I'd read again, but I looked forward to reading this every night and was sad when I reached the end.
I fell in love with Julian and wanted him to be able to live a normal life. Sola's story was heart wrenching and her friendship with Julian admirable.
Not something I'd read again, but I looked forward to reading this every night and was sad when I reached the end.
This book is lyrical. It is haunting. Julian, a scientist, lives an orderly, largely silent, life in seclusion watched over by his sister Paula, an aspiring opera singer. When Paula heads to Europe for an opera tour she enlists her housekeeper, Sola, to look in on Julian. The interweaving of these three lives, these three voices, these three stories into one work is impressive and timeless. Above all it is an affirmation of life.
What a GLORIOUS, GLORIOUS book. The story line is enough to intrique, but the writing style is just incredible. The imagery.......and the depth of insight into the characters. I was blown away the entire time I was reading this book and when I finished it I immediately wanted to read it again because I was so in love with, in awe of, what I had just read. Wow. Please read this and let me know what you think!!
A gentle story about loss, grief and redemption. Told in an interesting manner- each character had a different font in the book, though sometimes, the fonts of the two siblings were so similar I had trouble deciding who was speaking. It was Sola who won my heart though- with her delicate phrasing of the English language, and her struggle to help the ghosts of her past rest in peace, unforgotten.
Loved, loved, loved this book and was sad to see it end.
Started out a bit slow at first, but the book's mysteries and its characters came to life gradually -- like peeling an orange -- little bits at a time -- revealing a very sweet story.
I fell in love with the characters and once I got a third of the way through, also 'got' the symbolism and metaphors and couldn't put it down.
Started out a bit slow at first, but the book's mysteries and its characters came to life gradually -- like peeling an orange -- little bits at a time -- revealing a very sweet story.
I fell in love with the characters and once I got a third of the way through, also 'got' the symbolism and metaphors and couldn't put it down.
This was very good. I heard about it in an interview in Oprah magazine--her feature where she asks celebrities to list their favorite books. I don't even remember the name of the actress, but I'm glad she recommended this book! It's a very moving story of three people who have been damaged by the atrocities of life. They are drawn together and as limited as each of them are, they are able to help each other to heal. It's not an easy book to read, the subject matter is painful at times. It can al...more
It's a story of wounded souls beautifully told. Elizabeth Rosner is literary talent who weaves words into Louvre-worthy images. A sister pursuing a music career abroad must leave her phobic brother. Both share scars handed down from previous generations. Before she leaves, she hires a housekeeper with fresh scars of her own. It's an easy book to fall in love with.
Set in the United States a decade after the end of the Holocaust, this story examines prejudice in a small town. Rosen does a wonderful job showing a human side of the perpetrators and bystanders in addition to the fear the victims have to confront. This novel would be a great extension to a Holocaust literature unit.
what an interesting book to read. There three main characters; Julian,his sister Paula, and Sols. I've never read a chapter book with a third person perspective. Everyone telling different stories within a single event, reading a book with different perspective is a good experience to have!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Written differently than expected but oddly enough it really flows. I loved how stories of these peoples lives all linked together in an unexpected way. It just goes to show that no matter what our circumstances, the Lord will place someone in our lives to help us, we just have to be open to it. And in this case they helped each other.
While this book took me FOREVER to read & that's usually the sign of boredom I really enjoyed it. I never contemplated how sadness, loss, despair, grief - whatever you choose to call it - effects each person who experiences it differently and how that differences influences their lives so tremendously.
I appreciated the author's ability to present such an in depth & co-mingled character study in a way that overlapped each life so seamlessly.
Thought provoking and touching, but must be read...more
I appreciated the author's ability to present such an in depth & co-mingled character study in a way that overlapped each life so seamlessly.
Thought provoking and touching, but must be read...more
I selected this while browsing our local bookstore because the random fragments I read had a quality to them that made me want to see more. Unfortunately, the book as a whole failed to draw me in. Rather than feeling connected to the characters, there was an absence of emotion for me throughout most of the story. I was disappointed in the back story of Julian, as it seemed to lack any detail as to how he ended up so severely emotionally scarred. The two women in his life seemed more adequately f...more
Interesting story with unusual, yet intriguing characters. The perspective changed frequently between the three characters: brother, sister and housekeeper/friend. It was a little disjointed - in both a good way and in a way that made me a little dizzy.
Rosner can write and her characters are interesting. But they didn't strike a cord with me. Although they seemed to ring true, I wasn't sure of their motivations. A good read and, as I said, well written, but I never really got into it.
I found it a little challenging to keep track of the three voices. The most interesting character to me, Julian, seemed to me to have Asperger's syndrome, yet the author attributes all of his eccentricities to the after effects of his father being a Holocaust survivor.
I read this book in a single day because I didn't want to put it down. It's the story of three damaged people and how they learn to connect. Beautiful prose and a moving tale well worth reading.
This is a remarkable story of how three people, wounded by the memory of political violence, come to help each other begin to find a path out of darkness. Two are a brother and sister weighed down by the silences and pain of their Holocaust surviving parents. The third is a young woman from South America, sole witness and surviver of a military rampage which wiped out and destroyed her small village.
The author weaves the story out of each characters individual voice, in fact the font changes wit...more
The author weaves the story out of each characters individual voice, in fact the font changes wit...more
I really love this book. Different fonts for different characters, all written in first person! The language is so full of emotion. I highly recommend this book!
Just starting reading this book. Beautifully written. Not in electronic as written in 2001. My son read in a class and highly reccomended. unbelievable book!! best this year that I have read!
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Elizabeth Rosner is the awardwinning author of two novels: The Speed of Light and Blue Nude. The Speed of Light was the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Harold U. Ribalow Prize and the Prix France Bleu Gironde. The novel has been translated into nine languages, and has been optioned by actress Gillian Anderson. Elizabeth's writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine,...more
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“I want to clean myself like the window of a house, make myself clear for things to pass through. Flat and quiet.”
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2 people liked it
“When my grandmother touches my hair in my sleep, I feel like a lost child. There is never enough of her to comfort me.”
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2 people liked it
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Feb 01, 2010 02:38pm