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Feb 16, 2012

Jillwilson rated it:

I had strong and contrary reactions to the opening of this novel. It’s because it opens with two story trajectories – of black civil rights in America and of Jews and the Holocaust. The positive reaction was to the opening scene with Lamont, the African American man who has just got out of prison and been able to find a placement in a job – against the odds. He is catching a bus to work and is full of anxiety – compounded by the fact that a Hispanic man gets on the bus angry with the driver who More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2012

Abby rated it:

“Tell everyone what happened here.” An old man, dying, a survivor of the death camps in Europe, tells the story of his life to an improbable listener, an African-American ex-con trying to get his life together. The old man insists that the younger man remember and repeat every detail – the hard-to-pronounce names of towns in Poland, the names of people who didn't survive – so he can become part of the chain of memory and tell everyone what happened there.

Meanwhile, a nontenured prof More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 05, 2012

Susan rated it:

I am not really enjoying The Street Sweeper: one character is crazy because he's just gotten out of jail, and the other is crazy because he keeps replaying mentally all the liberal gobbledy gook his father taught him when he was a little boy. When they're not acting crazy, the characters are unutterably didactic. I can't figure out why to finish this drivel.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2012

Felice rated it:

In the simplest terms possible, The Street Sweeper is a literary buddy story. In the big picture outlook author Elliot Perlman uses a developing relationship between two men who have suffered at the hands of government to write about big events and big ideas. Within this basic framework The Street Sweeper becomes an ambitious book about some of the worst racial persecution the twentieth century had to offer.

Lamont Williams feels lucky to have a job. As an African American newly o More...

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Jan 11, 2012

Fiona rated it:

I'm a bit spasmodic with my book reviews but I think this one deserves some of my time to gather some thoughts and share them. Having read The Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich, much other primary and secondary historical material, including the Goebels Diaries, as well as many novels about the Holocaust, including Lily Brett's work and William Styron's, clearly the subject matter is familiar to me, and to many others. When I bought Elliot Perlman's latest novel, I was also aware that it would be p More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 05, 2012

Zohar - ManOfLaBook.com rated it:

The Street Sweeper by Australian historian Elliot Perlman is a fictional book which deals with the American struggle for civil rights and the Holocaust. The book beautifully ties together the idea that we are all human and touch each other’s lives.

Lamont Williams, an ex-con African American, is trying to return to normal life after being at the wrong time in the wrong place. Lamont gets a job at a hospital where he works as a janitor and befriends a cancer patien More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 23, 2011

Maxine rated it:

Lamont Williams is an African American ex-con who is trying to make the transition back to a normal life. He lives with his beloved grandmother, has a probationary job at the Sloan Kettering Medical Centre and is searching for his daughter. While at his job, he meets and befriends an elderly Jewish patient who is a Holocaust survivor. This man tells Lamont about his experiences in a Nazi extermination camp in Poland. He makes Lamont repeat the story over and over until he can repeat it in all o More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 02, 2011

Banafsheh rated it:

On a busy New York City corner, four people, a street sweeper, an oncologist, a history professor and a little girl are clustered in a small group. From those who pass them on that busy corner, few if any have any idea as to what has led the group here. Yet these seemingly unrelated individuals from different walks of life are bound by a common history of struggle, bravery, and unexpected kindness of those who have come before them.

Recently released from prison, Lamont Williams is an More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2012

Jennifer rated it:

During the course of this book, a history professor at Columbia University delivers a lecture to his students with the intent of demonstrating how history is about so much more than memorizing dates and statistics and locations. He wants his students to realize that some of the most compelling historical stories are about the moments when ordinary people are caught up within extraordinary circumstances.

As "The Street Sweeper" unfolds, the reader is taken along an extraordinar More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 11, 2012

Roxy rated it:

This was a goodreads.com first reads giveaway contest win.

This is an epic novel. I had to keep reminding myself that it was fiction as it touches on so many real issues that it begins to feel more like a true story.

It took me a while to warm to Lamont but I admired his dedication to putting his life back on track after it was knocked off the rails by the selfish actions of others. I particularly love the story in part 2 of Elizabeth Eckford. It was so moving. The scene o More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 30, 2012

Lora rated it:

This book is a book about justice...it's also about the Holocuset and the Amercian Civil Rights Movement. You wouldn't think these two have that much in common, but Perlman does an excellent job of making history come alive in both areas. I thougth at first that the stories would run parallel to each other, but as you get into the book, stories start to intertwine, even if the characters don't quite know it yet. The story is told through the eyes of a holocaust survivor who is dying of cancer More...

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Jan 21, 2012

Carin rated it:

The Street Sweeper is a complex book and I’m not entirely sure how I felt about it. I know some people are dedicated fans of Elliot Perlman’s work, but this is the first of his books that I’ve read. I’m honestly not sure whether I’ll read another one.

You might wonder why I gave this book such a high rating then. It’s due to the detailed history included in the book regarding the death camps at Auschwitz. Perlman tells the story of Jewish men working for the Germans (unwillingly, onl More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 10, 2012

Rhoda rated it:

First of all, as I won this book as part of first-reads, I would like to thank Dan for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I don't know where to begin in my admiration for this book. Whatever I say, I'm not going to do justice to it. This is one of the most amazing books I have had the privilege of reading.

That so much of it is based on real occurences (particularly the parts set during the War) is quite confronting. The interwoven stories are compelling and draw you More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2012

Rosa added it

I was enjoying this for the most part, but there's no way in hell I can finish in my allotted 21 day library loan period, and I'm not sure I enjoyed it enough to actually purchase a copy. As the more lukewarm reviews have noted, it does get to a point where it feels like page after page of talking heads... the saving grace for me is that the heads talk about topics that I care deeply about (civil rights in the U.S. and the Holocaust in Germany, each from very specific historical perspectives) - More...

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Feb 01, 2012

Kimberly rated it:

This one's a keeper. The holocaust, civil rights, union politics, prison life--there's a lot packed in here but the details of the death camps were riveting. (The gas chamber section should be required high school reading--just unforgettable.) I really enjoyed reading this one and no, I didn't mind the extended history lectures some critics complained about. This one didn't unrealistically romanticize the Holocaust survivor/modern-day descendant link like others (Sarah's Key, Those Who Save U More...

2 comments like

Jan 11, 2012

Edward rated it:

When I read a book such as this one, it reinforces all the reasons that I love to read. The author takes the reader into several lives during this epic of a novel. It spans a couple of generations and makes clear the responsibility of historians to "tell everyone" events that should never be forgotten. The underlying theme is of racism as experienced by European Jews in the Holocaust as well as African Americans in the United States. I simply could not put this novel down until it More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 14, 2012

Cel rated it:

One particularly poignant scene shows both the humanity in the gas chamber and the inhumanity in it. He did the putting together of both so well, that I do not think that I will ever forget this. After hearing Elliot speak about his book, and then reading it, I understand the importance of raising the Holocaust in the hope of preventing any such thing ever happening again. I realise that it has since, but keeping reminding people of the losses and the destruction will hopefully mean nations resp More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 14, 2012

Mish rated it:

What a truly amazing and well written novel by an Australian writer, Elliot Perlman.

The book starts off in the present tense, New York City with Lamont William, an African American who was recently released from prison. He find a job as a cleaner at a hospital for cancer patients. Lamont is currently on a probation period in his job. He desperately needs to stay clean and on track so he has the security and income to trace the daughter he’s left behind. At the cancer ward that he met More...

7 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2012

Jessica rated it:

If you’re going to write a 600 page book, in my humble opinion, you need to have two things: balls the size of watermelons and the talent to make me feel like I am reading a 200 page book. Elliot Perlman clearly has the balls – this is his second massive novel – and, having read Seven Types of Ambiguity, I know the talent is there. Somehow, though, this one didn’t work so well for me.

This story centers around two men whose lives will eventually intersect. Lamont, a recently paroled ma More...

1 comment like

Feb 04, 2012

Gayle rated it:

October 2011: I am a First-reads winner!! Yay!! And it's the new Elliot Perlman!! How absolutely excellent!!

January 2012:Well it would have been if it had ever come.. Instead of first reads, it's last reads. Can't believe I've waited so long for the new EP. Bought it today, so yay.

Now that is is in my hands at long last, suffice to say, everything else I am currently reading will be put aside. This, I'm sure will deserve my full attention.

Early Feb 2012 : I More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 17, 2012

Lisa rated it:

Usually when I read a book that the book group is discussing later in the year I take copious notes as I read, but The Street Sweeper, Eliot Perlman's latest novel had me so absorbed, I just didn't want to stop reading. At 544 pages it's a long book, but it held my attention throughout.

In a fractured world where people seem less and less connected to each other, Perlman's story shows us that we can be drawn together by the networks of history and our common humanity. Indeed, despit More...

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Feb 01, 2012

Julie rated it:

4 1/2 An epic novel that covers the civil rights movement and the holocaust. Some of the scenes were a little too drawn out for me, but Perlman pretty much held me captive through 600 pages. The "street sweeper" is a black man just out of prison, working through his probation at a hospital in NYC. He befriends a Jewish patient who tells him his personal history of the holocaust. It is a wonder how these stories intertwine and what happens at the end of the novel. Heartfelt and be More...

1 comment like

Feb 15, 2012

Jennifer rated it:

A beautiful novel interweaving the stories of many characters: a black man from the Bronx recently released from prison and desperate to become stable and find his daughter, a Jewish history professor at Columbia whose life is falling apart, a Holocaust survivor dying in the hospital, and many more. The ways in which the characters come together is fascinating. My only complaint is that the narratives sometimes jump between characters a little too fast.

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Feb 05, 2012

Beth rated it:

Elliot Perlman succeeds in creating a highly contemporary and moving story while capturing some of the intense flavor of the recently passed (and still ever-present) Civil Rights era. The characters are real, complex and magnetic. It's a rare feat to write a novel with multiple perspectives and make each one equally compelling and interesting. Perlman's book does that while also building beautiful and satisfying connections between them. A really great book.

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Jan 29, 2012

Katie rated it:

''There is sometimes the feeling from well-meaning people: maybe they know too much, they have 'done the Holocaust'. I think that arises because they are so familiar with the imagery, the iconography. But they're almost totally starved of the facts.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/book...

This really was an incredible book. I'm overwhelmed and overcome buy it.

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Jan 05, 2012

Denise rated it:

I am having trouble finding the words to describe this novel and my feelings about it. Throughout this novel I was brought to tears and it gave me the chills. This book felt so profound to me that I took my time reading it. I felt that I needed to soak it in.

I loved the way that the characters and plot lines became intertwined. I was surprised to find out that some of the characters were actually based off of real people. That made the novel even better to me. The one thing that rea More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Linda rated it:

I simply loved this story. It goes back and forth between many people and a lot of history during the Holacaust. There were times I wanted to hurry through the too much history - but it does entertwine with the main characters... that I really liked. The story goes back and forth between the street sweeper, an dying holacaust cancer patient and an historian. Trust me, you will love this story and the emotional ending will surely bring a tear.

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Feb 13, 2012

Lola425 rated it:

This book took forever for me to finish. It was a hard read, both in the subject matter and in keeping things straight. There seemed to be a lot of repetition, but that may be intentional. Oral history is built upon repetition and this book is very much about oral history. Tell everyone what happened here. I thought the juxtaposition of the experience of the Holocaust survivors and the black experience during and after the civil rights movement were deftly done.

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Jan 16, 2012

Lisa rated it:

Wow, is all I can say upon finishing this book. So many interconnections in this book it's hard to describe -- but it's the story of a historian trying to prove that African American soldiers were among those that liberated Dachau from the Germans. Several times I thought the book could have been shorter -- just because HE'S a historian doesn't mean I have to be one! Also, some of the passages on the gas chambers were so graphic they almost made me physically sick. Still, even with these com More...

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Nov 28, 2011

Lyn rated it:

Eliot Perlman does it again. This is an epic tale dealing with the Civil Rights movement in the US as well as the Holocaust. Not surprisingly there are some descriptions that are incredibly upsetting and difficult to read. I just kept hoping these sections weren't based on real incidents however the very detailed bibliography suggests otherwise.
This cleverly constructed story brings together a diverse group of people across half a century. The links between people and events slowly emerge More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)