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290th out of 324 books
—
138 voters
Die schöne Frau Seidenman (SZ-Bibliothek, #41)
In the Nazi-occupied Warsaw of 1943, Irma Seidenman, a young Jewish widow, possesses two attributes that can spell the difference between life and death: she has blue eyes and blond hair.
Hardcover, 219 pages
Published
December 31st 2004
by Süddeutsche Zeitung
(first published 1986)
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Mr. Szczypiorski, you had tears rolling down my cheeks so many times. They were not tears of sadness, rather more empathetic/sympathetic. Your book is about special friendships, the goodness of people, and selflessness. It is about a love of country and the feeling of unity and brotherhood among its citizens.
Warsaw, 1943. Jews were being literally slaughtered when they didn't just disappear. Sometimes wars are fought by soldiers, and sometimes by a civilian resistance. In WWII people also just t...more
Warsaw, 1943. Jews were being literally slaughtered when they didn't just disappear. Sometimes wars are fought by soldiers, and sometimes by a civilian resistance. In WWII people also just t...more
3 likes · like · see review
view all 3 comments
Oct 20, 2011
Anne
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone interested in 1940s Warsaw.
Unique writing, beautifully portrays life during 1942-9143 Warsaw. The narrative jumps around between past, present and future and from one character to another. Though not easy to follow at times, this style gives an over-arching view of how lives are lost, saved or changed within the blink of an eye. Very philosophical at times, with beautiful sentences to savor that speak deep truths about life and people.
6 likes · like · see review
Meh. This book presents many very intriguing characters, but the author seems so wrapped up in his own ideas about Poles and the future of Poland that he seems to forget he is supposed to be telling a story here. There is no story. There is no suspense.
You already know from the beginning that Mrs. Seidenman will be rescued, because it says so on the dust jacket. (And, contrary to what the dust jacket says, the rescue was not "dramatic." It wasn't like they stormed the jail Bastille-style or anyt...more
You already know from the beginning that Mrs. Seidenman will be rescued, because it says so on the dust jacket. (And, contrary to what the dust jacket says, the rescue was not "dramatic." It wasn't like they stormed the jail Bastille-style or anyt...more
1 like · like · see review
NO SPÖILERS!!!
Well I finished it, and I am glad it is done. Yes, the author definitely has a way with words, so to test his writing style was an experience I will not forget. However, the humor is snide and dark. The characters lead such pitiful lives. Life is bleak and without warmth. This is a book of description. The reader does not live the life of the characters. The style is analytical and meant to arouse your thoughts. Each character is described, their personality and their specific acti...more
Well I finished it, and I am glad it is done. Yes, the author definitely has a way with words, so to test his writing style was an experience I will not forget. However, the humor is snide and dark. The characters lead such pitiful lives. Life is bleak and without warmth. This is a book of description. The reader does not live the life of the characters. The style is analytical and meant to arouse your thoughts. Each character is described, their personality and their specific acti...more
1 like · like · see review
Like God was the storyteller. The setting was 1943 Warsaw, Poland during the Nazi occupation. But it wouldn't have mattered if the setting was in another place or at another time. It was, among others, the brilliant style of narration which did it for this novel, something I had not seen before.
The blurb at the back of the book, and perhaps the title itself, are misleading. This is not just about Irma Seidenman, a young blue-eyed, blond, jewish widow who got a false identity but was betrayed and...more
The blurb at the back of the book, and perhaps the title itself, are misleading. This is not just about Irma Seidenman, a young blue-eyed, blond, jewish widow who got a false identity but was betrayed and...more
7 likes · like · see review
this is a wonderful novel, filled with extremely beautiful writing. it is about jews living in nazi-occupied warsaw in 1943. i have read many books , both novels and non-fiction, about jewish people during the second world war, and this is one of the best i've read.
i can't imagine what it must have been like to spend your life in constant fear of hearing jackboots coming up the stairs to get you and your family, and being sent to almost certain death.fucking nazis.
i only have a couple of quibble...more
i can't imagine what it must have been like to spend your life in constant fear of hearing jackboots coming up the stairs to get you and your family, and being sent to almost certain death.fucking nazis.
i only have a couple of quibble...more
4 likes · like · see review
Feb 05, 2013
Sophia
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Sophia by:
1001 books you must read before you die
The title character, The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman, is not the central character of this meditative novel. Irma Seidenman is a Jewish widow of a radiologist with blond hair and blue eyes trying to survive outside of the ghetto in 1943 Warsaw. Her existence allows author Ardzej Szczypiorski to write as an omniscient narrator zooming in on the lives of loosely connected characters in wartime, sometimes weaving in and out of chronological order to describe their ultimate fate. It reads as a tribute...more
The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman is set in Warsaw in 1943, just before the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, when the beautiful Irma Seidenman, a Jewish widow who is blonde and blue-eyed enough to pass for Aryan and thus survive, is fingered by a Jewish informant to the Gestapo. A chain of helpers tries to free her, and through their stories, Andrzej Szczypiorski gives us a panorama of Poland under Nazi rule. If this sounds melodramatic, it isn't at all - his narrative style is one of cool detachment that occ...more
Recommended me to by a professor I greatly admire, "The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman" is a novel I very much wanted to love. All of the ingredients were there for an amazing story: WW II Poland, a Jewish widow in need of rescue, lyrical prose, an esteemed European author. And yet, somehow, I found myself struggling.
Part of the issue, as it always is in books we struggle with, is the lack of a coherent story. In all frankness, the book jacket description of the novel is far more amazing than the nove...more
Part of the issue, as it always is in books we struggle with, is the lack of a coherent story. In all frankness, the book jacket description of the novel is far more amazing than the nove...more
Don't let the title fool you. This isn't really about Mrs.Seidenman, but rather about a group of characters, loosely connected by her. This is Warsaw under the Nazi occupation, and these characters circle and touch each other briefly, like dust motes in Brownian motion. In the midst of a character's actions, the author often pauses to give us a brief summary of what will happen in the rest of the character's life. All these threads are so deftly interwoven that the tapestry of the story is beaut...more
Apr 01, 2012
S.
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
wwii-holocaust,
read-in-2012
This was an interesting novel, set in Poland during WWII, and dealing with a handful of characters, gentile and Jewish. There was some playing with time that worked in an interesting way, mostly with the 3rd person narrator jumping into the future, telling you who lived or died.
Personally I felt the novel had a lot more potential than was realized - it could have been fleshed out a bit more. It kept its distance from its characters somehow. I never had the feeling they could be real, which is s...more
Personally I felt the novel had a lot more potential than was realized - it could have been fleshed out a bit more. It kept its distance from its characters somehow. I never had the feeling they could be real, which is s...more
1 like · like · see review
It is interesting seeing from the point of view of non-jewish characters in Germany towards the holocaust's effects on the Jews. The prose is honest and filled with the author's thoughts against communist Russia and totalitarianism (expressed by Wiktor Suchowiak) upheld at the time.
There was an emphasis on physical racial traits in dictating the quality of life for the civilians, and Mrs Seidenman was an example whereby her Aryan features, as well as her versatility in languages, saved her from...more
There was an emphasis on physical racial traits in dictating the quality of life for the civilians, and Mrs Seidenman was an example whereby her Aryan features, as well as her versatility in languages, saved her from...more
Absolutely wonderful, powerful, historically informative, lyrical at times without being sentimental. The language is so rich, full of description without being overwhelming. And the characters are complex and they are woven into the novel with incredible litereary skill. Never wanted it to end - though it has the power to stay with you.
The way the writer mixes different people and their lives is amazing. I also like when he talks about the present of the characters and he anticipates their future years later. A compilation of lovely characters in a really hard period. It left me feeling like I had seen a film.
O poveste despre destine,(destine umane si destine nationale),o cireasa amara din care gustand nu poti ramane insensibil la o naratiune emotionanta, in care vocea autorului se suprapune uneori abia perceptibil pe cea a personajelor,purtandu-te cu talent printr-o istorie de sute de ani in doar cateva pagini.
Very poignant, thoughtful and philosophical. Not a light read, but very well thought out.
Interesting compression of time in this narrative set in wartime Warsaw.
1001 Books to Read Before You Die list
I'm reading a book! An actual work of fiction!
I did like the fact that this book is not only set in Poland during the war, but also gives you some closure by talking about various characters years later.
Tragically lovely.
Mar 02, 2010
Pat
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-fiction,
world-war-ii
Another one of these tragedies from world war II. Different peoples' lifes are narrated episodically through the chapters and suddenly persons we know from an earlier chapter cross each others ways. Some survive, some are abruptly dead, for no reason, which leaves us stunned. I vividly remember how for the first time when I read this book I was aware of this brutal randomness of the killing in a war.
A beautiful book
quite possibly the most beautiful book in the world. beautiful language, a style as smooth as soft serve ice cream, and an engaging plot. this is the kind of book that i read and think, 'god put this author on earth to write this'.
Apr 20, 2007
Vic
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone with good taste
*The Beautiful Mrs Seidenman* is perhaps the finest work of art I have encountered in the past 20 years. There is much more to say about it, but that's a good enough beginning.
Interessante Darstellung des besetzten Warschaus in ineinander verschlungenen Episoden, inkl. Ausblicke in die poln. Nachkriegsgeschichte.
May 22, 2013
Margo R
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
heavy-boots,
historical-pornography
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Born in Warsaw in 1924, Szczypiorski was a journalist and novelist. He took part in the Warsaw Uprising and was imprisoned after the fall of the Uprising in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. He died on 16 May 2000.
He began working as a journalist in 1946. Since the appearance of his first collection of stories in 1955, he had published more than 20 volumes of novels, reportage, newspaper columns,...more
More about Andrzej Szczypiorski...
He began working as a journalist in 1946. Since the appearance of his first collection of stories in 1955, he had published more than 20 volumes of novels, reportage, newspaper columns,...more
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“Ah, my dear friend, cheer up... After all, we have peace! And because there is peace, the occupiers can't behave so abominably anymore. All right, we're not free. But we are used to that, Mr. Kujawski. After all we were both born into slavery, and we will die in it. Oh yes, at first they'll exploit us ruthlessly. Fourteen hours of slave labor a day. A bowl of watery soup. Whippings, beatings... But that will pass with time. Because there is peace, they won't have a chance to get any new slaves. They'll have to take good care of those have already. Cheer up, dear Mr. Kujawski... [...] Arbeit macht frei, work makes man free, and it makes him especially so in the sunshine of European peace. We will lack only one thing. Only one! The right of dissent. The right to say out loud that we want a free and independent Poland, that we want to brush our teeth and go on holiday in our own way, conceive children and work our own way, think in our own way, live and die. This is the one thing you will find missing in the sunshine of European peace, which you, my friend, hold to be the highest good.”
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