Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Quiet Americans

by Erika Dreifus (Goodreads Author)

4.4 of 5 stars 4.40 · rating details · 68 ratings · 32 reviews

A high-ranking Nazi's wife and a Jewish doctor in prewar Berlin. A Jewish immigrant soldier and the German POWs he is assigned to supervise. A refugee returning to Europe for the first time and the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. A son of survivors and technology's potential to reveal long-held family secrets. These are some of the characters and...more

Paperback, 164 pages

Published January 19th 2011 by Last Light Studio (first published January 2011)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Holocaust Literature

19th out of 41 books — 26 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 471)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Mar 13, 2013 Pamela J rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel, 20th-century, jewish, 21st-century, u-s, immigrant, short-stories

A powerful collection of short stories. While each vignette stands on its own, they all form a cohesive, striking portrait spanning several generations. Characters, like Dr. Weldmann, are faced with crucial decisions: to speak out or to stay silent. Dreifus's narrators may vary in point of view but they never fail to draw us in quickly. The narrator of "Matrilineal Descent" breaks through that fourth wall to speak to its readers who, like the narrator, may have researched their ancestors only to...more

like 2 likes · see review

Feb 10, 2011 Jill Pertler rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. Erika Dreifus understand the intricacies of the human psyche and weaves them into her stories with an expert hand. This collection draws you in, evokes emotion and makes you ponder ideas and ideals. Short stories? Yes. But there is so much more within the pages of Quiet Americans, as the stories are intertwined through generations. This book takes an old and new look at the Holocaust from then until now, in ways I’d not thought of before. Thought-provoking and compelling.

like 1 like · see review

Mar 29, 2011 Jacob rated it 5 of 5 stars

Erika Dreifus’ debut collection, Quiet Americans, feels like a roll of film shot with an old camera, not a 1970’s Nikon, but a prewar Leica II with a collapsible lens, a separate viewfinder and rangefinder, and a delicately hand-cut leader on the film so that the canister will load appropriately through the bottom of the camera body. By this I mean that these stories are not of nostalgic objects and characters, but that they are told through a mechanism that infuses a sense of a different period...more Erika Dreifus’ debut collection, Quiet Americans, feels like a roll of film shot with an old camera, not a 1970’s Nikon, but a prewar Leica II with a collapsible lens, a separate viewfinder and rangefinder, and a delicately hand-cut leader on the film so that the canister will load appropriately through the bottom of the camera body. By this I mean that these stories are not of nostalgic objects and characters, but that they are told through a mechanism that infuses a sense of a different period’s tooling. The stories, though they create an ellipsis around the greatest unrest that their subjects might ever encounter, the Holocaust, are, like the book’s title, quiet. This is a remarkable feat, lending the collection, cumulatively, a power and gravity much larger than its parts, or tone, would imply.
The collection works chronologically, documenting shtetl and Berliner life of several Jewish families in the decades preceding the Holocaust. In “Matrilineal Descent,” we learn of the three main characters’ respective escape, natural death, and deportation in summary in the story’s denouement. The book then tells stories of recent Jewish emigrants fighting with the Americans against their once-was countrymen. Here, too, Dreifus avoids the active conflicts of the war. Instead, “Lebensraum” tells of Josef Freiburg assigned to guard a group of German prisoners because he speaks their language. This is one of the truly standout stories in the collection. The German prisoners like Josef. Geographically displaced from the conflict, their genocidal ideologies seemingly, and believably, disappear. The story depicts stateside POW life as fairly pleasant, which, compared to life as a German soldier on the front in a totalitarian state, is fairly ecstatic – especially as their guard is a quiet, gentle man who speaks their language. But this like cannot be reciprocated. The camp is located in Clarinda, Iowa, and the town comes to somewhat adopt the prisoners. When Josef’s son is circumcised, and the prisoners wish to come, in an act that seems completely motivated by affection – here again, the simple mechanics of these stories, their will to resist certain kinds of complexities, works particularly well, because they allow the reader to believe the prisoners are in earnest, are human, do like Josef – Josef sends them away. This move points at a larger thematic truth: the Germans can stop being Nazis, stop being anti-Semites, cease genocidal activity; but it is too late; there is not turning back; the Jews cannot forgive them.
The final story in the collection, “Mishpocha” works in the same way. In it, David’s mother, a Holocaust survivor dies. His parents have never spoken about their experiences in the camps, and David is eager for information that would give form to his heritage and cumulative past. To this end, he gets a DNA test in the interest of discovering other surviving strands of his family. He learns, instead, that he isn’t biologically related to his parents. While the story of his adoption, when finally told, feels like something out of Mad Men, the fact of his adoption is a powerful metaphor. Not only does David lack access to the stories of a defining moment in his parents’ life, not only are the remaining strands of his family presumably deceased, but it turns out that in a genetic sense, his parents have not survived the Holocaust. In this way, David manages to occupy both the role of the child of a people irrevocably changed, altered lost, a child cut off from his heritage, lineage, extended family tree; but he also becomes the cuckoo bird egg opportunistically filling a void made by Nazi success.
Quiet Americans is unique and powerful reading. It slips in quietly, and resonates far beyond its spare and chosen language.
(less)

like 1 like · see review

Feb 14, 2011 Lori Bloomfield rated it 5 of 5 stars

In the seven stories that comprise Quiet Americans Erika Dreifus writes about immigrant survivors of the Holocaust. This collection was inspired, in part, by Dreifus’s own grandparents who left Germany and immigrated to the US in the late 1930s. The stories are ordered by time, beginning in prewar Berlin in, “For Services Rendered” about a Jewish doctor who owes his life, and the life of his family, to Goring’s wife. The stories then weave their way through the decades until reaching post 9/11 i...more In the seven stories that comprise Quiet Americans Erika Dreifus writes about immigrant survivors of the Holocaust. This collection was inspired, in part, by Dreifus’s own grandparents who left Germany and immigrated to the US in the late 1930s. The stories are ordered by time, beginning in prewar Berlin in, “For Services Rendered” about a Jewish doctor who owes his life, and the life of his family, to Goring’s wife. The stories then weave their way through the decades until reaching post 9/11 in the final story, “Mishpocha” about a man who uncovers a family secret while researching his family tree on the internet.
This is a strong collection and I am reluctant to single out one story to name as my favourite so let me call, “Lebensraum” the story that haunts me most. In this story we find ourselves in Iowa in 1944 with Josef, an immigrant Jewish baker assigned to oversee captured Germans in the kitchen of a prisoner-of-war camp. Each time I reread “Lebensraum” I find something new. There are so many quiet revelations, so many layers tucked within the deceptively straightforward plot that it is like rolling an opal in the palm of your hand and watching the endless play of light within the gemstone.
Since I have a personal fondness for linked stories it was a sweet surprise to discover that many of these stories are linked. The delicate thread that runs lightly through this collection, connecting several of the characters, works brilliantly to show how the echo of the Holocaust continues to reverberate down through the generations.
Given the subject matter of these stories you would be forgiven for thinking Quiet Americans might be a depressing read. But it isn’t. Though these stories are rooted in the horror of the Holocaust, they are also stories of love: of the love between men and women, of the love between parent and child. Dreifus has a talent for nimbly moving between darkness and light, and for never letting the reader forget that the world is made not of black and white, but of endless shades of grey. This is territory she is clearly comfortable in.
It is the hope and purpose of literature that in the telling of our stories we build bridges between people, that we foster understanding and compassion. Dreifus does this achingly well in Quiet Americans. It is a wonderful debut collection and I look forward to reading more from Erika Dreifus.
(less)

like · see review

Jul 29, 2011 Dave Alluisi rated it 5 of 5 stars

I think what I responded to so much here was the way Dreifus was able to so ably construct three-dimensional characters within a handful of pages. This may sound like an odd comparison, but the structure of each of the short stories in this collection reminded me of Psycho... Dreifus patiently builds characters, families, situations, and then, at some point in each story, that shower curtain flies open and you find out the story was about something else all along. Without the context of those op...more

like · see review

Nov 25, 2012 Lorri rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: personally-own, holocaust, novels, jewish-fiction, assimilation, inspiration

Some of the stories in Quiet Americans are connected and interrelated, but not all of them. Each individual story brings an in depth look into the minds and emotions of those who have struggled with the after-effects and after-affects of the Shoah/Holocaust, and those who have struggled with identity. Thought-provoking is an understatement in describing Quiet Americans. Each story is sensitively written, but filled with a quiet strength. Erika Dreifus has written an insightful and strong book, a...more

like 1 like · see review

Mar 21, 2013 Sara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: jewish-lit

Normally I dismiss short story collections because they do not allow me to become involved in the characters and the plot. Quiet Americans was different. All the stories revolved around the individuals and families coping with life before, during, and after the Holocaust. The characters were real, multi-dimensional, and the stories moving. Like others, I look forward to reading more from this author.

like 1 like · see review

May 14, 2011 Rebecca Einstein Schorr rated it 4 of 5 stars

Generally speaking, I tend to reach right past short stories as I find that I am left unsatisfied at the end of each story. Something about the title, however, caught my attention. And I was not disappointed.

Each story sheds light on one way the Holocaust affected a person or a family. To regard the Holocaust as a monolithic experience is to lump all victims and survivors together into one unfathomably large group. Though there are many similarities, each story needs to be told.

The characters ar...more

like · see review

Mar 02, 2013 Christine Wade rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

I grew up in post-war Germany, as an American Foreign Service child, and the terrible mystery of what happened there for the generations before my arrival needs to be documented now that the silent decades are over. It is the work of the courageous and curious. Erika Dreifus’ stories are that. Legacies of shame and bravery are brought forward into the 21st Century in The Quiet Americans. Dreifus takes it on and writes nuanced tales of the transfer of difficult knowledge and emotion across genera...more

like 1 like · see review

Mar 17, 2012 Lee Mandel rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Quiet Americans" is a beautifully written book that is actually a collection of short stories. The common thread that ties the chapters together is the Holocaust. Virtually all of the stories are connected by a common family lineage and they demonstrate the lingering impact of that horrific time even to present times. Readers born soon after the Holocaust (as I was) or whose families were directly and tragically impacted by it (as mine was) can especially relate to the people that Erika Dreifus...more

like 1 like · see review

Jun 19, 2012 Pamela rated it 5 of 5 stars

This collection of stories moves from Europe to America (and sometimes back again), following lives that become enmeshed in the Holocaust, either directly or via family legacy. Dreyfus has a gift for coming up with fresh but completely plausible scenarios that highlight the existential anxieties of Jewish Americans in the age of Hitler and afterwards: a German-born G.I. who fled the Nazis and now finds out his army assignment is to train captured Germans to work in his mess hall ("Lebensraum");...more

like 1 like · see review

May 01, 2011 Valerie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: highly-recommend

QUIET AMERICANS
by Erika Dreifus

I first noticed the man who would become my husband because he was the quiet one, sitting in his usual place at Sonny’s Restaurant, observing my group of vocal, late-morning breakfast eaters. Later I would learn he had survived horrific experiences while serving in the Army in Vietnam, and that his Irish immigrant grandparents survived poverty by making a new life in the United States. I would also be the recipient of his big heart, his kindness, his understanding...more QUIET AMERICANS
by Erika Dreifus

I first noticed the man who would become my husband because he was the quiet one, sitting in his usual place at Sonny’s Restaurant, observing my group of vocal, late-morning breakfast eaters. Later I would learn he had survived horrific experiences while serving in the Army in Vietnam, and that his Irish immigrant grandparents survived poverty by making a new life in the United States. I would also be the recipient of his big heart, his kindness, his understanding, and the equilibrium of a man who has come to terms with his past.
In QUIET AMERICANS, Erika Dreifus has written a collection of seven short stories that in so many ways are like my husband—rich with family history, molded by war and its atrocities, and filled with heart, kindness, understanding, and vergangenheitsbewältigung, meaning “coming to terms with the past,” a word found in her title story “The Quiet American.”
These stories, inspired in large part by her paternal grandparents, German Jews who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1930s, more than surprised me. At first, I kept her collection with me, but couldn’t bring myself to read what I thought would be more brutal and painful stories of Holocaust survivors. When I finally opened the book, I found myself so caught up in the stories and the characters’ unusual situations, I felt they were my own and kept asking myself, “God, what would I do under similar conditions?”
My favorite story in QUIET AMERICANS is “Lebensraum,” the story of Josef, a naturalized American and refugee from Europe, who is assigned to oversee four kitchens at a prisoner of war camp in Iowa, where he’ll have to bake for 3000 German prisoners, some of whom will be his assistants. He does his duty but worries that the Germans know he’s a Jew. Yet, his kindness to the men, mostly farm boys, not political, causes them to ask to attend his son’s bris. Their presence horrifies Josef’s wife and the Germans are removed. Dreifus handles the complex emotions of the characters without intrusion of authorial judgment. The reader is allowed to be with these characters to the fullest extent, and that’s what makes this collection such a successful and inspiring debut.
For those who seek another layer, look to the titles of the stories. Lebensraum, a German word that means “living space,” was an important component of Nazi ideology, as it served as motivation for Hitler’s expansionist policies aimed at providing extra space for the growth of the German population. In the story, Josef worries that the “almost endless land of this America” will be attractive to the Germans, and I thought, yes, of course. Josef didn’t know if the Allies would win or not.
If you love surprise endings, read my next-to-favorite story, “Mishpocha.” The ending made me reel. It’s that good. I honestly didn’t see it coming.
I DO hope that Erika Dreifus continues to surprise us with more intelligent, humane, clear-voiced works that reaches deep into our collective history.
(less)

like · see review

Apr 23, 2012 Colleen O'Neill Conlan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

I read this when it first came out and decided to reread it in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day. It's always a treat to revisit a good collection of stories and see things I missed the first time around.

These stories are linked generationally and thematically around—but not specifically about—the Holocaust. More, I'd say they are about Jewish identity, and the long and deep scar of the Holocaust. In one story, "The Quiet American," there is a line about the narrator's only remembered German w...more

like · see review

Feb 16, 2012 RUSA CODES added it

Shelves: sophie-brody-medal-2012

A Sophie Brody Medal honor title.

This little book of short stories is a gem that anyone can read and enjoy. Its straightforward writing and understandable stories about German Jews and their descendants bring us into the everyday lives of Jewish Americans. Some stories are interrelated, but they stand alone in their own right.

For the complete list of 2012 Sophie Brody honor titles, please visit RUSA Awards 2012

like 1 like · see review

Jul 11, 2012 Christi Craig rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Why had he bothered to discuss this? Always, there had been so much about him she hadn't understood. Always, something about her heart had remained unyielding, beyond his comprehension. But that was the point. So much remained beyond his comprehension."
~ from "For Services Rendered

Erika Dreifus' collection of stories is aptly titled, as it is a quiet but powerful read. Her stories, like "For Services Rendered", reveal complex characters who unravel a mixture of complexities in their histories....more

like · see review

Jan 02, 2011 Eileen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I sat down and read this book all the way through. It was thoughtful and thought provoking, the characters were vivid and real, it made me feel as if I were living their lives with them. The book is a collection of short stories about the Holocaust and it spans several generations. I finished this book several days ago and I am still thinking about it. I am especially happy to have won it in a giveaway and had it autographed by the author. It's a treasure.

like · see review

Dec 02, 2012 Patricia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

Erika Dreifus’ "small" stories—tender, pitch perfect treatments of human strength and frailty—are little jewels occurring within the big events taking place in German-Jewish communities before and after World War II. If I have to pick a favorite story, it is “Lebensraum," on the strength of its staying with me. The book is a mere 162 pages with just seven stories, well worth the afternoon it will take to read.

like 1 like · see review

Sep 19, 2011 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Skilled storytelling with lots of heart. Erika Dreifus' characters face some of the most difficult challenges this world could throw at people. And in these well-drawn snapshots of the characters' lives, their responses draw each reader into the story to feel the reverberations in his or her own life. Containing aching loss and joy, these stories are both particular to Jewish history and contemporary culture, as well as universal.

like 1 like · see review

Feb 28, 2012 Amy Morgan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Simply put, what a delightful read. The grace and elegance that Dreifus weaves through her stories and characters is first rate. This book came in the mail on Thursday. Friday evening after a long day, I sat down and read it cover to cover, unable to put it down. I look forward to the many times I am sure to read it again.

like 1 like · see review

Jul 05, 2011 Melyssa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Melyssa by: Betsy

Shelves: read-in-2011, books-from-betsy

I don't read a lot of short story collections because I have a hard time connecting with the characters over just a few pages. This collection was very moving because the author quickly makes the reader care about the people and their stories, which are really about identity, history and family ties.

like · see review

Feb 05, 2011 Lené Gary rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am stunned by the way Dreifus invites her reader into the lives of her characters. It may be the way she allows seemingly ordinary life to become disturbingly complex over the course of her story through the context of its time. “For Services Rendered” maintains a composure I can only describe as "quiet" while allowing the momentum of despair to rumble in its characters, and in its audience. We watch, we read, with quiet admiration.

like · see review

Jan 28, 2011 Ellen rated it 5 of 5 stars

This collection of short stories explores the experiences of German Jews before, during, and after the Holocaust. The settings range from a small German village on the edge of the Black Forest in 1888, to a prisoner-of-war camp in rural Illinois in 1944, to Munich in 2004. Dreifus subtly reminds us of the historical and cultural context – in lightning-flash images of Kristallnacht, or the appearance of a minor character of startling historical importance, or the surprising appearance of Black Se...more

like · see review

Mar 29, 2011 Libby rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a wonderful, evocative collection of linked stories dealing with people who have been intimately connected with--and affected by--the Holocaust. Sparely written, unsentimental, deeply moving and affecting.

like 1 like · see review

Sep 22, 2011 Shelf Magazine added it

Shelf Unbound talks with Erika Dreifus about her new book of short stories, Quiet Americans,published by Last Light Studio in the June/July 2011 issue. http://www.shelfmediagroup.com/staff_...

like · see review

Jan 02, 2012 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Erika Dreifus is a fabulous writer. I loved these stories and they deserve to be read. And Dreifus deserves a lot of literary love for these gems.

like · see review

Jan 22, 2013 Peggy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

This story collection focuses on several Jewish families living before, during and after the Holocaust. Most of the stories are interconnected.

like 2 likes · see review

Mar 07, 2013 Nikki rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Persons interested in the holocaust

Recommended to Nikki by: Won on a Goodreads Giveaway

Shelves: holocaust-genocide

Finished this book rather quickly - it's a short read but keeps you captivated throughout. While they are individual short stories within, they each at some point intertwine with another. Will definitely pass along to my younger relatives who are learning and discussing the holocaust.

like 1 like · see review

Feb 26, 2011 Lynn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011, short-stories

See my full review at http://dr-write.blogspot.com/.

like · see review

Apr 25, 2011 Jane Roper rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this collection of taut, reflective and deceptively quiet stories of Jewish (and non-Jewish) Americans whose lives were touched, in some way, by the Holocaust. They wrestle with questions of identity and memory, desire and desperation. The voice and style of these stories is refreshingly unique, with the flavor of old-world storytelling, reminiscent of Isaac Bashevis Singer.

like · see review

Feb 14, 2011 Armand rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: genre-mod-lit-fic, read-2010, on-my-kindle, genre-short-stories, read-2011, source-was-a-gift

A short story collection born of the embers of the Holocaust, narrated with a historian's keen eye for detail and a philosopher's deep reverence for the richness of life.

Wonderful writing throughout with vivid characterization. Dreifus is not afraid of pondering big, scary questions, and she's not afraid of startling her readers with hope.

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 15 16 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (1)

Videos About This Book

Add a comment

Genres

Short Stories

14 users

Historical Fiction

6 users

Literature > Jewish

2 users

See top shelves...

About Erika Dreifus

Erika Dreifus is the author of a story collection, Quiet Americans, which was published by Last Light Studio and named a 2012 Sophie Brody Medal Honor Title (for "outstanding Jewish literature"). The book was also recognized as a Top Small-Press Book (Shelf Unbound) and Notable Book (The Jewish Journal) for 2011. Quiet Americans features stories that have appeared in J Journal: New Writing on Just...more

More about Erika Dreifus...

Books by Erika Dreifus

Free Expression: 101 Fee-Free Contests, Competitions, and Other Opportunities for Resourceful Writers

The Creative Writing MFA Handbook: A Guide for Prospective Graduate Students

The Charterhouse of Parma (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Quiet Americans

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: Quiet Americans
avg rating	preview: Quiet Americans Goodreads rating: 4.40 (68 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7844860-quiet-americans?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1278546289l/7844860.jpg[/img][/url] [url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7844860-quiet-americans?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Quiet Americans by Erika Dreifus[/url]

Quiet Americans

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website