Lynn Bushell's Blog - Posts Tagged "writerslift"
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Q. Turning real life into fiction.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz - A story full of fascinating and harrowing detail, told to the author by an Auschwitz survivor – the tattooist of the title. As a literary work it suffers to some extent from the understandable strictures this places on the narrative. The writer feels bound to 'tell it as it is' and this is fine whilst the characters are incarcerated. You lose yourself in the story and the often surprisingly uplifting responses of the inmates to their terrible situation but the ending seems somewhat 'thin' in consequence.
The fact is that real life is mundane. That's why we read fiction. I felt the book hadn't quite come to terms with whether it was a novel or a documentary. The most shocking fact to emerge at the end was the fate of a 16 year old girl seduced by the camp commandant who having submitted to rape on a daily basis for two years was then charged as a 'collaborator' by the Russians 'liberating' the camp and sentenced to another 15 years hard labour. An example of 'real life' out-stripping fiction in its cruelty.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz - A story full of fascinating and harrowing detail, told to the author by an Auschwitz survivor – the tattooist of the title. As a literary work it suffers to some extent from the understandable strictures this places on the narrative. The writer feels bound to 'tell it as it is' and this is fine whilst the characters are incarcerated. You lose yourself in the story and the often surprisingly uplifting responses of the inmates to their terrible situation but the ending seems somewhat 'thin' in consequence.
The fact is that real life is mundane. That's why we read fiction. I felt the book hadn't quite come to terms with whether it was a novel or a documentary. The most shocking fact to emerge at the end was the fate of a 16 year old girl seduced by the camp commandant who having submitted to rape on a daily basis for two years was then charged as a 'collaborator' by the Russians 'liberating' the camp and sentenced to another 15 years hard labour. An example of 'real life' out-stripping fiction in its cruelty.
