God's Water Carriers (All Our Yesterdays, Vol 1)

by Manès Sperber, Joachim Neugroschel (Translator), Elie Wiesel (Foreword by)

English, German (translation)

Genres: Fiction

156 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Maurizio Manco · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Non bisogna scrivere imitando i ruminanti; non bisogna fornire dettagli esteriori, non bisogna disegnare né gesti né volti. Scrivere solo per coloro cui basta l'essenziale. Per me è giunto il tempo di far tacere quella compiacenza puttanesca che ci si aspetta dagli scrittori. Altrimenti è meglio che si smetta di scrivere." (p. 171)

[Hugolane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in the German original with great pleasure. Admittedly as a specialist in Galicia and Austrian history more generally, this book was right up my alley, but the writing, at least in the German is marvelous and it provides an excellent account of what it was like to grow up hassidic in a village in what is now Western Ukraine at the beginning of the twentieth century, A follower of Alfred Adler, Sperber's memoirs do not just retell what it was like living in that society, but are also xxaminiations on a psychological level. For example, atone point, he considers whether he had a happy childhood. His portrayal of the impact of WWI and his encounter with revolutionary ideas in Vienna in 1917-1918 is very interesting. Definitely worth reading.

[Federico · Rating 5 out of 5]

An author's biography, gets into what a Jew family and village had to go through during the First World War, addressing social, cultural and political issues.
Here are a few extractions I liked:

> "So many imagen surfaces, events and experiences offered themselves to my memory, virtually a goodbye, a last farewell. For I am dealing here not just with my early years, but with something that goes far beyond biography: I am dealing with the murder shtetl, with a religious, social, and communal entity, a community of which I am one of the last survivors."

> "Every person's self-esteem is tested thousands of times throughout his life. Bit for people like me, this feeling was also determined by how deeply each one individually felt about being Jewish: as ignominy or as honorable loyalty, as a condition caused by a fluke of birth or as a task, namely, to live as if bearing responsibility for the others. The person who despised himself could not carry out this mission; therefore, a Jew had to try to keep up his self-esteem every day, never jeopardizing it for any reason."

[Irma Servatius · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredible book about an incredibly difficult topic. intimate personal brutal reminiscences that stayed with me for weeks after...

[Turtelina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good, very surprisingly.

First part was excellent, second part was ok, third was tedious. An interesting read nevertheless! (for Uni of course)