Manny’s review of Schindler’s List > Likes and Comments

I really liked the book when I read it. What impressed memost is the unsentimental way it's described. Schindler just acts what seems to be most logical way to him.

First using the jews as cheap labour and then seeing they are on his list so they won't be killed. The nazis are just unpractical idiots to him.

It's a great book and you made a good review of it.

Message from I know who I am. Of course, I'm not able to say if copies of Keneally that come into the UK secondhand book trade look like Christmas presents you got and didn't have the heart to pass on to friends so they end up in Oxfam shops in their rare paperback reprint sections.

I'm scared to see the movie as it makes me think only of Seinfeld making out during it and getting into trouble. I would not be able to approach it with the appropriate reverence. Or so I think. Obviously, despite being sorely tempted by your review, I can't read the book either. I'm actually wondering if Keneally is Australia's Margaret Atwood. Hmmm. I like that idea...

Thank you for the capital H...I'd like to give you another vote for that.

Okay, okay. I've just checked our booksite and it transpires since we've been keeping records on database that we have sold 20 copies of Thomas Keneally books. We have 19 copies for sale at the moment.

The data I don't have is whether any of them sold to locals or if people from the UK bought them all....

But, somebody does buy them, okay?

Someone once linked me to a clip of the movie in which Schindler realizes he could have saved another person by selling his lapel pin, or 100 more by selling his car, etc. It was very moving. I've never seen the movie or read the book but I think I want to. I'm putting it on the wishlist now. Thanks for the review!

I thought the ending of the film was slightly overdone. The book is very unsentimental, but somehow even more moving for that. I'll be interested to hear what you think!

I loved A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich for being so unsentimental and matter-of-fact about life in the gulag. I bet I would like this book. The clip I saw didn't seem overdone to me, it just seemed very true and realistic. I wondered if that wasn't the right way to look at things, after all, and wasn't it true that I could save a lot of the people who are dying of hunger all over the globe all the time right now if I would just send the money I waste on stuff like lapel pins and cars to save them. I wonder if I ought to hold myself accountable for those people, and I'm strongly drawn to the idea that I probably should. That's why I want to read the book, to explore whether or not this is true.

I'm not in any way disagreeing with you, Tatiana, but what I found so fascinating here was that Schindler started off doing it for entirely selfish reasons! Maybe that's a thought worth pursuing. How could cold-hearted, unscrupulous businessmen make a quick buck out of keeping starving people in Africa alive, rather than just letting them perish?

Oh, definitely! I think that's what makes this story sound so amazing, and why I want to read it. I think there may be a step-by-step-every-individual-step-is-obvious-but-together-they-add-up-to-more-than-the-sum-of-their-parts way for even ordinary schmoes like me to become transformed into .... idk, something more or something.... extraordinary schmoes, maybe.

I think Bentham would have loved Oskar Schindler.

Clearly, God loveth him some capitalism.

I guess the fact that we find Schindler's story remarkable shows that greed doesn't usually turn ruthless capitalist entrepreneurs into saints. I'm trying to think of other examples. Maybe Bill Gates will be viewed this way in the fullness of time? He's used borderline-legal methods to establish a de facto monopoly on many kinds of software, which has led to all the problems normally associated with monopolies (basically, Microsoft software is overpriced and of poor quality). But, having become the world's richest man, he's giving it all to charity. It's possible that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will become one of the major forces for good in the world. It's already made a decent start.

FWIW the soap appears now to be a bit of a myth - the gold fillings and the hair are quite true of course.

952 reviews is a bit more than "a few"

It was fewer when I wrote it.

Must admit that despite being an Aussie I haven't read any Thomas Keneally books, but I do love listening to him talk about them. He is very genuine and very interesting.

This one is worth reading...

people should not forget, this is a novel. The story is dramatized.

Reading the book now and very intruiged. it is true that he is not portrayed as the true hero and a good person in essence. I for myself like to belief that he somehow grew into saving those people. For one part I think that because of the movie (I am about halfway in the book now) and for another part I think that because I need to keep a certain level of hope in humankind; naive or not.

Good review. Maybe a reason why not many people read this book is because of the proza. It is pretty dense. It took me quite a while to get into the book and to understand everything kenneally is saying. Also the topic might scare away a lot of people. This is not a happy book not made easier to read because it is a true showing of how nasty people can be / actually are. Not sure about that one yet.

Great review and great book!

Thank you Kerry! I often think about this story...

Great book.

Nice review, right on the main point. I only saw the movie, and don't think they ruined the book. But, I like to think that Schindler just came to see them as people.